Amazon.com

No one uses color like Chinese director Zhang Yimou--movies like Raise the Red Lantern or Hero, though different in tone and subject matter, are drenched in rich, luscious shades of red, blue, yellow, and green. House of Flying Daggers is no exception; if they weren't choreographed with such vigorous imagination, the spectacular action sequences would seem little more than an excuse for vivid hues rippling across the screen. Government officers Leo and Jin (Asian superstars Andy Lau and Takeshi Kaneshiro) set out to destroy an underground rebellion called the House of Flying Daggers (named for their weapon of choice, a curved blade that swoops through the air like a boomerang). Their only chance to find the rebels is a blind women named Mei (Ziyi Zhang, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon) who has some lethal kung fu moves of her own. In the guise of an aspiring rebel, Jin escorts Mei through gorgeous forests and fields that become bloody battlegrounds as soldiers try to kill them both. While arrows and spears of bamboo fly through the air, Mei, Jin, and Leo turn against each other in surprising ways, driven by passion and honor. Zhang's previous action/art film, Hero, sometimes sacrificed momentum for sheer visual beauty; House of Flying Daggers finds a more muscular balance of aesthetic splendor and dazzling swordplay. --Bret Fetzer ... Read more

Reviews (153)

DO NOT buy this crap!
OK! Who the hell gave this movie 4 stars??!! Poor story, poor dialog, poor EVERYTHING!!! This movie sucked. Get stabbed by a dagger and the girl stays alive until the unnecessary long fight between two bad actors is over??!! Come on! This movie is worse than the Hindi crap that comes out of Bollywood. Wish I could give it zero stars, but I can't. Amazon, will you please see that movies of this low quality get zero stars?

Technically breathtaking, but left this viewer a little cold
Zhang Yimou's HOUSE OF FLYING DAGGERS continues where the director's HERO left off: it is a film of immense visual beauty and amazing choreography, supporting a plot with melodramatic elements to it. But whereas HERO could conceivably, amidst the dazzling imagistic pageantry and big emotions, be interpreted as a political statement (the film ends with a ruler having to sacrifice a hero for what he considers the greater cause of unifying feudal China), HOUSE OF FLYING DAGGERS is content to be romantic melodrama, plain and simple.

Personally, I kinda prefer the extra intellectual and thematic stimulation offered by HERO. At the end of that film, you really had something to think about; at the end of HOUSE OF FLYING DAGGERS...well, the story is over (and a song sung in English by soprano Kathleen Battle plays over the closing credits). Nothing of great consequence, I felt, had really happened in this film; it is basically one ravishing image and one amazing fight sequence following another, interspersed with (admittedly well-acted) moments of intimacy or high drama. If Zhang Yimou was aiming for thematic subtlety in HERO, here he goes for operatic emotions and visual spectacle. And for all its technical brilliance, the whole thing ultimately left me a little cold---maybe a bit too melodramatic and soapy for my taste.

That is a very personal reaction, of course. The technical brilliance Zhang Yimou brings to HOUSE OF FLYING DAGGERS is not to be denied; these are some of the most breathtaking (and breathtakingly filmed) fight sequences seen since the last notable "wuxia" film, Ang Lee's CROUCHING TIGER, HIDDEN DRAGON. And the actors bring as much conviction as possible to their basically two-dimensional characters: certainly, as House of Flying Daggers member Mei, Ziyi Zhang brings convincing passion to her role, as do Takeshi Kaneshiro and Andy Lau as, respectively Jin and Leo, two police deputies who rescue Mei from prison and try to trick her into bringing them to the House of Flying Daggers to stop their rebelliousness once and for all.

Perhaps the best way to appreciate HOUSE OF FLYING DAGGERS is to look at it as a cinematic opera. Zhang Yimou is clearly not afraid to work on a big canvas, and he brings all the big emotions and spectacular sights he can to tell his melodramatic story. Those who go into this film expecting to be dazzled will most likely be satisfied; it is a genuine technical marvel. For me, though, I was expecting more substance to the film than it delivered. HOUSE OF FLYING DAGGERS may be more purely enjoyable than HERO, but the latter, to me, is a much more interesting movie than this one.

Super Cool Movie!!!
The action and special effects sequences in this movie are incredibly fun to watch.Zhang Ziyi is flawless as usual, and her perfomance and beauty justifies buying this DVD in itself.

Great cinematography, weak story
Genre: Foreign, Martial Arts, Romance

Genre Grade: B+

Final Grade: A-

This was another great film from Chinese director Yimou Zhang. Although not even close to comparing to his last film, Hero, it still was a great movie. Zhang is an artist, it is as simple as that. His locations are perfect, the colors are vibrant, and the characters are passionate. This is much more a love story than anything. It offers some good surprises concerning the characters and keeps the mystery of the "House of Flying Daggers" a secret to even the viewers. Actress Ziyi Zhang should learn to speak English because she could be a huge star in the United States.

