Why so much hype?

In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.

Mostly, the movie is committed to the value of a good time.

This is not your typical wuxia martial arts film. It is more of a romance drama with wuxia elements. Beautiful set pieces and design, exciting and artistic choreography, and genuine on-screen chemistry between leads Takeshi Kaneshiro and Zhang Ziyi all combine to create a tragic and heart-wrenching love story with an emotionally satisfying payoff. To that end this movie is a success and I enjoyed it. The problem however is unlike predecessors Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon and Hero the script lacks that suspenseful plot to drive the story forward. And when you have no plot in a love story all you basically get is two people making out the whole time which gets really dull after a while. Think about it. Would Titanic still be considered a classic if you took out the part with the sinking ship and replaced it with more Jack and Rose scenes? Could have easily been a 7 or 8 if the second act wasn't so boring.

I wanted to see this movie for a while because I do enjoy the style of Wu Xia. I enjoyed Hero, Jade Warrior (although I don't think that can be counted because it's a Chinese/Finnish co-production) and I thought Crouching Tiger was okay. Impressed with Yimou Zhang's work I saw this and I actually think it's better than Hero.The plot is that in around 300BC China has this Robin Hood type group called The House Of Flying Daggers who steals from the rich to give to the poor among other criminal activities. A Soldier named Jin helps capture the former leader's blind daughter (Ziyi Zhang) but he falls in love with her and helps her to escape in order to find The House Of Flying Daggers. However it is an elaborate plot by the Chinese government to find the house and put an end to their criminal activities. However along the way things get more complicated then before.If there is any complaint with this movie it's that some of the twists and turns get very convoluted - I'm not going to reveal them but There is about 5 twists in 5 minutes at one point. It's almost like "Okay, enough!" I mean call it a nitpick but I think this movie could have been a little longer to spread these out.Aside from that I love almost everything else - I mean the cinematography isn't as good as Hero but I can see why it was nominated for the Oscar (I mean stuff like the final fight and the fight against the guards in the Bamboo forest - sorry if I screwed the term up is where it shines the best). The story is full of emotion and there is hardly a dumb moment in it. The acting is amazing, I have only seen Andy Lau in Infernal Affairs but he does a good job here and so does Ziyi Zhang and Takeshi Kaneshiro is very good as Jin. The editing in the fight scenes especially does get pretty choppy, I mean although I liked this more than Hero (yes, I said that) Hero does have the better fight scenes ONLY because they're better edited.I would say if you're a fan of this sort of movie - check it out. I mean out of all the Wu Xia films this is easily one of my favourites and definitely the best movie I've seen in a while. I'd say if you want to watch it for the beautiful looking Chinese country-side or the emotion put into the story then this is certainly one I'd recommend to you.

This movie was by no means bad. It was beautifully executed, visually enticing and well acted. The one thing that ruined the entire thing for me though were those ridiculous English dubbed voice overs. It was so distracting that I found it extremely hard to focus on the movie. I don't have a problem with subtitles, a little reading never hurt anybody. Why they felt the need to westernise this movie is beyond me. If I wanted to watch an English movie I would have watched one.The soundtrack for the film complemented the storyline and locations beautifully. In fact, the music was more powerful and descriptive then the spoken words. Everything was extreme and unbelievable but it was hard not to enjoy it. The martial arts were incredible and I didn't even mind that they were over the top.It really is a beautiful movie but if you are going to watch it don't watch the English version.

Its been years now that I watched House of Flying Daggers. Well I must admit that at that time I was experimenting with various stuff and watching this movie would have made no sense unless I really got into it. As days pass we start giving lesser attention to things simply because we are not getting any less busy in life. I watched this movie from start to end, blinking very rarely because the cinematography was so stunning that you would be afraid to miss even a small part of it. The title characters were so mesmerising that they almost felt like magical. Although I had to watch it with English subtitles, every word made sense. The feeling of love, betrayal, honour and pain were so well portrayed... like changing seasons.Don't want to reveal anything. This movie is an absolute visual supernova that leaves you lovestruck and to some extent lovelorn.