I’m surprised there’s no thread on this yet. It was a great movie. Much, much better than Crouching Tiger. I am trying to think of something to comment on without giving away a plot twist but I can’t.
There is a slight Romeo & Juliet parallel going on but it’s not strong enough to make you cry “ripoff”. My only disppointment was that it turned out to be a tragedy, and I had already seen two other tragedies earlier the same day.
Comments?
I dont really think HOFD is a good movie. It actually should be nominated as the worst movie of the year. The ending of that movie has nothing to do with what’s going during the movie. I dont see any connections there ? Do you ?
I really liked Hero but I haven’t seen HOFD yet. I hope I get the chance.
Once the chase got under way, you could see them questioning their loyalties - that turned out to be the struggle for much of the movie. What looked at first like a romantic subplot turned out to be the movie’s raison detre. I am glad it didn’t turn out to be a large scale conflict movie as the beginning suggested. Is that what you were looking for, a Bruce Lee flick from start to finish?
I liked HOFD. Not sure I liked it more than Hero or CTHD though.
Yes, Patty O’Furniture, I could see that the pursuit we watched had more going on than immediately met the eye. Tragedy was inevitable. I am not an expert on this genre, but it seems very operatic, and tragic endings seem to be expected.
EXACTLY.
The first half of the movie was excellent, I bought it for the costumes/dancing alone.
The second half…well, it just got weird. But that’s Chinese movies for you.
I’m glad I’m not the real-esate agent. “Well, yes, we do have a flying-dagger problem, but as long as you have quick reflexes, you’ll get used to it pretty quickly. That stain on the floor? Ummm, that’s raspberry jelly, the last tenent must have dropped it.”
To me, HoFD seemed lackluster compared to both CTHD and Hero. The plot was missing something. I think there needed to be more character development, because I just didn’t have any empathy for the characters. In the other two movies, I had a feeling for the characters’ motivations, but in HoFD, the actions seemed too unpredictable. Maybe a result of the many loyalty twists.
And the martial arts were just lackluster, although I now rate Zhang Ziyi as clearly one of the best female martial arts actresses. (Below only Michelle Yeoh.) Nothing that new or interesting or especially well done.
Hero was awful.
Instead of concentrating on the good ol’ fighting, they kept doing all those stupid artsy shots in slow-mo and stuff.
Or how about the stupid dream shots?
I liked HOFD better than Hero. Way, way better.
That artsy stuff was to set up the drama and character development. Hero did an excellent job of expanding the characters, HoFD did not, in my opinion. There was a core of a good plot, but ended up too haphazard. And the fighting wasn’t that good, either.
CTHD easily tops them both, showing the perfect balance of martial arts combat (top notch) and delving into character motivations.
I didn’t like Daggers at all, and while I’m no big fan of wuxia melodrama, I liked CTHD a lot and I LOVED Hero - one of the greatest non-Tolkienesque fantasy films ever, IMO. But this new film was inferior to the director’s previous work in every way. The plot was inane, the characters made no sense and the fight scenes were over-choreographed and unexciting. It was just a Jerry Bruckheimer film with wire-fu and gorgeous cinematography instead of big explosions.
I also realize something else: Ziyi Zhang annoys the crap out of me. Despite the nonstop critical praise, I’ve seen no evidence she can actually act. She has two states: either underacting, where she’s as dully blank as a dollar-store china doll; or overacting, which means either a) petulent rage or b) choking back tears. And she isn’t all that attractive, either. Sure, she’s gorgeous, but with her perfect lineless face she’s not that interesting. I’d much rather watch Michelle Yeoh or the sublime Maggie Cheung. They’re much more compelling - and sexy - than she is. This is the first time I’ve seen her in a film with neither of them, and she just can’t carry the movie herself.
I just didn’t like the ending of CTHD, but again, Chinese fairy tales are a lot different from what the US cinema has come to expect. And I thought the girl - Ziyi Zhang, is it? - I thought her character was quite flawed.
