What can I say? It's a beautiful film.
Added 9/25/2009
If you enjoyed watching Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, Curse of the Golden Flower, and Hero, chances are you'll end up loving House of Flying Daggers as well. What we have here are some colorful set/costume designs like in Golden Flower, top-notch fight sequences that are about equal to Hero, and a powerful love story that can have the same impact like the one that's found in Hidden Dragon. What is so recognizable about this film, however, is the style and overall beauty. It doesn't have all those long shots of nice scenery, but it still has some beautiful shots of a bamboo forest, a meadow, and other environments that are placed in the background whenever the characters are onscreen. The way the environment is perfectly blended in the drama that's occurring at the moment. This is one fine Martial Arts film that not only has fine action, but also some sheer beauty of the way the director shot certain scenes.
So yeah, you've got a compelling plot, fascinating characters (and great performances from the lead actors), gorgeous shots, and some creative choreography all in a two-hour movie. I fully enjoyed it as much as almost everyone else who reviewed it here at Amazon.
0 out of 0 people found this helpful.
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A Beautiful Blu-ray Experience
Added 9/10/2009
As a Blu-ray presentation you won't get much better than this. House of Flying Daggers on Blu-ray is a true HD remaster and you will know that as soon as it starts playing. After being burned myself on some BD releases that were barely upgraded from DVD, you can purchase this one with confidence.
Along with a wonderful picture the disc includes an HD audio track in Chinese. If your system can play HD audio then that's the best way to watch this movie, even if you don't like subtitles. It's terrible that all BD releases don't have a HD audio track because it's really eye opening when you listen to it back to back with the regular 5.1.
There are a few extras, though I don't pay attention to them so you'll have to discover them yourself. This film does not use any BD Live functions that I could find.
If you want an entertaining movie that shows off the best your HDTV can offer then you can't go wrong here.
0 out of 0 people found this helpful.
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terrible quality
Added 8/27/2009
this bluray looks like a dvd scaled up, terrible compression artifacts, what a shame
a movie with such amazing cinematography, production design deserves more, especially considering SOny Released it
which created the bluray format.
0 out of 0 people found this helpful.
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beautiful, sexy, intriguing, and good fight scenes
Added 8/24/2009
I love Zhang Yimou movies. They're beautifully artistic and he always select the right cast. Zhang Ziyi excelled as the seductress and she played a blind heroine convincingly. The costumes are also amazing in this movie. Takeshi Kaneshiro is the hero, and as always, he's hot and gorgeous. He plays the honorable good guy so well my heart melts. This movie has everything! A fantastic plot, great acting, hot hero and heroine, amazing martial arts, and artistry all rolled into one package. Enjoy!
0 out of 0 people found this helpful.
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A Feast for the Eyes
Added 8/7/2009
NOTE: No "spoilers" will be in this review.
Watching a Zhang film is like watching a moving painting. And like Kurosawa and David Lean, who have both clearly had an impact on Zhang's own style of directing, the emphasis is on stylized, fluid motion and lush use of symbolic colors and color transitions, beauty of color and a variety of camera shots are as important as the narrative. The plot line is simple, with a few twists and bends here and there to keep the audience guessing. But fundamentally, it is an "old fashioned star-crossed lovers" tale where people, politics, and the "rules of desire" all clash to a worthy - if expected - climax. One must applaud Asian directors in general for refusing to deliver the pat brands of "happy" or "perfect" endings. The actors are beautifully chosen, and Zhang gives them enough close ups and ensemble work amidst all of the visual splendor so that they are never overwhelmed by their surroundings. They are also highly skilled, using facial expression and "kinds of smiles" with a deft facility that makes long-winded dialogue refreshingly unnecessary and which makes them all completely convincing in their parts. But it does make the dialogue there is critically important, so this is not a film where "tell me what I missed" is an option. I watched it once for the story, and once just to enjoy its magnificence again. The "echo game" dance sequence early in the film is not to be missed and almost hypnotically perfect. Further, those who find Chinese music grating or annoying will have the chance to revise that opinion. Simple where it nees to be, complex where it needs to be, a perfect compliment to the screen action without banging the viewer's eardrums half to death.
A simple tale elevated by a master director to the level of art. Recommend.
0 out of 1 people found this helpful.
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What can I say? It's a beautiful film.
Added 9/25/2009
If you enjoyed watching Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, Curse of the Golden Flower, and Hero, chances are you'll end up loving House of Flying Daggers as well. What we have here are some colorful set/costume designs like in Golden Flower, top-notch fight sequences that are about equal to Hero, and a powerful love story that can have the same impact like the one that's found in Hidden Dragon. What is so recognizable about this film, however, is the style and overall beauty. It doesn't have all those long shots of nice scenery, but it still has some beautiful shots of a bamboo forest, a meadow, and other environments that are placed in the background whenever the characters are onscreen. The way the environment is perfectly blended in the drama that's occurring at the moment. This is one fine Martial Arts film that not only has fine action, but also some sheer beauty of the way the director shot certain scenes.
So yeah, you've got a compelling plot, fascinating characters (and great performances from the lead actors), gorgeous shots, and some creative choreography all in a two-hour movie. I fully enjoyed it as much as almost everyone else who reviewed it here at Amazon.
0 out of 0 people found this helpful.
|
A Beautiful Blu-ray Experience
Added 9/10/2009
As a Blu-ray presentation you won't get much better than this. House of Flying Daggers on Blu-ray is a true HD remaster and you will know that as soon as it starts playing. After being burned myself on some BD releases that were barely upgraded from DVD, you can purchase this one with confidence.
Along with a wonderful picture the disc includes an HD audio track in Chinese. If your system can play HD audio then that's the best way to watch this movie, even if you don't like subtitles. It's terrible that all BD releases don't have a HD audio track because it's really eye opening when you listen to it back to back with the regular 5.1.
There are a few extras, though I don't pay attention to them so you'll have to discover them yourself. This film does not use any BD Live functions that I could find.
If you want an entertaining movie that shows off the best your HDTV can offer then you can't go wrong here.
0 out of 0 people found this helpful.
|
terrible quality
Added 8/27/2009
this bluray looks like a dvd scaled up, terrible compression artifacts, what a shame
a movie with such amazing cinematography, production design deserves more, especially considering SOny Released it
which created the bluray format.
0 out of 0 people found this helpful.
|
