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House of Flying Daggers

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House of Flying Daggers
Directed byZhang Yimou
Written byFeng Li
Bin Wang
Zhang Yimou
Produced byWilliam Kong
Zhang Yimou
StarringTakeshi Kaneshiro
Zhang Ziyi
Andy Lau
CinematographyXiaoding Zhao
Edited byLong Cheng
Music byShigeru Umebayashi
Distributed bySony Pictures Classics (USA, Singapore)
Focus Features (Australia, France)
Warner Bros. (Japan, Philippines)
Pathé (UK theatrical)
20th Century Fox (UK DVD)

Release dates

China July 16, 2004
USA December 3, 2004
UK December 26 2004

Running time

119 min.
CountryChina China
LanguageMandarin
Budget$12,000,000

House of Flying Daggers (Chinese: 十面埋伏; pinyin: shí miàn mái fú), is a 2004 action/romance movie directed by Zhang Yimou. The movie is in the wuxia genre, similar in style to Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, Hero, and Warriors of Heaven and Earth. House of Flying Daggers differs from other wuxia films in that it is more of a love story than a martial arts film.

The movie opened in limited release within the United StatesonDecember 3, 2004, in New York and Los Angeles, and opened on additional screens throughout the country two weeks later.

Title


The Chinese title derives from a Chinese four-character idiom literally meaning "lying in an ambush in ten sides", but figuratively meaning an "hidden in ambush from all sides". It is also the name of a famous traditional Chinese music piece for the pipa that describes the battle between the Chu general Xiang Yu and the Han forces prior to the formation of the Han Dynasty (a very short version of the music played on the guitar is in the soundtrack). The English title, House of Flying Daggers, refers to a secret society (飞刀门) within the movie.

Plot


The film is set in 859 AD. The once great Tang Dynasty is now in decline. Numerous rebel groups have formed, the largest of which is the House of Flying Daggers, based in Feng Tian county. The Flying Daggers steal from the rich and give to the poor, gaining the support of the locals.

The local deputies have managed to kill the leader of the Flying Daggers, but the rebel group only becomes stronger, due to a mysterious new leader. Jin and Leo, two police captains, are ordered to kill the new leader within ten days.

In order to accomplish this, they arrest Mei (小妹: pinyin: Xiǎo Mèi), a blind dancer who is suspected of being the daughter of the old leader. While Mei is incarcerated, Jin and Leo decide to let her go to track the mastermind; Jin will pretend to be a lone warrior called Wind, and break her out of prison. This will gain her trust, and hopefully, Jin will be led to the headquarters of Flying Daggers. The plan works, but Mei and Jin fall in love on the way. They are followed at a distance by Leo; Jin and Leo meet secretly to discuss their plans. Jin jokes about his seduction of the girl; Leo warns him sternly against getting involved.

To add authenticity to the deception, Leo and his men ambush the pair: the fight is, however, a fake. Further on, they are attacked again, but this time their assailants are apparently for real: Jin and Mei battle for their lives, being saved only by the intervention of an unseen knife-thrower. Furious, Jin confronts Leo: Leo explains that he has reported the matter up the chain of command and his general has taken over the pursuit. Jin realises that he is now expendable.

Once again, Jin and Mei are attacked by the General's men. They are hopelessly outnumbered; at the last minute they are saved when the House of Flying Daggers reveal themselves. Jin and Leo are captured and taken to their headquarters.

At this point, a number of surprising revelations are made. Mei is not blind, nor is she the old leader's daughter - she was merely pretending to be. Leo is in fact an undercover agent for the House of Flying Daggers, who have engineered the whole chain of events in order to draw the General into a decisive battle. Furthermore, Leo is in love with Mei: he has waited for three years for her whilst working undercover. 

Mei, however, cannot bring herself to love Leo: over the last few days she has fallen for Jin. But as Jin is now a liability, she is ordered by Nia, the leader of the House of Flying Daggers, to kill him. Instead Mei takes him away then frees him: Jin begs Mei to flee with him, but she is torn between her love and her duty to the House, and he leaves alone.