I recommend this film to anyone who enjoyed Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon or Hero. It is dubbed in English so you don't have to read subtitles if you don't want to.

stunning
Yimou is a true artist of cinema. Hero and House of Flying Daggers are beautiful and spiritual adventures in Asian cinema. Both films are remarkable acheivments that are lost on the reviewer who gave this film one star. True art is often missunderstood by the masses. ... Read more

Reviews (59)

Elegant and Powerful Communist Propaganda
This movie is a visual feast. The Chinese government spared no expense in creating it; all-star director Yimou Zhang apparently had everything at his disposal: a super star (Jet Li), an excellent supporting cast, unlimited costume expenses, and the full array of Hollywood digital imagery. More than just action and elegant Chinese cultural imagery, this film is a bold statement to the world: China is once again its cultural center.

Unfortunately, money does not always buy happiness. Despite the beautiful imagery, the story is brazenly unoriginal, taking its principle technique from Kurasawa's 1950 breakout film Rashomon, and much of its wuxia energy from Ang Lee's Taiwanese sensation of 2000, Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon. To the simple-minded, I think it fails as an action picture, and to the sophisticated, its moral push is far from certainly digestible. Neither do any of the actors succeed in endearing themselves to us. Its greatest strength is its beautiful imagery.

I recently watched Alexander Nevsky, the famous Soviet propaganda film. Viewed today, its intent is obvious and clumsily applied. I watched Ying Xiong, or "Hero", well into the second hour before I realized that I was watching a modern version of that same old communist template. What are the messages here?
A) Look Out: China is bigger than life and is ready to take its rightful place as the center of the world.
B) All under Heaven: union is not bad, it is in fact noble and unselfish, supporting the common good (Cantonese Hong Kong and Mandarin Taiwan take note).
C) The National Government is working for the common good: "They call me a tyrant", the emperor says scornfully, as he laments the fact they ignore the burdens he must bear for their own good.
The film tries to appeal to the values of common decency in order to support these latter two points: killing is wrong, selfish grudges are wrong, excessive resentment is wrong, etc. It seems to accept and mildly promote individualism, although not allowing it to trump collectivism.

I admit that even as an American, I cannot quickly digest these complex moral questions and make an immediate assessment as to their worthiness. For a Chinese person, I assume this film has been even more powerful. The pride evoked from its bold nationalist statement may further push them towards accord. Hence its value as propaganda has probably been quite strong. I think that ultimately the value of this film as a classic will be decided by the prevalent answer to these moral questions, and my suspicion is that history will not look favorably on the direction in which it pushes viewers to think.

An intimate epic
"Hero" is a very ambitious film, attempting to combine quiet introspective philosophy with visually stunning action and pageantry. It is like an intimate epic. The scope is grand to say the least, with full armies on the march as well as intense and magical personal duels, all of which serves as decoration to the Buddhist philosophy being put forward.

It is very beautiful, and this is probably the first thing to be noticed. The various elements, actors, scenery and colors all combine to create a visual splendor. It is a very painterly movie, a feast for the eyes. Specifically, color is used to create moods and to differentiate the various storylines. If the visuals are painterly, then the Martial Arts are dancerly, along the same line as "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon," to which inevitable comparisons must be drawn. The actors are equally beautiful as well, and "Hero, truly a feast for the eyes, could probably be enjoyed in this manner, without any dialog.

Storywise, it is a variation on the familiar "Rashomon" theme of "what is the truth?" The same story is told and re-told, each time moving closer to the purity of truth, and with truth comes enlightenment. This is an intimate tale, a quiet verbal duel between an Emperor, so fearsome and lonely than no human can approach within one hundred paces of him, and a nameless subject, who might just be a true hero. Between them, a story is told of epic engagements, artists and warriors, and what is actually worth fighting and dying for.

I won't spoil too much of the story, as part of "Hero's" strength and insight lies in discovery. That is not to say that it is full of surprises and twist endings, but rather that, like all Buddhist insight, the answer of the movies riddle lies as much in the viewer as in the actors.

rebuttal to JUSTAREADER & Other Naysayers
Western movie studios like to spoonfeed the story to the audience and have an ending that provides closure. Asian movies tend to be more ambigious & leave the conclusion more open-ended to allow the audience to walk away "thinking" about the consequences of the actions of the movie characters.

The wire kung fu is meant to be an expression of the inner turmoils that play within the character's heart and mind. Suspending your belief in reality would have to take place to accept the incredibly artistic fight scenes in this movie or just about every other action movie ever made like Spiderman or ID4. At least enjoy the beautiful camera work and use of colors in this movie instead of thinking about "too many pretentious but self-indulgent thought-to-be poetically beautified scenes".

The "peking opera styled slow talking dialogue" is used effectively in my opinion. JUSTAREADER may not be a fan of this type of dialog but everybody has their own opinion.

Zhang Yimou used the story of the Qin Emperor only as an outlet much like Passions of the Christ. Many will not agree with the portrayal of the Qin Emperor in Hero or the portrayal of Christ in Passions but it made its point.

I agree that the Qin Emperor is not as "benevolent" as Hero suggests but this is a fictional story meant to convey the conflicts of the characters - the sacrifices made for self and country and the eternal question "does the ends justify the means"?

