June 15, 2005
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WEDNESDAY MOVIEHouse of Flying Daggers
(watch trailer)Oh lordy, I’m running late for work but I’ll just slap this up here. This is kind of a new genre for us Western folks – the incredible flying leaping fighting in the treetops genre in gorgeous gleaming color. Once you’ve seen Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon – like most of us did several years ago – you can’t go back. In some ways, it’s like Rocky – you’ve seen one, you’ve seen them all but they’re magnificent and you’d watch forever. This one has a historical backdrop (like they all do actually) – during the reign of the Tang dynasty in China, which god knows when that was (a long time ago is good enough), when a secret organization called “The House of the Flying Daggers” rises and opposes the government. They send a spy in the form of a blind incredibly beautiful female dancer/warrior (what else), and two local policemen (wearing the dashing long hairstyles and uniforms of the time) decide to trail her back to her source in order to wipe out the whole group. In the process, a great love triangle is born and there are magnificent battles and love scenes and dances and weather changes and horses and all of it in blindingly beautiful cinematography. Talk about going out in a blaze of glory. If you have a romantic bone in your body you’ll just want to swoon. Enjoy.
Deep Thought: “I think a new, different kind of bowling should be “carpet bowling.” It’s just like regular bowling, only the lanes are carpet instead of wood. I don’t know why we should do this, but my God, we’ve got to try something!”
Today I am grateful for: The concept of letting go
Guess the Movie: “I still see things that are not here. I just choose not to acknowledge them. Like a diet of the mind, I just choose not to indulge certain appetites; like my appetite for patterns; perhaps my appetite to imagine and to dream.” Answer: A Beautiful Mind, 2001.
Winner: dustmite.
Feingold Resolution Calls on President to Create a Timetable for Achieving Goals and Withdrawing American Troops from Iraq
Feingold Resolution to be Introduced Today in the Senate (Rest of article here.)
End of Day: 8:23 pm
+ = Big relief from a minor physical ailment.
- = More rain on the way – it’s June for cripes sake!
Comments (16)
movie trivia.. “A Beautiful Mind”… i saw the ending of “daggers”.. i found it a bit of a snooze but dh said “you missed the whole movie …. AND THATS NOT THE POINT!” lol
These movies are amazing, aren’t they? Thanks for the review. Is the movie A Brilliant Mind?
A Beautiful Mind is the winner!
I have never seen these movies. But they sound great. However, I did see “beautiful Mind” and thought it was terrific. I fell in love with Russell Crowe the day I went to see it.
I saw “Hero” recently, directed by Zhang Yimou – the same, fabulous, not a martial arts movie but an art movie, a dance that is a painting come alive… want to buy it just to look at the palette that the director used, the waves of leaves, cloth, desert sand, arrows, the choreography of the air dancing fighting dervishes … the intensity and truth of the lovers… and the creation of China. It was magnificent. About swords and ethics and calligraphy and power. And not about acting in a Western sense at all…
I’ve been wanting to see that and Hero for a long time.
Always remember that John Nash effectively disproved everything Republicans say about economics and how success is created in a society. He won the Nobel prize for that. Too bad so few in this country have paid any attention.
Dear Lionne,
Actually, the west has been aware of martial arts movies for a long time. I can remember seeing Bruce Lee films in the 70s, nearly 40 years ago. The “flying, leaping, and fighting in the treetops” started in the genre around the mid 90s, and is performed by actors using ropes. Quentin Tarantino, the Matrix movies, and the aforementioned Ang Lee film, “Crouching Tiger” have all influenced the newly found “desire” to see martial arts or “chop socky” films. But they’ve been around for years. I liked “Flying Daggers” but didn’t think it was as good as I had hoped. I think Roger Ebert praised it too much, and I didn’t find that it lived up to his praise.
Michael F. Nyiri, poet, philosopher, fool
(Have you memorized all these “movie quotes’ or do you just do a search on the imdb?)
imdb
I too kind of feel that after seeing CTHD I don’t need to see more people flying
such a great movie too…
HOFD is worth seeing for Takeshi Kaneshiro alone. That man is so gorgeous I go into a trance every time I see him, no matter what movie he’s in. Having said that, Hero is one of the most gorgeous films ever made. One does not see these films for realism or modern day social commentary, but for the cinematography and the archetypal elements that reach deep inside and hook the wonder we bury with ordinary, everyday garbage. Some people simply don’t know how to watch movies.
Glad you liked Flying Daggers.
T
Well said.
I liked “House of Flying Daggers”. It was fun to watch, had a grand epic scope, and had a fairly decent story for a movie of that type.
thanks for the review- I am sure I would enjoy it- I have yet to see Hero as well.
Thank you for the heads up on House of Flying Daggers! I just saw Hero for the first time (I say ”the first time,” for having seen it once I am sure to see it many times, again for the cinematography, and the astounding use of color). It’s good to let go of realism every now and then, and let yourself be taken away…