House of Flying Daggers

Plot

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.

Release Year: 2004

Rating: 7.6/10 (52,437 voted)

Critic's Score: 89/100

Director:
Yimou Zhang

Stars: Ziyi Zhang, Takeshi Kaneshiro, Andy Lau

Storyline
During the reign of the Tang dynasty in China, a secret organization called "The House of the Flying Daggers" rises and opposes the government. A police officer called Leo sends officer Jin to investigate a young dancer named Mei, claiming that she has ties to the "Flying Daggers". Leo arrests Mei, only to have Jin breaking her free in a plot to gain her trust and lead the police to the new leader of the secret organization. But things are far more complicated than they seem…

Writers: Bin Wang, Yimou Zhang

Cast:

Takeshi Kaneshiro
–

Jin

Andy Lau
–

Leo

Ziyi Zhang
–

Xiao Mei

(as Zhang Ziyi)

Dandan Song
–

Yee

Hongfei Zhao
–

Performer

Jun Guo
–

Performer

Shu Zhang
–

Performer

Jiusheng Wang
–

Performer

Zhengyong Zhang
–

Performer

Yongxin Wang
–

Performer

Dong Liu
–

Performer

Qi Zi
–

Performer

Xuedong Qu
–

Performer

Liping Tian
–

Performer

Hongwei Zhao
–

Performer

Details

Official Website:
Bim Distribuzione [Italy] |
Edko Filims Limited [Hong Kong] (Chinese, Englsh) |

Release Date: 14 January 2005

Filming Locations: Beijing, China

Box Office Details

Budget: CNY 100,000,000

(estimated)

Opening Weekend: CNY 55,000,000
(China)
(18 July 2004)

Gross: $11,041,228
(USA)
(3 April 2005)

Technical Specs

Runtime:

119 min
 |
Australia: 118 min

Did You Know?

Trivia:

Ziyi Zhang is not actually a trained martial artist, despite having been in many martial arts films. She is however a skilled dancer (joined the Beijing Dance Academy at age 11), like her character here, so she uses many dance moves in her fight sequences.

Goofs:

Anachronisms:
The music that the live musicians play during the drum duel scene, although beautiful, is not characteristic of classical Chinese music of that era.

Quotes:

Jin:
Just call me Wind.

Mei:
Wind?

Jin:
I wander around all alone, come and go without a trace.

Mei:
Like a carefree wind?

Jin:
No, a playful wind.

User Review

Without a doubt, Hollywood is going down…

Rating: 10/10


I have never, ever seen a film that the West has ever created that can
top Chinese cinema in this form, with the exception possibly being Lord
of the Rings. I truly applaud Oriental taste. I can't count the number
of times I have completely forgotten that I've actually got my own
physical form while watching films like House of Flying Daggers, but I
can count how many times that's happened during Western films: zero.

For those of you who have no taste I beg you: but aside your views on
gravity-defying fight scenes and subtitles. Just remember that this is
something called FANTASY. It isn't real, no matter how much you wish it
to be. It's called cinema: you can do whatever the hell you like in
film. I don't complain when you've got aliens that spurt out your
chest. I don't complain when the dead rise from their graves. I don't
complain about the lack of reason behind the ideas that aliens would
have less intelligence than humans or that the living dead would
harbour grudges against the really living. I complain when it just
looks simply uninspiring and frankly visually boring.

So, Zhang Yimou, please bring on more heroes and flying daggers