Before you whip out your flashy new “House of Flying Daggers” DVD, take a moment to swallow and an hour to meditate about life, love, the pursuit of property — anything you need to feel secure. Once the movie starts, you’ll be glad you did because it makes less sense than half an oxymoron.
The DVD’s real highlight is its “Storyboard Comparisons” segment, accessible through the special features menu. Viewers can cycle through several action highlights while flipping through the storyboards in real time. It’s all about the quickly-sketched action sequences.
The film starts off slowly, as Jin (Takeshi Kaneshiro) and Leo (Andy Lau), two military officers, discuss how they will capture yet another leader of the infamous rebel faction known as the House of Flying Daggers.
Mei (Zhang Ziyi) is a blind prostitute who catches Jin’s eye. Jin is a playboy who tries to get with Mei early on, and everything gets messy when they are both arrested for drunkenness and indecent exposure.
The setting is 859 AD, shortly before the fall of the T’ang dynasty, as the introduction is quick to explain. Unfortunately, this has absolutely nothing to do with the story. But hey, there’s singing, dancing, dancing with weapons and hot actors and actresses. Who needs a plot?
The movie is off-balance in an oddly fascinating way. A fight carries on for minutes, but seems to end as soon as one combatant gains the advantage. It’s realistic on one level — fights do end that easily — but also showcases the kind of impossibly clean combat that’s reminiscent of Wile E. Coyote. It’s live action Looney Tunes. Sure, people occasionally die or get inches of steel stuck in their flesh. But they shrug it off, one way or another, and in the end we’re just not sure what happened. “So wait, wait. Was it the roadrunner or the coyote who won?”
There are moments among unrealistically impressive fight scenes where you just have to admire the artistry. But the moments don’t last nearly long enough. Ten minutes of absolutely cool moves don’t justify 109 more, unless they’re packing the same punches.
But “House of Flying Daggers” isn’t really an action flick.
Oh sure, it might seem like it’s about fast, flashy moves and wire work, but it’s really about a trite, sappy love story that follows the formula exactly. Jin throws off such classic lines as, “I came back…for you.” Leo cautions Jin not to fall in love with Mei and there’s a gratuitous Zhang Ziyi with-her-top-off scene.
To be fair, there are at least three times as many gratuitous Zhang Ziyi with-her-top-almost-all-the-way-off scenes, sprinkled throughout to keep from losing viewers. And please believe it does keep viewers from losing interest.
There really aren’t any parts of the script worth remembering and it’s unclear why the actors didn’t just improvise all the dialogue.
“House of Flying Daggers” is really just a less ingenuous, less elegant and less productive attempt to emulate “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.” “House of Flying Daggers” isn’t as breathtaking as “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon,” but it is prettier — perhaps the strongest aspect of the film. Unfortunately, the director chooses to show us overused, tired plot devices, and their execution isn’t always screenworthy.
The wirework doesn’t waste time attempting to look possible, and what should have been a stunningly suave four-arrows-in-the-air-at-once shot is ruined when, despite excellent form, every arrow manages to connect at the exact same time.
Something is seriously wrong with that, and maybe it’s the fact that the shooter pauses for so long we begin to wonder if he’s just trying to strike a pose.
We are tempted with the smell of battle, and more ridiculously outrageous battle scenes than we’ve seen in any other movie.
We’re also caught in a sticky situation late into the film, when a plot threatens to emerge. Just in time, the movie ends.