Review of House of Flying Daggers (2004) by Adam S — 09 May 2010

Good looking cast, including Takeshi Kaneshiro and Zhang Ziyi, and a swirling assault of wire-work and CGI help distinguish Zhang Yimou's tragic love story set near the end of the Tang Dynasty. Kaneshiro and Andy Lau are provincial officers who hatch a plan to track down the secretive anti-government House of the Flying Daggers; by escorting blind Ziyi back to the sect undercover, they hope to find the secret headquarters of the rebels, but falling in love with the beautiful Ziyi is an easy, and dangerous hindrance.

Yimou uses warm colors (light blue, green, white) to contrast the dark red of the blood when the daggers start flying, just like he did in "Hero", his previous color coded action epic, but unlike "Hero's" dense "Rashomon"- like plot, this turns out to be a simple love triangle between the three leads, with a few double-crosses to heighten the melodrama, and it's all visually arresting.