In the final tragic scenes, Mei decides to ride after Jin, but is ambushed by Leo who is embittered by her rejection and consumed by jealousy for Jin. Leo throws daggers at her. Mei, not realizing that the daggers were doubled only managed to ward off one knife, while the other strikes her in the chest. As Mei lies dying, Jin returns to find Leo, and an epic battle of honor begins. The last scene sees Mei, regaining consciousness, grabbing the dagger in her chest and threatening to pull it out and to throw it in order to save Jin (and thereby killing herself through enabling the blood to flow and bleeding to death). Jin begs her not to do it, willing to die rather than let her be killed, but she continues to threaten to sacrifice her own life for Jin. Infuriated, Leo throws his arm out as if to throw a knife at Jin, and Mei rips the dagger out of her own heart to deflect it. Instead, all her dagger does, is deflect a droplet of blood, as Leo never threw his dagger. The implication is that if she is willing to die for Jin, Leo would rather she died. Removing the dagger from her chest causes Mei's death, and surmises her death as both meaningful, yet seemingly pointless. Under closer inspection, her actions reveal her true intentions: that she would be willing to kill herself to save Jin, but her feelings for Leo prevent her from throwing the dagger at him and instead deflect it. In a sense, she died saving both of them.

Literary origins


The movie features the theme of a beautiful woman who brings woe to two men. This theme is borrowed from a famous poem written by the Han Dynasty poet Li Yannian (李延年): Template:Ruby notice

北(běi) 方(fāng) 有(yǒu) 佳(jiā) 人(rén)， 絕(jué) 世(shì) 而(ér) 獨(dú) 立(lì)。 一(yí) 顧(gù) 傾(qīng) 人(rén) 城(chéng)， 再(zài) 顧(gù) 傾(qīng) 人(rén) 國(guó)。 寧(nìng) 不(bù) 知(zhī) 傾(qīng) 城(chéng) 與(yǔ) 傾(qīng) 國(guó)。 佳(jiā) 人(rén) 難(nán) 再(zài) 得(dé)。
Traditional Chinese Simplified Chinese

北方有佳人，絕世而獨立。
 一顧傾人城，再顧傾人國。
 寧不知傾城與傾國。
 佳人難再得。

北方有佳人，绝世而独立。
  一顾倾人城，再顾倾人国。
  宁不知倾城与倾国。
  佳人难再得。
Pinyin transcription English translation from [1]

Běifāng yǒu jiārén, juéshì ér dúlì.
Yí gù qīng rén chéng, zài gù qīng rén guó.
Nìng bù zhī qīng chéng yǔ qīng guó.
Jiārén nán zài dé.

A rare beauty in the north, she's the finest lady on earth.
A glance from her, the whole city falls; a second glance leaves the whole nation in ruins.
There exists no city or nation, thats has been more cherished
Than a beauty like this.

(See also external site with characters in images: simp. trad.)

Box office

House of Flying Daggers opened in North America on December 3, 2005 in 15 theatres. It grossed $397,472 USD ($26,498 per screen) in its opening weekend. Expansions into wide release were somewhat less successful, although the film's total North American gross of $11,050,094 USD was respectable for a foreign language film.

The film made an additional $81,751,003 USD elsewhere in the world, bringing its total worldwide box office gross to $92,801,097 USD.[2]

Responses

Despite receiving great acclaim from film critics in the U.S., the film and its director were fairly heavily criticized locally in mainland China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan. Many Chinese critics felt that the film lacked a strong storyline or message, that the dialogue was poor, and that Zhang was simply trying to appeal to Western audiences with heavily choreographed fight scenes and extensive use of computer-generated imagery. Zhang's previous films, including the critically acclaimed Raise the Red Lantern and The Story of Qiu Ju, were insightful and tragic dramas about the lives of everyday peasants in modern rural China, and even his previous foray into a martial arts film, Hero, had a strong underlying message about sacrifice and national identity.