Boring movies don't move the audience and just passes 2 hours of their lives. It's the reaction I get after attempting to watch Dreamcatcher, Road Trip, or Day After Tommorrow.

Great movies provoke a reaction from the audience. This is a great movie with great visuals and cinematography. It got a reaction out of the "love it" and "hate it" camp! It wasn't a simple "love it" or "hate it" review.

Some of the best movies and music are derivatives of others. Example: Led Zeppelin and Aerosmith just borrowed from the blues and garage rock; Hero borrows from Rashomon; the list can go on and on forever. So to call Hero an unoriginal movie is an oxymoron because every movie copies from earlier movies.

Not all westerners are "simple-minded". People who just want simple Kung Fu movie or action movie with no plot will be bored to death and will find the movie "too complicated for westerners." For those of us who want something more than movies like Garfield or Starsky & Hutch will more than likely enjoy Hero.

Must see
This is a truly beautiful film. I own the import version and this film delivers on all scores. Maggie Cheung and Tony Leung give outstanding performances as the two lovers Flying Snow and Broken Sword. Jet Li is fantastic as Nameless.
If you love Hong Kong cinema this is a must see

too poetically unfocused, too complicated for the westerners
this is a very dark but also very pretentiously directed and performed swordsmanship movie. the chinese philosophy would put off mucho western viewers, 'cause the values in the orient and what we got in the west are totally different, i.e., the ends justify the means, or the means justify the ends. to not to assassin a tyrant and allow him a great opportunity to conquer all the other small feudal warlords and unify the whole china, in a larger vision, might save more peoples' lives than letting all the warlords killing each other and their subjects year after year....so what's the choice of the way-too-deep philosophic assassin in the last second and to face a doomed consequence? the director has tried too hard to express his own montage philosophy, his own interpretation of what should be done and only by himself in such genre to surpass the crappy oscar winning crouching tiger had achieved only one thing: a somehow and somewhat boring staged show instead of an exciting movie, with too many slow motion scenes, too many wired suspension, too many pretentious but self-indulgent thought-to-be poetically beautified scenes, with a too narrow minded and one-sided chinese philosophy delivered in a peking opera styled slow talking dialogue to grandize the butchering tyrant of all time in ancient china who later became the only role model of the modern time chairman mao, conquered all the warlords and took the advantage of generalismo chiang kai-shek's enduring war against the invading japanese of the world war II, and later the pathetic and horrible cultrual revolution in china, the rude-awakening of the chinese holocaust.
this is somewhat a mediocre and even a quite lousy film made and should not be made by the legendary chang yi-mou. ... Read more

Amazon.com

One of the best films of 1994, To Live is a bold, energetic masterpiece from Zhang Yimou, the foremost director from China's influential "fifth generation" of filmmakers. Continuing his brilliant collaboration with China's best-known actress Gong Li (their previous films include Ju Dou and Raise the Red Lantern), Zhang weaves an ambitious tapestry of personal and political events, following the struggles of an impoverished husband and wife (Ge You, Gong Li) from their heyday in the 1940s to the hardships that accompanied the Cultural Revolution in the 1960s. They raise two children amidst a Communist regime, surviving numerous setbacks and yet managing, somehow, to live. Both intimate and epic, Zhang's film encompasses the simplest and most profound realities of Chinese life during this controversial period, and for their honesty, Zhang and Gong Li faced a two-year ban on future collaborations. To Live is a testament to their art, transcending politics to celebrate the tenacity of ordinary people in the wake of turbulent history. --Jeff Shannon ... Read more

Reviews (68)

A Stirring, Emotional Portrayl of Bitter Times in China
"To Live" was the first Asian film I saw and awed me tremendously. The film is truly a piece of cinematic art. Its acting is supurb - of all the Zhang Yimou films I have seen (four or five) this is the best acted. Gong Li and You Ge give fabulous performances, with excellent body language and characterization.

The story, like Chen Kaige's "Farewell My Concubine" (also a portrayl of Chinese history, with more emphasis on the people than the history), follows people through the Communist Revolution, the Great Leap Forward, and the Cultural Revolution, all highly influential events in Modern Chinese history. (If you are unfamiliar with these events, the first is when the Communists took over China; the GLF is when the country tried to increase production through very extreme measures and failed horribly; the Cultural Revolution was an entire social reorganization aimed to stir up the passions of the people and to weed out Capitalists.)

Anyhoo, the people are Jiazhen (Gong Li) and Fugui (You Ge), husband and wife. In the beginning, Fugui bets away his entire family fortune, which eventually saves them from being labelled Capitalists by the Communists. More events transpire - including two tragic deaths that could have destroyed Jiazhen and Fugui's family for good - until finally thirty years of revolution and tragedy bring them to the 1970's.

In addition to the beauty of the film, the soundtrack by Zhao Jiping is incredible, and almost makes me cry from its sheer power.

This film is truly a winner!