Quite frankly, I thought Hero was ridiculous. But you can see how each person has a different take on it, and reacts to it, so perhaps they didn’t fail at all.
I thought HOFD was an excellent movie, better than Hero (which felt more like Chinese gov’t propoganda than wuxia opera-style cinema), but not as good as Crouching Tiger. I largely agree with Patty’s assement of this, except that it’s not better than Crouching Tiger.
Without giving too much away, the twists and betrayal were more believeable than Hero, but not as realistic as CTHD. Both Hero and HOFD needed to have their characters more fleshed out. Also, with all due respect to Western audiences, wuxia is an acquired taste, awesome feats of martial arts notwithstanding.
Oh, and it’s one thing trying to sell a house with flying daggers, but how does a real estate agent explain away the sudden change in weather patterns?
Lastly, for shame to anyone who tries to diss the future Mrs. Mazinger-Z (Zhang Ziyi).
You can have your little porceline doll. I’d rather have a woman like Yeoh or Cheung.
I have to agree with Alessan on this. Zhang is just plain. She has the moves, but doesn’t act particularly well. I enjoy watching her, but Yeoh and Cheung are much more interesting. And while Zhang moves as a dancer, Yeoh has moves like a fighter. I wish she got more press in the West.
BTW, I noticed that HoFD was dedicated to Anita Mui, and sure enough, she died of cervical cancer last December (I hadn’t known). Too bad.
I saw sCTHD and Hero, and must confess, along with all the Hong Kong/Wo Ping-choreographed or -inspred stuff, I’m pretty much past my saturation point with high-budget Kung Fu movies sporting lots of wire stunts and wooly philosophy. Kill Bill may have put me over the top, I dunno. HoFD will likely be passed over, I’m afraid, as I’m just not a Martial Arts junkie, and don’t think these flicks have much more going for them. CTHD, nominated by many in this thread already as the best of the crop, was stunning visually, but pretty vapid conceptually. It took about three seconds to figure out who the “bad guy” was (it’s not as if the tipping tea cup was the only dead giveaway), and after that it became little more than one pretty fight scene after another, bookended by people spouting more canned Kung Fu nonsense, attempting valiantly to come across as sage and profound. Perhaps too much gets “lost in translation”, but methinks this Kung Fu emperor is kinda naked.
The characters actions in HoFD did not seem consistent withen the context of the storyline on repeat viewing. Sure there were shifts in plot and various backstabbing, but the actions of the characters just did not make sense when you know how it is going to play out.
For example, the initial fighting seen in the “brothel”, what was the purpose of that knowing the nature of the two characters involved? The actions of the police figure just did not make sense given his character.
I thought HoFD was a decent movie, but nothing worthy of praise like CTHD.
Saw this today, and liked it a lot. Nah – I loved it. I haven’t seen Hero, and saw CTHD on video, and that’s undoubtedly a factor – because this was spectacle, pure and simple. The point is to sit there and get lost in the experience, visually but also aurally. (Yes, I did use the words “grok” and “groovy” to the friend I saw it with.) Unlike loopydude, I was too naive to anticipate the unravelling of the plot, so I took it all very much as it came.
And the visuals, my god – the Echo Game, and then the whole chase through the bamboo forest. And the part when they find the leader of the HOFD – those greens, good lord, it was like it was taking place in the heart of an emerald.
Definitely worth seeing on the big screen!
I saw it on the *huge *screen, at the Cinerama in Seattle (where I also saw Hero). The Cinerama makes any movie better.
I enjoyed HOFD, even if the last scenes spun rather out of control. The glorious, magical-realist cinematography and choreography make up for a lot. I loved Hero, liked **CTHD **very much, and will gladly take Michelle Yeoh, Maggie Cheung, *and *Zhang Ziyi, thank you.
On the other hand, as *HOFD *ended my first thought was “Started as Hero, ended as Fargo.”
One other thing I forgot to mention – an odd audience reaction in the final scene.
When Mei stood up the final time after apparently dying. a lot of people laughed. I’m not sure whether it was “excess tension release” laughter or what – but it was probably more than half the audience laughing.