Further criticism arose from the treatment of horses used in the film. Tripwires and other harmful measures were used to add realism to the fight scenes, harmful measures which are illegal in most Western countries but still permitted in Ukraine and China, where the movie was mostly filmed.

Awards

Won

Nominated

  • Academy Awards:
    • Best Cinematography (Xiaoding Zhao)
  • Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films:
    • Best Actress (Ziyi Zhang)
    • Best Costumes (Emi Wada)
    • Best Director (Yimou Zhang)
    • Best Fantasy Film
  • BAFTA Awards:
    • Best Achievement in Special Visual Effects (Angie Lam, Andy Brown, Kirsty Millar & Luke Hetherington)
    • Best Cinematography (Xiaoding Zhao)
    • Best Costume Design (Emi Wada)
    • Best Editing (Long Cheng)
    • Best Film not in the English Language (William Kong & Yimou Zhang)
    • Best Make Up/Hair (Lee-na Kwan, Xiaohai Yang & Siu-Mui Chau)
    • Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role (Ziyi Zhang)
    • Best Production Design (Tingxiao Huo)
    • Best Sound (Jing Tao & Roger Savage)

Trivia

  • Anita Mui was originally cast for a major role, which was to be her final film appearance. She died of cervical cancer before any of her scenes were filmed. After her death on 30 December 2003, director Yimou Zhang decided to alter the script rather than find a replacement. The film is dedicated to her memory.
  • The scene in the snow was filmed in Ukraine, which, unlike China, has birch forests. It actually snowed so early (October) that the makers had to change the script and the film. They did not want to wait because the leaves were still on the trees. Zhang Yimou was very happy with how it turned out, however, because it set the perfect tone.
  • To prepare for her role, for two months Zhang Ziyi lived with a blind girl who had lost her sight at the age of twelve because of a brain tumor.
  • Andy Lau portrays a similar character in the film Infernal Affairs: an undercover Triad agent who infiltrates the police department.
  • Takeshi Kaneshiro injured his leg when he went horse-back riding. As a result, Zhang Yimou had Kaneshiro spend two scenes sitting or kneeling down in order to alleviate the pain, which was stated in Zhang Yimou's audio commentary.

Scenes in which Kaneshiro is sitting or kneeling down: 

  *Introduction scene
  *Jin and Leo's capture
  • Zhang Yiumou admittedly stated in an audio commentary that he made a continuity error intentionally. In the final few seconds of the fight, the attacking soldiers fell to their deaths after their respective bamboo trees were cut off, and in the next shot, they fell on flat ground instead of the bamboo stakes. According to Yimou, the intentional filming error was done for the safety of the actors and stuntmen playing the soldiers.
  • Use of strong colors is again a signature of Zhang. Several scenes in a bamboo forest completely fill the screen with green. Near the end of the movie, a fight scene is set in a blizzard. The actors and blood are greatly highlighted on a whiteout background. Another scene uses bright yellow as a color theme. The costumes, props, and decorations were taken almost entirely from Chinese paintings of the period, adding authenticity to the look of the film.

Cast

Crew

  • Directed by Zhang Yimou
  • Produced by Bill Kong, Zhang Yimou
  • Executive Producer — Zhang Weiping
  • Story by Zhang Yimou, Li Feng, Wang Bin
  • Screenplay by Li Feng, Zhang Yimou, Wang Bin
  • Director of Photography — Zhao Xiaoding
  • Action Director — Tony Ching Siu-Tung
  • Production Designed by Huo Tingxiao
  • Sound Designed by Tao Jing
  • Original Music Scored and Produced by Shigeru Umebayashi
  • Theme Song Performed by Kathleen Battle
  • Costume Designed by Emi Wada
  • Edited by Cheng Long
  • Associate Producer — Zhang Zhenyan

Production notes

Mandarin dialogue, available subtitled in English.

An Edko Films, Zhang Yimou Studio Production in collaboration with Beijing New Picture Film Co., Ltd.

MPAA rating: PG-13, for sequences of stylized martial arts violence, and some sexuality.

External links

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=House_of_Flying_Daggers&oldid=156815069"