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DVD: House of Flying Daggers


ARPRINCE

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Comparisons to Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, are very fair, being that they are both period pieces based from ancient historical China with a ton of furious and spellbinding martial arts. House of Flying Daggers was also directed by the same director as Hero (with Jet Li), Zhang Yimou.

However, unlike Hero, or CT for that matter, while the cinematography was stunning, it was at times to the point of pretentious. Just how many times do we need to see the male protagonist riding through sunlit scenery on his trusty steed at a dutch angle? We get the point: he's running back for her. But we don't need to see it 10 times, just for the sake of 10 different environments. Or perhaps the "sound game" Zhang Ziyi (the lovely young female lead) had to play in the whorehouse? Her dancing about, hitting the upright drums with her silk robes was great and everything, but 10 minutes later, when she's still doing the same thing, you feel like your DVD player has been set on loop. Time to go get a soda, do the laundry, take a piss, come back and guess what? She's still banging the drums.

All in all, a love story wrapped up in a grand scale conspiracy with, dare I say, perhaps one too many plot twists. I did enjoy the ultra-bloody fight between the 2 male leads at the end, however. Not just because I love gore, but because it was an honest payoff for the tension they had building up.

If you haven't seen CT or Hero yet, see those first. House of Flying Daggers, while good, falls at the bottom of the pack.

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I know subs can be a pain to read sometimes, but dubs often steal credibility from the film...making thing seem less serious (voice actors dont' often put in the same caliber performance as the original actors). Also, the translation is tailored somewhat to fit the mouth movements of the characters, something that is not worried about with subtitles.

Wasn't trying to be insulting earlier. ;)

I've just found that subs can offer a more accurate, enjoyable experience.

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All these Chinese import movies have the same commonality: Tragic love story....oh and Ziyi Zhang!! :)

Similar fighting effects, sword play, era and someone always dies at the end.

I enjoyed all three movies (CT, Hero, HofFD)but CT is still my favorite.

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