Film Excess - Free Ukraine - Stop Putin - End the war NOW!!: House of Flying Daggers/十面埋伏/Shí Miàn Mái Fú/Sap6 Min6 Maai4 Fuk6 (2004) - Visuals and score improve Zhang's cold wuxia solemnity

5/19/2021

House of Flying Daggers/十面埋伏/Shí Miàn Mái Fú/Sap6 Min6 Maai4 Fuk6 (2004) - Visuals and score improve Zhang's cold wuxia solemnity

♥♥

A plethora of colors adorn the three characters on this poster for Yimou Zhang's House of Flying Daggers

859 AD, during the decline of the Chinese Tang dynasty, a police captain breaks a beautiful, blind rebel out of prison with unforeseen consequences.

House of Flying Daggers is written by Feng Li (Hero/Ying xiong (2002)), Bin Wang (Beauty Remains/Mei ren yi jiu (2005)) and co-writer/co-producer/director Yimou Zhang (Red Sorghum/Hong gao liang (1988)).

I don't much care for the specifically Asian style of filmmaking, where very long films consist of many scenes of cold and overly serious dialog, - sometimes about what seems trivial matters, - and House of Flying Daggers is exactly such an Asian film, which makes me give up and zone out. It takes solemnity to nauseating heights, is bereft of humor, taking place in a dream-like, unrealistic version of ancient China that feels so distant that at least audiences such as myself lose interest.

It does nevertheless have natural scenes of great beauty, ingenious action and a score by Shigeru Umebayashi (Like the Wind/Come il Vento (2013)), which is also beautiful.

Yimou Zhang: The Great Wall/长城/Cháng Chéng (2016) - Damon appears foolish in unexciting, major US-Chinese monster turkey

Watch a 4-minute dance scene from the film here

Cost: 12 mil. $

Box office: 92.8 mil. $

= Huge hit (returned 7.73 times its cost)

[House of Flying Daggers premiered 19 May (Cannes Film Festival, out of competition) and runs 119 minutes. Shooting took place from September - December 2003 in Ukraine and China, including Beijing. The film opened #19 to a 397k $ first weekend in 15 theaters in North America, where it peaked at #15 and in 1,189 theaters, grossing 11 mil. $ (11.9 %). North America was the 2nd biggest market; biggest was Japan with 24.4 mil. $ (26.3 %); and 3rd biggest was China with a recorded, somewhat suspiciously low 10 mil. $ (10.8 %). The film was nominated for an Oscar: Best Cinematography (Xiaoding Zhao (Little Big Soldier/Da bing xiao jiang (2010)), lost to Robert Richardson for The Aviator. It was also nominated for a Golden Globe, 9 BAFTAs, a European Film award and won a National Board of Review award, among other honors. Roger Ebert gave it a 4/4 star review, translating to 4 notches over this one. Unsupported claims say that the film was an even bigger hit on home video in North America than theatrically. Zhang returned with Riding Along for Thousands of Miles/Qian li zou dan qi (2005); Ziyi Zhang (The Banquet/Ye yan (2006)) returned in 2046 (2004); Takeshi Kaneshiro (Turn Left, Turn Right/Heung joh chow heung yau chow (2003)) in Perhaps Love/Ru guo · Ai (2005); and Andy Lau (Blind Detective/Maang taam (2013)) in Triad Underworld/Gong woo (2004)). House of Flying Daggers is certified fresh at 87 % with a 7.80/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of House of Flying Daggers?

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Donald Sutherland has passed away

Born in Canada, Sutherland battled polio as a child. His first credit was in Suspense (1963, TV-series) and his first film was The Castle of the Living Dead (1964). Later credits in his remarkable career include The Saint (1965-66), The Dirty Dozen (1967), M*A*S*H (1970), Kelly's Heroes (1970), Klute (1971), Don't Look Now (1973), 1900 (1976), Casanova (1976), The Eagle Has Landed (1976), Ordinary People (1980), A Dry White Season (1989), JFK (1991), Outbreak (1995), Fallen (1998), Virus (1999), Fierce People (2005), Pride & Prejudice (2005), Lord of War (2005), The Hunger Games (2012), The Undoing (2020, miniseries) and many more. He passed away at age 88. R.I.P.

Roger Corman has passed away

Born in Detroit, Michigan, Corman had a sprawling, intellectually hungry life as a youth and young man before arriving with his first film in 1955, Five Guns West. He would follow that with titles such as Apache Woman, It Conquered the World, Attack of the Crab Monsters, Teenage Cave Man, A Bucket of Blood, House of Usher, The Little Shop of Horrors, The Pit and the Pendulum, The Intruder, The Raven, The Terror, The Masque of Red Death, The Tomb of Ligeia, The Wild Angels, The Trip, Bloody Mama and many more. As a producer he was behind almost 500 films. Arguably among the most important filmmakers of the 20th century, Corman passed away at age 98. R.I.P.

