I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

True to its essence, the characters remain on the same line and manage to entertain the viewer, each highlighting their own distinctive qualities or touches.

Blistering performances.

The movie really just wants to entertain people.

The Tang Dynasty is weak and the House of Flying Daggers rebels have been stealing from the rich to give to the poor. The rebel leader has recently been killed. Local deputies Captain Leo (Andy Lau) and Jin (Takeshi Kaneshiro) are ordered to kill the new leader within ten days. Jin goes to be a client to the new blind dancer Mei (Zhang Ziyi) who is suspected to be the previous leader's daughter. Leo comes in to arrest both Jin and Mei. Jin breaks her out of prison hoping she would lead him to the House of Flying Daggers.There is no doubt that this is a visual delight. It is beautifully shot. There is a bit too much melodrama for me. I don't feel any connection to the love triangle. It takes over the movie and saps away my attention. It gets awkward and I stop caring. I can do without the convoluted soap opera but the movie is still very beautiful. In fact, the movie never stops looking beautiful even as the story grinds to a halt.

This movie was by no means bad. It was beautifully executed, visually enticing and well acted. The one thing that ruined the entire thing for me though were those ridiculous English dubbed voice overs. It was so distracting that I found it extremely hard to focus on the movie. I don't have a problem with subtitles, a little reading never hurt anybody. Why they felt the need to westernise this movie is beyond me. If I wanted to watch an English movie I would have watched one.The soundtrack for the film complemented the storyline and locations beautifully. In fact, the music was more powerful and descriptive then the spoken words. Everything was extreme and unbelievable but it was hard not to enjoy it. The martial arts were incredible and I didn't even mind that they were over the top.It really is a beautiful movie but if you are going to watch it don't watch the English version.

A Chinese wuxia film riding on the coattails of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, House of Flying Daggers deviates from the typical wuxia formula by being more of a love story rather than action-packed adventure. This ends up being both the strength and the weakness of the film.So what's the story. The 9th century China is in turmoil. Tang Dynasty is weakening and rebellious civil movements have begun to crop up all over the land. One of these is the eponymous House of Flying Daggers, and now the local police department believes that they have managed to locate one of the girls belonging to this organization. A plan is hatched to covertly release the girl and have her lead them to her leader. Yet problems arise as the amorous young police officer starts to fall for the fierce warrior woman.From that you can speculate much of the plot, and not in a bad way either. Sure, it's a bit predictable, but I'd rather see it as sticking to tried and true methods. Zhang Ziyi is an extremely fetching main female lead, and Takeshi Kaneshiro and Andy Lau are rather good as well as Jin and Liu, the two main police officers.Furthermore, it's an utterly gorgeous film. The settings are rich and detailed, the use of colour is phenomenal, the fight sequences are imaginative and enjoyable to look at and the music brings all together. One of the best looking films I've seen in a long time. The scenes in the bamboo forest with their thousands of shades of green are just... wow, I have no words.Yet I think that this film could have been much better with a change of focus. The setting about rebellious groups fighting against a dying dynasty is an interesting one and could have made for a really interesting adventure. Yet the main focus of the film is whether or not they really love each other? There's a missed opportunity here. Not that the love story isn't nice and heart-breaking and all that, but I was constantly questioning in my head, "Yeah, that's nice, but what about the rebellion? What about the House and its goals?" I can't exactly blame the director Yimou Zhang for trying to do something new with the genre, but perhaps a bit less adventure-oriented premise would have managed to keep my attention where it should have been.Still, it's a good film if you're looking for gorgeous visual, great action scenes and good acting performances. Recommended.

A romantic police captain breaks a beautiful member of a rebel group out of prison to help her rejoin her fellows, but things are not what they seem.Americans are not known for their love of Asian films, aside from anime and the occasional martial arts film. That barrier was broken with "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" and a few films (including this one and "Hero") were able to sneak through.I am not sure if this is a great film. Indeed, the use of color is notable, and it really embraced the new digital possibilities that were available. But is it just a visual feast, more style than substance? Hard to say, because the style so overwhelms the substance.