An illustration of a will to live/survive
To Live takes place mid century in China just after the second world war. The story line follows the Xu family and the hardships that befalls them.

It illustrates to what lengths people had to adapt and convert to in order to survive under Communist rule (especially during the cultural revolution). Old friends and even family had to form divisive lines between themselves in order to save themselves from possible prosecution.

The acting and the interactions of the three main protagonists Li Gong, You Ge and Deng Fei are masterful and stirring. To Live is as good a film representing that time period as any other. Definitely on the same plateau as Farewell My Concubine

Stunning; poignant
I have shown this film to my English students after having read Dai Sijie's book, BALZAC AND THE LITTLE CHINESE SEAMSTRESS, because of the portrayal of communism and the effects of the Chinese "cultural revolution". While it at first appears to be loaded with communist propoganda, it becomes apparent by the end of the film that it is an outspoken criticism of Mao and this harsh period of recent Chinese history.

Aside from the political overtones, this is also a masterful study of overcoming loss and adversity that transcends cultural or political boundaries. While my students almost invariably complain about the subtitles at the beginning of the showing, by the end, they have been completely drawn in, and are laughing and crying on cue. If this isn't the true test of a great flick, I don't know what is.

A masterpiece, and one that everyone should see.

Disappointment
This film completely butchers, rearranges, and rewerites an incredibly moving novel. I suggest that you read the book first.

6 Stars +
To Live is a masterful project and deserves the best praises for foreign cinema. It touches every emotion possible in its depiction of one family's faults and successes; life as it might have been in the midst of political chaos. To Live maps the losses and gains of Fugui and Jiazhen--an average young couple moving through China. It's difficult to discuss the turns and movement without spoiling the movie. However, I will say the couple we encounter in the 1940s and end with in the 1960s is triumphant and tells a story never to be forgotten. Highly Recommended!!!!!! ... Read more

Amazon.com

No one uses color like Chinese director Zhang Yimou--movies like Raise the Red Lantern or Hero, though different in tone and subject matter, are drenched in rich, luscious shades of red, blue, yellow, and green. House of Flying Daggers is no exception; if they weren't choreographed with such vigorous imagination, the spectacular action sequences would seem little more than an excuse for vivid hues rippling across the screen. Government officers Leo and Jin (Asian superstars Andy Lau and Takeshi Kaneshiro) set out to destroy an underground rebellion called the House of Flying Daggers (named for their weapon of choice, a curved blade that swoops through the air like a boomerang). Their only chance to find the rebels is a blind women named Mei (Ziyi Zhang, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon) who has some lethal kung fu moves of her own. In the guise of an aspiring rebel, Jin escorts Mei through gorgeous forests and fields that become bloody battlegrounds as soldiers try to kill them both. While arrows and spears of bamboo fly through the air, Mei, Jin, and Leo turn against each other in surprising ways, driven by passion and honor. Zhang's previous action/art film, Hero, sometimes sacrificed momentum for sheer visual beauty; House of Flying Daggers finds a more muscular balance of aesthetic splendor and dazzling swordplay. --Bret Fetzer ... Read more

Reviews (153)

DO NOT buy this crap!
OK! Who the hell gave this movie 4 stars??!! Poor story, poor dialog, poor EVERYTHING!!! This movie sucked. Get stabbed by a dagger and the girl stays alive until the unnecessary long fight between two bad actors is over??!! Come on! This movie is worse than the Hindi crap that comes out of Bollywood. Wish I could give it zero stars, but I can't. Amazon, will you please see that movies of this low quality get zero stars?

Technically breathtaking, but left this viewer a little cold
Zhang Yimou's HOUSE OF FLYING DAGGERS continues where the director's HERO left off: it is a film of immense visual beauty and amazing choreography, supporting a plot with melodramatic elements to it. But whereas HERO could conceivably, amidst the dazzling imagistic pageantry and big emotions, be interpreted as a political statement (the film ends with a ruler having to sacrifice a hero for what he considers the greater cause of unifying feudal China), HOUSE OF FLYING DAGGERS is content to be romantic melodrama, plain and simple.

Personally, I kinda prefer the extra intellectual and thematic stimulation offered by HERO. At the end of that film, you really had something to think about; at the end of HOUSE OF FLYING DAGGERS...well, the story is over (and a song sung in English by soprano Kathleen Battle plays over the closing credits). Nothing of great consequence, I felt, had really happened in this film; it is basically one ravishing image and one amazing fight sequence following another, interspersed with (admittedly well-acted) moments of intimacy or high drama. If Zhang Yimou was aiming for thematic subtlety in HERO, here he goes for operatic emotions and visual spectacle. And for all its technical brilliance, the whole thing ultimately left me a little cold---maybe a bit too melodramatic and soapy for my taste.

