Watching Dragon, Hidden Growler

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Many Chinese and East Asian films are very successful due to their fantastic creativity and innovation.

Here are a selection that deserve your attention.

This article was also featured in Chinatown - The Magazine.

Rawle Austin presents...

House of Flying Daggers

Continuing the recent trend of quality, big budget, spectacular Chinese Epics, House of Flying Daggers doesn’t disappoint. Having had major success in cinemas worldwide, the DVD release is eagerly awaited. Set in the final years of the Tang Dynasty (AD 618 – 907), it is AD 859 and groups of rebels are fighting against government corruption and poor treatment of the people. Once such group calls themselves ‘The House of Flying Daggers’.

Using tactics such as infiltrating government departments to ambushing soldiers sent to seek and destroy them, they are a highly secretive and elusive organization.

We enter this backdrop by meeting two high-ranking police officers that are charged with finding the leader of this group so as to crush their rebellion.

Acting on a tip off that a former leader’s blind daughter is working undercover at a ‘gentleman’s club’ frequented by government officials.

A plan is formulated by two police captains to befriend her and thus get access to the rebel headquarters.

What follows next is some of the most stunning cinema I have ever seen. The costumes, designed to accurately reflect the period of the opulent Tang Dynasty, are gorgeous to behold. The colours of which simply fill the screen with a majestic presence. The Tang Dynasty was considered a Golden Age of Chinese history, particularly in poetry, and no expense has been spared to reproduce this here. Director of this film is Zhang Yimou (no relation to actress Zhang Ziyi and remember, in China the surname is written before the first name).

Fresh from directing ‘Hero’, another blockbuster, Zhang has put together a great love story, peppered with stunning action and laced with tragedy.

Zhang Yimou studied cinematography at the prestigious Beijing Film Academy and is a leading member of China’s Fifth Generation Film-makers.

He has directed over 12 films since his first feature, ‘Red Sorghum’, in 1987.

Director's quote "House of Flying Daggers tells of a passionate, emotional journey, in which three people suffer for love - it tears them apart, yet they are willing to sacrifice everything for it."

Zhang Yimou’s cinematography skills are well displayed all throughout this film and I challenge you to not be breath taken at least once when watching this. A forest scene that is awash with every shade of green particularly stands out. This film is very colour coordinated and it just works on every level. A true, visual wonder. I felt the casting for this film was just perfect. Takeshi Kaneshiro was superb as Captain Jin who was tasked with seducing the Mei, the blind daughter of a former leader of the House of the Flying Daggers.

Similarly, his colleague, Captain Leo (played by Andy Lau Tak Wah) added a certain gravitas to the whole piece.

Of course I can’t write a review and not rave about Zhang Ziyi who is just gold in this film. For those of you not familiar with my writing Zhang Ziyi is, in my opinion, the best new actress to come out of China in a long, long time.

Watching this film has only strengthened this view. Starring as the blind Mei, Zhang Ziyi gracefully and delicately conveys the subtleties of her sight impairment to great effect.

From dancing to fighting to passionate love scenes, she performs each effortlessly and with fierce conviction. And you think you’ve seen great action scenes in previous Chinese films? Think again. This is choreography to die for. Mere words cannot do it justice. Absolutely fantastic. From hand to hand combat to all manner of weaponry. It’s great eye candy and has a certain fluidity that is just magical. You just have to see it!

House of Flying Daggers has enough twists and turns to rival the Badaling Great Wall of China and is highly entertaining.

The soundtrack is rather good too with two songs in particular, both haunting melodies, that will stay in your head for a long while to come.

Get your hands on it’s forthcoming 2nd of May 2005 DVD release and prepare to be astounded!

See more about this film here.

Running time: 119 mins, Certificate 15

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Check out Dianying.com for an extensive database of Chinese films.

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