*** Official HOUSE OF FLYING DAGGERS Discussion Thread (1 Viewer)

[Patrick Sun]

I've seen the even longer cut of that scene, so I was prepared, but the US cut has less blood, and appears to have been cut to shore up the pacing, so it could have been worse for the US viewers who felt that way about the scene.

 

[Citizen87645]

Ebert's recent Answer Man column addressed the horse tripping issue. A Sony rep says the producer and director assured him no animals were harmed. Take that however you please.

 

[Diallo B]

well i saw this, at what in my area is a reference theater, last thursday. it was the last opportunity that i had to see the film in a nice theater.

i thought that the film was phenomenal.

after i read through this thread one comment stood out.



the village was a great story for me as well. i think that the reason that i really enjoyed these films was that i do not let trailers and other marketing hype shape my perception of a film before i see it. with all of the misdirection in hollywood these days it is not surprising that many people are disappointed when they see a film that was marketed in a totally misleading way.

some folks here have really complained about character development. imo, if you really watch and listen to the film you will come to understand all of the characters motives. also, it became plainly apparent to me that the movie was not about the daggers vs. the gov't about a third into the film. it was at this point that i was able to say let me sit back and see where this goes. i did the same thing with the village. (although the blind girl had some helluva radar/sonar/lidar or something)

at this point i would rather watch asian cinema or for that matter foreign cinema that american cinema. i have not seen anything truly mold breaking in american cinema since the matrix. if you take away the special effects of the matrix then the movie would have flopped. joe six pack would have hated it. but i would have still enjoyed it.

speaking of the matrix. i think that it is fair to say that when we as a western society experience things that are not so western that we need to as in the words of morpheus, 'free your[our] mind'.

 

[Stephen_L]

Tim, it was heartstoppingly gorgeous on the big screen. What I enjoy about these big budget martial arts films is their almost operatic sense of melodrama and scale. Spears come in showers. Hundreds of pebbles echo off the drums. Blizzards of daggers. Outrageous passion. And of course Ziyi Zhang!

I especially loved the climactic three way show down, utterly implausible, but the darn thing works. Then to see each characters final decision, was amazing.

 

[Malcolm R]

As I recall, I didn't enjoy this as much as "Hero," but they're both visually amazing films.

Perhaps it's time to revisit each and watch them on my projector instead of my 27" TV.

 

[Tim Glover]

Stephen & Malcolm, I can only imagine how cool this was in the theater. I should be at the end of one of those daggers for missing this!

I've got to do better about these things. I usually see alot of films but kind of got rather picky up until the last year or so. Too many Star Wars tickets purchased I guess

I loved Hero as well. Watched it last night...In the next week or so I plan on a Crouching Tiger Superbit viewing too. Haven't seen that one in a long time.

By all means Malcolm I can't imagine a 27inch tv doing this film justice.

The actor who played Jin...has he done anything else since? He really sold the film for me. Ziyi was excellent no doubt.

 

[Malcolm R]

Did you see Curse of the Golden Flower? I wanted to see that during the holidays, but didn't make it.

 

[Tim Glover]

Never heard of it

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