That is a very personal reaction, of course. The technical brilliance Zhang Yimou brings to HOUSE OF FLYING DAGGERS is not to be denied; these are some of the most breathtaking (and breathtakingly filmed) fight sequences seen since the last notable "wuxia" film, Ang Lee's CROUCHING TIGER, HIDDEN DRAGON. And the actors bring as much conviction as possible to their basically two-dimensional characters: certainly, as House of Flying Daggers member Mei, Ziyi Zhang brings convincing passion to her role, as do Takeshi Kaneshiro and Andy Lau as, respectively Jin and Leo, two police deputies who rescue Mei from prison and try to trick her into bringing them to the House of Flying Daggers to stop their rebelliousness once and for all.

Perhaps the best way to appreciate HOUSE OF FLYING DAGGERS is to look at it as a cinematic opera. Zhang Yimou is clearly not afraid to work on a big canvas, and he brings all the big emotions and spectacular sights he can to tell his melodramatic story. Those who go into this film expecting to be dazzled will most likely be satisfied; it is a genuine technical marvel. For me, though, I was expecting more substance to the film than it delivered. HOUSE OF FLYING DAGGERS may be more purely enjoyable than HERO, but the latter, to me, is a much more interesting movie than this one.

Super Cool Movie!!!
The action and special effects sequences in this movie are incredibly fun to watch.Zhang Ziyi is flawless as usual, and her perfomance and beauty justifies buying this DVD in itself.

Great cinematography, weak story
Genre: Foreign, Martial Arts, Romance

Genre Grade: B+

Final Grade: A-

This was another great film from Chinese director Yimou Zhang. Although not even close to comparing to his last film, Hero, it still was a great movie. Zhang is an artist, it is as simple as that. His locations are perfect, the colors are vibrant, and the characters are passionate. This is much more a love story than anything. It offers some good surprises concerning the characters and keeps the mystery of the "House of Flying Daggers" a secret to even the viewers. Actress Ziyi Zhang should learn to speak English because she could be a huge star in the United States.

I recommend this film to anyone who enjoyed Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon or Hero. It is dubbed in English so you don't have to read subtitles if you don't want to.

stunning
Yimou is a true artist of cinema. Hero and House of Flying Daggers are beautiful and spiritual adventures in Asian cinema. Both films are remarkable acheivments that are lost on the reviewer who gave this film one star. True art is often missunderstood by the masses. ... Read more

Amazon.com

No one uses color like Chinese director Zhang Yimou--movies like Raise the Red Lantern or Hero, though different in tone and subject matter, are drenched in rich, luscious shades of red, blue, yellow, and green. House of Flying Daggers is no exception; if they weren't choreographed with such vigorous imagination, the spectacular action sequences would seem little more than an excuse for vivid hues rippling across the screen. Government officers Leo and Jin (Asian superstars Andy Lau and Takeshi Kaneshiro) set out to destroy an underground rebellion called the House of Flying Daggers (named for their weapon of choice, a curved blade that swoops through the air like a boomerang). Their only chance to find the rebels is a blind women named Mei (Ziyi Zhang, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon) who has some lethal kung fu moves of her own. In the guise of an aspiring rebel, Jin escorts Mei through gorgeous forests and fields that become bloody battlegrounds as soldiers try to kill them both. While arrows and spears of bamboo fly through the air, Mei, Jin, and Leo turn against each other in surprising ways, driven by passion and honor. Zhang's previous action/art film, Hero, sometimes sacrificed momentum for sheer visual beauty; House of Flying Daggers finds a more muscular balance of aesthetic splendor and dazzling swordplay. --Bret Fetzer ... Read more

Reviews (153)

DO NOT buy this crap!
OK! Who the hell gave this movie 4 stars??!! Poor story, poor dialog, poor EVERYTHING!!! This movie sucked. Get stabbed by a dagger and the girl stays alive until the unnecessary long fight between two bad actors is over??!! Come on! This movie is worse than the Hindi crap that comes out of Bollywood. Wish I could give it zero stars, but I can't. Amazon, will you please see that movies of this low quality get zero stars?

Technically breathtaking, but left this viewer a little cold
Zhang Yimou's HOUSE OF FLYING DAGGERS continues where the director's HERO left off: it is a film of immense visual beauty and amazing choreography, supporting a plot with melodramatic elements to it. But whereas HERO could conceivably, amidst the dazzling imagistic pageantry and big emotions, be interpreted as a political statement (the film ends with a ruler having to sacrifice a hero for what he considers the greater cause of unifying feudal China), HOUSE OF FLYING DAGGERS is content to be romantic melodrama, plain and simple.

Personally, I kinda prefer the extra intellectual and thematic stimulation offered by HERO. At the end of that film, you really had something to think about; at the end of HOUSE OF FLYING DAGGERS...well, the story is over (and a song sung in English by soprano Kathleen Battle plays over the closing credits). Nothing of great consequence, I felt, had really happened in this film; it is basically one ravishing image and one amazing fight sequence following another, interspersed with (admittedly well-acted) moments of intimacy or high drama. If Zhang Yimou was aiming for thematic subtlety in HERO, here he goes for operatic emotions and visual spectacle. And for all its technical brilliance, the whole thing ultimately left me a little cold---maybe a bit too melodramatic and soapy for my taste.

