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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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.

 

Related post:

 

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?

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

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+ 2nd Worst Movie of the Year

 

Things are exploding left and right and a frightening siege is apparently taking place, but star Matt Damon is on the wall with a bow and arrow on this poster for Yimou Zhang's The Great Wall

An Irish mercenary adventurer with a Spanish companion is searching for gunpowder in Song dynasty China [about 1,000 years ago], but they come into a massive battle against the monsters that the Great Wall are meant to keep out.

The Great Wall is written by Carlo Bernard (The Uninvited (2009)), Doug Miro (The Great Raid (2005)) and Tony Gilroy (State of Play (2009)), with Max Brooks (World War Z (2013, novel)), Edward Zwick (The Siege (1998)) and Marshal Herskovitz (A Marriage (2009, TV movie)) contributing story elements, and directed by Yimou Zhang (Red Sorghum (1988)).

It is an ambitious, giant production, which attempts to please both a Chinese and an American/Western audience with the result becoming an often involuntarily comical compromise. The presence of Matt Damon's (Syriana (2005)) ponytailed character alone in this old-Chinese context is comical: He is a hero of Western fabric, full of one-liners and incredible fighting skills. Across from him are Chinese by the boatloads, who appear very different; saluting uniformity and sacrifice for the majority's improvement. The Great Wall also marks a major cultural meeting that may be more than a bit anxiety-provoking for the China-skeptical Westerner.

There are impressive sets and costumes, strange, not very interesting monsters and a thankfully contained running time. The main  problem for this film, though, is a fundamentally unexciting story: The Great Wall marks a cultural summit that so far as the plot goes never really takes place.

 

Related post:

 

2016 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III]

 

Watch a trailer for the film here

 

Cost: 150 mil. $

Box office: 334.9 mil. $

= Flop (returned 2.23 times its cost)

[The Great Wall premiered 6 December (Beijing) and runs 103 minutes. Shooting took place in China and New Zealand from March 2015 - ?. It is Zhang's first English-language film and reportedly the costliest movie shot in China to its day. It reportedly employed 100 on-set translators to help with the communication between the international cast and crew. It opened #3, behind holdover hits The Lego Batman Movie and Fifty Shades Darker, to an 18.4 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it spent another two weekends in the top 5 (#3-#4) and grossed 45.5 mil. $ (13.6 % of the total gross). It was the film's 2nd biggest market; the biggest by far was China with 170.9 mil. $ (51 %); 3rd biggest was Russia with 10.9 mil. $ (3.3 %). 110-120 mil. $ were reportedly spent to market the film worldwide, making its overall loss in the neighborhood of 75 mil. $ according to Deadline Hollywood. Regarding critique of his part in the film, Damon has stated: "For the first time, a film deeply rooted in Chinese culture, with one of the largest Chinese casts ever assembled, is being made at tentpole scale for a world audience. I believe that is a trend that should be embraced by our industry." The Communist Party of China have had negative reviews of the film removed from online sites in China. Zhang returned with Shadow/Ying (2018). Damon returned in Downsizing (2017). The Great Wall is rotten at 35 % with a 4.90/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of The Great Wall?