William Friedkin has died

Born in Chicago, Friedkin accrued TV credits prior to his advance to the big screen as the director of Good TImes (1967), The Birthday Party (1968), The Night They Raided Minsky's (1968) and The Boys in the Band (1970) before his major breakthrough, The French Connection (1971), for which he won his only Oscar. He followed it up with the even bigger smash, The Exorcist (1973), arguably the best horror film of all time, for which he was Oscar-nominated. Later credits include Sorcerer (1977), Cruising (1980), To Live and Die in L.A. (1985), Rampage (1987), Rules of Engagement (2000), Killer Joe (2011) and The Devil and Father Amorth (2017, documentary). Friedkin passed away at age 87. R.I.P.

Louise Fletcher has passed away

Born in Alabama to deaf parents, Fletcher got her first credits in late-1950s TV-series.She took a 10 year-long sabbatical to devote her time to motherhood after the release of A Gathering of Eagles, but then came back and soon saw her career's most important part, as Nurse Ratched in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975), for which she won her sole Oscar. Later credits include Exorcist II: The Heretic (1977), The Lucky Star (1980), Brainstorm (1983), Two Moon Junction (1988), Cruel Intentions (1999), A Perfect Man (2013) and many more. Fletcher passed away at age 88. R.I.P.

Jean-Luc Godard has passed away

Born in Paris, France, Godard lived much of his life in Switzerland. He wrote for French film criticism magazine Cahiers du Cinema and became foundational for the New French Wave that inspired new waves in scores of other countries across the world with his Breathless (1960). Later credits include A Woman Is A Woman (1961), Vivre Sa Vie (1962), Le Petit Soldat (1962), Contempt (1963), Alphaville (1965), Pierrot le Fou (1965), 2 or 3 Things I Know About Her (1967), Weekend (1967), Every Man for Himself (1980), King Lear (1987), Century of Cinema (1995, documentary), Goodbye to Language (2014) and many more. Godard died of assisted suicide at age 91. R.I.P.

Wolfgang Petersen has died

James Caan has died

Caan was born the son of Jewish immigrants from Germany in New York. He got his start on TV in the early 1960s. His credits include El Dorado (1966), The Rain People (1969), Brian's Song (1971, TV movie), The Godfather (1972), - for which he earned his only Oscar nomination, - Slither (1973), The Gambler (1974), Funny Lady (1975), Rollerball (1975), Silent Movie (1976), Hide in Plain Sight (1980), - the only film he also directed, - Thief (1981), Misery (1990), Honeymoon in Vegas (1992), Bottle Rocket (1996), Eraser (1996), Dogville (2003), Elf (2003), Las Vegas (2003-07), Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs (2009) and many more. Caan passed away at age 82. R.I.P.

Jean-Louis Trintignant has died

Born in Vaucluse, France, Trintignant's theatrical debut as an actor was in If All the Guys in the World... (1955). Later credits include ...And God Created Woman (1956), The Seven Deadly Sins (1961), Inferno (1964), A Man and A Woman (1966), My Love, My Love (1967), A Man to Kill (1967), The Great Silence (1968), Z (1969), The Assassination (1972), Three Colors: Red (1994), Amour (2012), Happy End (2017) and many more. He also wrote and directed two films in the 1970s. Trintignant passed away at age 91. R.I.P.

Ray Liotta has died

Adopted from an orphenage at a young age, Liotta got hooked on acting in high school. He had various TV credits in the late 1970s and early 80s, with his film debut in The Lonely Lady (1983). Later credits include Something Wild (1986), Field of Dreams (1989), Goodfellas (1990), Cop Land (1997), Hannibal (2001), Blow (2001), Narc (2002), John Q (2002), Identity (2003), Observe and Report (2009), Youth in Revolt (2009), The Details (2011), Killing THem Softly (2012), The Place Beyond the Pines (2012), Shades of Blue (2016-18), The Simpsons (2018, TV-series), Marriage Story (2019), The Many Saints of Newark (2021), Black Bird (2022, TV-series) and many more. Liotta passed away at age 67 in his sleep while on production in the Dominican Republic. R.I.P.

Philip Baker Hall has died

Born in Ohio, Hall didn't start acting until he was 30. His long list of credits include Zabriskie Point (1970), Miami Vice (1987, TV-series), Midnight Run (1988), Ghostbusters II (1989), Cheers (1993, TV-series), Hard Eight (1996), The Rock (1996), Air Force One (1997), Boogie Nights (1997), Seinfeld (1991-98), Rush Hour (1998), The Insider (1999), Magnolia (1999), The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999), Bruce Almighty (2003), Dogville (2003), The Zodiac (2005), Zodiac (2007), Curb Your Enthusiasm (2004-09), Mr. Popper's Penguins (2011), Modern Family (2011-12) and many more. Hall passed away at age 90. R.I.P.

Film Excess - Free Ukraine - Stop Putin - End the war NOW!!

Eagerly anticipating this week ... (17-24)

5/19/2021

House of Flying Daggers/十面埋伏/Shí Miàn Mái Fú/Sap6 Min6 Maai4 Fuk6 (2004) - Visuals and score improve Zhang's cold wuxia solemnity

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Eagerly anticipating this week ... (16-24)

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