That is a very personal reaction, of course. The technical brilliance Zhang Yimou brings to HOUSE OF FLYING DAGGERS is not to be denied; these are some of the most breathtaking (and breathtakingly filmed) fight sequences seen since the last notable "wuxia" film, Ang Lee's CROUCHING TIGER, HIDDEN DRAGON. And the actors bring as much conviction as possible to their basically two-dimensional characters: certainly, as House of Flying Daggers member Mei, Ziyi Zhang brings convincing passion to her role, as do Takeshi Kaneshiro and Andy Lau as, respectively Jin and Leo, two police deputies who rescue Mei from prison and try to trick her into bringing them to the House of Flying Daggers to stop their rebelliousness once and for all.

Perhaps the best way to appreciate HOUSE OF FLYING DAGGERS is to look at it as a cinematic opera. Zhang Yimou is clearly not afraid to work on a big canvas, and he brings all the big emotions and spectacular sights he can to tell his melodramatic story. Those who go into this film expecting to be dazzled will most likely be satisfied; it is a genuine technical marvel. For me, though, I was expecting more substance to the film than it delivered. HOUSE OF FLYING DAGGERS may be more purely enjoyable than HERO, but the latter, to me, is a much more interesting movie than this one.

Super Cool Movie!!!
The action and special effects sequences in this movie are incredibly fun to watch.Zhang Ziyi is flawless as usual, and her perfomance and beauty justifies buying this DVD in itself.

Great cinematography, weak story
Genre: Foreign, Martial Arts, Romance

Genre Grade: B+

Final Grade: A-

This was another great film from Chinese director Yimou Zhang. Although not even close to comparing to his last film, Hero, it still was a great movie. Zhang is an artist, it is as simple as that. His locations are perfect, the colors are vibrant, and the characters are passionate. This is much more a love story than anything. It offers some good surprises concerning the characters and keeps the mystery of the "House of Flying Daggers" a secret to even the viewers. Actress Ziyi Zhang should learn to speak English because she could be a huge star in the United States.

I recommend this film to anyone who enjoyed Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon or Hero. It is dubbed in English so you don't have to read subtitles if you don't want to.

stunning
Yimou is a true artist of cinema. Hero and House of Flying Daggers are beautiful and spiritual adventures in Asian cinema. Both films are remarkable acheivments that are lost on the reviewer who gave this film one star. True art is often missunderstood by the masses. ... Read more

Amazon.com

Director Zhang Yimou brings the sumptuous visual style of his previous films (Raise the Red Lantern, Shanghai Triad) to the high-kicking kung fu genre. A nameless warrior (Jet Li, Romeo Must Die, Once Upon a Time in China) arrives at an emperor's palace with three weapons, each belonging to a famous assassin who had sworn to kill the emperor. As the nameless man spins out his story--and the emperor presents his own interpretation of what might really have happened--each episode is drenched in red, blue, white or another dominant color. Hero combines sweeping cinematography and superb performances from the cream of the Hong Kong cinema (Maggie Cheung, Irma Vep, Comrades: Almost a Love Story; Tony Leung Chiu-Wai, In the Mood for Love, Hard Boiled; and Zhang Ziyi, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon). The result is stunning, a dazzling action movie with an emotional richness that deepens with every step. --Bret Fetzer ... Read more

Reviews (310)

Thrilling Hero
With "Hero" and "House of Flying Daggers" director Zhang Yimou has jettisoned to the forefront of filmmakers working today.There is no denying that Yimou has a distinctively strong visual style.That said, if it's all style and no substance, so what?"Hero" is blessed with a good narrative.Essentially, the theme of the film is what defines a hero.The answers that Yimou offers are both surprising and enlightening.Strong cast that includes Jet Li and Ziyi Zhang.Essential viewing.

Beautiful Film, but where was Jet Li?
Okay, Zhang Yimou is one of the all-time great film directors and i love his movies, though this one came across as a Disney cartoon done in real-life. My main complaint is that he didn't give Jet much to do. The part of the so-called Hero was a wooden, 2-dimensional character who wasn't on screen much. Instead, the story is really a visual tapestry of how China became united, without much dialog. Whatever. Great for kids, I guess.

Pure Visual Poetry: Story, Myth, Heart, Emotion, & Beauty
Okay, people...let's get a hold of ourselves.Many have knocked the martial arts sequences in HERO as being horribly unrealistic and that this fact has ruined the movie.Nothing could be further from the truth.True, the martial arts in this film are not the "realistic" acrobatics of Jackie Chan.Instead, it is pure visual poetry.These martial arts sequences are absolutely beautiful to watch.Anyone that can watch them without coming away with a sense of awe is just plain blind in my book.

In fact, that goes for the entire movie.HERO is one of the most gorgeous films I have seen in a long time.Not only are the sequences superb, but the scenic locations are also breathtaking.Moreover, the extensive use of color is astounding.While watching it, I felt completely transported into a different world and found myself lost in the film's sheer beauty.Furthermore, the mythical story is extremely complex, interweaving several themes & variations of the central plot.The audience gradually discovers the truth of this film and it continued to surprise me throughout its length.

