http://imdb.com/title/tt0385004/

House of Flying Daggers is a really really good movie. I was going to use better words, but I'm in the midst of a massive histamine reaction due to unseasonably warm weather combined with the effects of having to live with a dominant species under the influence of impulse-driven consumerism.

Watching HoFD was near-pure joy: The story was engaging, the characters were complex, and one minute to the next, I really wasn't sure what was going to happen. That last point is probably the most important. For a genre where I've seen a number of movies, it is rare to find one where it is not immediately obvious which direction the story will take. We all know the required elements of the Hero/war/love-triangle formula, and there is a certain joy obtained by having a degree of predictability to the course of events. However, when the story unfolds in a way where there are more than one outcomes that would meet the formula, you know you really have a good story.

Visually, the movie was perfect. The look of the film and the staging of the action immediately places you in the world of the film, and establishes the 'rules'.

Speaking of rules, the defining element in this film is the movement of projectiles. Be it fabric, arrows, daggers, bamboo, or a lump of dirt. All have a clearly defined behavior, and those characters who have 'mastered the flying technique', are capable of awesome feats. Thankfully, the filming style avoided using 'bullet time' and used a very smooth 'chaser cam' that followed the daggers from hand to jugular.

Easily one of the best films I've ever seen.

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I write code, so you don't have to

Posted on 20050206 at 03:06 by codeBoy