(no subject)

[graculus]

Anyone who knows me will know that I love martial arts movies, even before blktauna led me astray into the source of evil that is Yesasia.com. ;)

Ask anyone in Europe or America nowadays about martial arts (or at least the historical side of things) and doubtless they'll be talking about three movies in particular: Hero, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and House of Flying Daggers. Anyway, until this weekend, I'd only seen two of those movies and finally got around to watching the third yesterday, the missing one being House of Flying Daggers.

Most people I've heard talking about these three movies seem to have a particular favourite, one that for them is far beyond the others (and for which I'm going to conduct a poll in a minute, so be patient!) and I have to say that House of Flying Daggers could probably never live up to the hype around it. Zhang Yimou has never made a movie in his life that wasn't exquisitely beautiful (and indeed I look forward to his upcoming Chow Yun Fat movie), so it wasn't that, but I just found that unlike the other two movies, I didn't really care what happened to the protagonists, except in feeling sorry for the Andy Lau character, who finds himself betrayed by the woman he loves for a guy she's only known for a couple of days.

And that's where this movie falls down for me, in comparison to Hero and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. I mean, you know if it's a Chinese movie there's a strong chance that everyone will be dead by the end of it, but I'm sure the director would like you to give a damn?

Because I'm curious, here's the poll - please feel free to ignore if you're not into these kind of movies...

[Poll #698270]

Meanwhile, I have Fearless to look forward to, opening in the UK on September 8th. Mmmm. :)

Comments

[nausica2.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I felt the same way about House of flying daggers, it's not as good as the other two, imho.

As for the poll, let me tell you first that it's very cruel of you making us choose between Zhang Yimou and Ang lee. That said, I love Crouching Tiger, hidden dragon, and I love the characters and the story, but Hero is someting else. I guess it's the narrative and the colors and the pain of all the situation. It's breathtaking. Rashomon with colour and more pretty.

[graculus.livejournal.com]

All I kept hearing was how House of Flying Daggers was so much better than Hero and I couldn't see how that could be - perhaps because the narrative is more straightforward and people preferred that to the complexities of Hero? I think the comparison to Rashomon is definitely a valid one, because you really don't know how true any of the stories are until the very end.

As for the comparison, I apologise for my meanness! :P I think the fight sequences in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (particularly the courtyard scene with Michelle Yeoh and Zhang Ziyi) hold up much better in comparison with Hero than anything in House of Flying Daggers does.

[nausica2.livejournal.com]

You have a point, maybe the narrative in Hero makes House of the Flying daggers easier to follow, but the narrative makes Hero a more satisfying watch exactly because of the complexity. That is left to the viewer's appeal, maybe. In my case, I'm fascinated by these kinds of stories that make you put two and two together, so I guess I was sold from the beginning. I was very impressed by Rashomon and Hero struck the same cord.

I also feel that Hero has a more solid story (once you find it out, that is) and the characters are much more appealing and sympathetic. Also the settings... the scholars' school, the "blue" parts next to the lake... Gorgeous and simple at the same time.

I am very fond of the forest fight scene in Hero, but it's true that the courtyard fight in Crouching Tiger, Hidden dragon is better. I also love the final bits in that one, it's very beautiful. Ang Lee has a different approach, and that shows.

[graculus.livejournal.com]

It's definitely the lack of empathy I felt with the characters in House of Flying Daggers that had me thinking 'yes, it's all very pretty but so what?' as the movie progressed. The doomed m-f relationships in the other two movies are equally flawed but to my mind that much more poignant and they seem like real people.

I'd love to see Ang Lee do more wuxia movies, but I'm also looking forward to Zhang Yimou's new one, which ought to be out some time in 2007...

[nausica2.livejournal.com]

Maybe Zhan Yimou's got carried away with the pretty for once. Which is a shame, because I have seen most of his films (even the not wuxia ones) and he always created interesting characters. Raise the red Lantern is a fantastic character study.

We'll see what he does with his next. I also read about the 2007 release, yay!

[lovellama.livejournal.com]

I chose CTHD because I haven't seen the others. But if you're asking my all time favorite, that would be Iron Monkey. :)

[graculus.livejournal.com]

Iron Monkey is an excellent movie as well. :)

[mer1973.livejournal.com]

My prejudiced opinion is that House of Flying Daggers had a more traditional love story that was easier for people to hook into the movie with. I'm also not sure that Crouching Dragon, Hidden Tiger should be in this list since Ang Lee's sensibility is so different from the other director's.

[graculus.livejournal.com]

The three go together, for me, in that they're the three movies in this style that non-genre fans are likely to know of, though you could equally argue that Zhang Yimou's background as more of an arthouse director also separates his two movies from the traditions and background of wuxia, I guess.