I am not sure why so many people did not like this film.I can only guess that they were expecting a pure-action film with Jet Li taking on a country, "Rambo" style.I, for one, am happy that we were treated to something more.HERO has plot, heart, emotion, and style.And let us not forget the outstanding action it does provide: the action sequences in this film are some of the best ever captured on film.Highly recommended.

Not sure what multiple narratives is for
Basically, I think the graphic, plot, and theme all work fine and those who enjoy plays should be able to enjoy this movie as well (at least, I do). A major part of the movie, i think, is devoted to delineating and discovering of perspectives (narratives, you might say) related to the proper fate of China proper. In the end, a supposedly supported perspectives is revealed and the death of some characters might represent the painful but necessary abdication/self-annihilation for a better future. Even if there can be a better future, it necessarily involves an excruciating self-negating process. Something passionate, tender, free or even righteous must be given up. I'm not sure if every character and plot fits into this major theme very well because some do seem a little bit distracting, but still entertaining (nothing really needs to make sense as long as you like it).
Some might think the implied theme of reunification is a serious problem. I wouldn't totally agree with it for the reason the emperor wants to unify China and three characters give up assasinating him is for the longer peace of China. "If you want peace, prepare for war." This is from Punisher, but it explains the logic well. However, I seriously doubt that the director made this movie to condemn Chinese nationalism, though I don't know if any trace of anti-cosmopolitanism is obvious in it.
Anyway, graphic is cool, plot acceptable, theme...a little bit cliche, and, because the theme cliche, the use of multiple narrative might seem childlish and rather less challenging. But for those who really have no idea about Chinese history during the end of Chou dynasty and the present situation between the strait, it might be interesting. That is why I gave it three stars. If I have know zero about China, I might give it four and a half.

I didn't see the point of the movie
This movie basically tells one story in a few different ways.A warrior and friends are attempting to kill the emperor.That is about it for plot.There are several martial arts scences in this movie, but most of them are just too unbelievable.In one scene, the main character single handedly stops hundreds of arrows without even getting hit once.This is impossible, and that is coming from someone who used to watch DragonBall Z.

There are also to many inane comparison of fighting to various things.Fighting is compared to music and to caligraphy, which both have nothing to do with fighting.The is even a long, drawn out story plot in the movie involving caligraphy, which I found really boring and did not really feel that it served a purpose in the movie.

The ending of this movie is also very disappointing.I'm not going to ruin it, but I will say that it made the movie seem rather pointless.I really don't know why the main character was considered a hero, and frankly think that the movie was too limited on plot and did not even have a good story to begin with. ... Read more

Amazon.com

At the start of the most recent film from Chinese director Zhang Yimou (Raise the Red Lantern, Ju Dou, Shanghai Triad), a young man returns to his native village after the death of his father, the village's schoolteacher, who died while trying to raise money for a new schoolhouse. His body is in a neighboring town; the young man's mother insists that it be brought back on foot, lest his spirit not find his way home. From this starting point, the young man recounts the tale of his parents' courtship, which involved a red banner, mushroom dumplings, a colorful barrette, and a broken bowl. The Road Home is beautifully filmed, particularly the luminous face of Zhang Ziyi (from Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon), whose performance is a heartrending portrait of hope and yearning. A simple but deeply emotional film. --Bret Fetzer ... Read more

Reviews (92)

A simple, yet wholly moving and beautiful film.
Eclipsing any romantic comedy or drama from Hollywood in the last 30 years, The Road Home achieves so much by doing very little. Master filmmaker Zhang Yimou successfully captures what it's really like to fall in love for the first time through his use of cinematography (sumptuous as always), unparalleled attention to detail, and, as always, a super strong cast (spearheaded by relative newcomer, the beautiful Zhang Ziyi). Unlike most romance movies, there is no love-making in this film. There is no kissing. The characters show their love through little things that we often take for granted: preparing food, giving small yet meaningful gifts, and other gestures. Like most of Zhang Yimou's films, there is relatively little music, however, the music that is there is perfect. It rises to the occasion when needed and dies down when not.
All of the elements of this film work together like clockwork...better than clockwork. It manages to get its message across more than western romances through uncomparable use of setting and shot framing, costume and make-up, lighting (with some brilliantly-back lit shots of the actors), and figure behavior.
Now about the DVD. This is a film whose setting was meant to be seen only in widescreen. The picture holds up well both in sun-lit outdoor conditions and slightly darker indoor scenes. The voices are set at a nice level and when the score hits its high note, the sound is heavenly...even through a plain Dolby Surround system.
Plain and simple, this is a film which should not be passed up.

A romantic fantasy with a universal theme
This 1999 Chinese movie is directed by Zhang Yimou, who also brought us "Raise the Red Lantern". It stars Zhang Ziyi, the beautiful young actress who, the following year , received international fame in the well received "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon". "The Road Home" is a beautiful film, a romantic fantasy with a universal theme.

The first fifteen minutes and the last fifteen minutes are shot in black and white, bookending the story within the story. It is set in a remote village in China, where the land is beautiful and it always seems to be winter. The schoolteacher has died in a distant city. And his widow wants to follow tradition and have his body carried home for burial. At first her son, an engineer in the city who has rushed home, is reluctant to make arrangement for this, but later agrees and her wishes are carried out.

This is not the main story though. Between these two black and white segments, there is another story, filmed in vivid color. It is the story of the mother and father's romance. It is sweet and touching and beautiful. The schoolteacher is only 20 years old. The girl is only 18. We watch them fall in love, suffer a separation, and then come back to each other. And this is all told without any physical contact between the two. It's a "feel good" story all the way.

I enjoyed the film and the simple story. And I also enjoyed the view of life in China and the fine cinematography. Recommended.

A gorgeous, sweet love story
This is one of the most deeply moving films I have seen in a very long while. The story is sweet and meaningful, and the acting is absolutely exquisite. This film is lovely and quiet, beautifully filmed, and restrained.

One of the things that impressed me about the movie is the obvious acting talents of Zhang Ziyi, the actress who played Jen in Crouching Tiger. If you think you'll even recognize her in this role, I challenge you to see the movie to find even one remnant of Jen in her character. She is an excellent actress and conveys realms of thought and feeling without saying a single word.

If you're hoping for a fast-paced, run-of-the-mill movie you won't absorb, see something else. See 'The Road Home' if you want gorgeous and rich cinema.

spiritual
Zhang Ziyi's performance in "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" had me wondering, out of all the stellar cast involved, who this was who had me the most impressed. I researched her filmography and came across "THE ROAD HOME". Mind you, I'm mostly a fight-it-out, special-effects, action movie fan who had my reservations about getting it once I finally found someplace to buy it. I rented first and I had no regrets afterwards.
Great films done properly can tell a simple story and hold the attention of the audience if one chooses to do so. This is a great example. Scenic vistas, compelling acting and a moving story has made this a favorite of my movie collection. Without saying too much (as the previous reviews have already done so), I will recommend at least everyone rent this. It doesn't have a huge budget, no CGI, no gun-toting and no foul language. What does that leave? A movie like they used to make 'em.

OH MY GOD
OH OH OH OH OH OH OH,MY GOD ,WHAT IS THIS ,I LOVE THIS MOVIE,VERY BEAUTIFUL,THIS IS MY FAVOR,YIMOU ZHANG THE BEST FILM MAKER IN THE WORLD.HE DID A GREAT WORK ... Read more

Amazon.com

Zhang Yimou's (Raise the Red Lantern) tale of a pluckyadolescent substitute teacher in a rural Chinese village, cast entirely withnonactors and shot on location, is an astute example of censorship politics.Taking on touchy issues with a veneer of can-do spirit and happy-endingfantasy, his film is at once rousing and eye-opening. Wei Minzhi is astubborn young woman who takes a substitute teaching job in a tiny provincialtown because they can't afford anyone else. When one troublemaking boy headsoff to the city to help support his starving family, it's not a sense ofresponsibility that drives her rescue mission, it's money: She won't receiveher bonus if any students are missing. Her efforts to raise money for thecity trip pulls the class together in a sense of purpose, and even drives thelessons, but when she finally reaches the city she's shocked to discover anurban jungle of lost and runaway kids. Yimou shoots with an easy naturalismthat suggests a well-intentioned docudrama in spots, due to narrativecontrivances and a few self-conscious performances, but his compromisesultimately make his shocking look at China's rural poverty, adolescentworkers, urban juvenile homelessness, and woefully underfunded educationalsystem more potent. In the heat of the film's uplifting climax, theonce-mischievous boy pulls the film back down to earth with his reflection on hisbig-city adventure: "I had to beg for food. I'll never forgetthat." --Sean Axmaker ... Read more

Reviews (46)

a heart-warming film
This film was apparently based on the true story of a 13 year old girl, Wei, who was recruited to take over a rural classroom for one month while the teacher is on family medical leave. The teacher tells her that too many kids are dropping out of school and that if no kids have dropped out when he returns, she will get an additional 10 yuan reward in addition to the 50 yuan that the mayor has promised her. When one of the boys goes off to the city to earn money for his destitute family, Wei goes after him. When she arrives in the city she finds that the boy became separated from his traveling companions at the bus station and nobody knows where he is; he is lost and wandering the city alone begging strangers for food and sleeping in alleys. Wei is determined to find the boy, but why? Is it for the reward or does she actually care about him? It seems she was initially motivated by the reward but then later when she realized he was lost it touched her heart and she wanted to find him. The child actors were so cute and natural, I enjoyed their performances. A charming story with a happy ending.

Less is More
Zhang Yimou lifts the vail and provides a wonderous glimpse into life in rural China. The movie tells the story of a young girl who must take over a small rural school while the regular teacher goes away to take care of family matters. If upon the return of the teacher there is "Not One Less" student, she will be paid, but if she looses any of her pupils, the money she so desperately needs will be forfeit. She is soon tested as she finds students are torn between going to school and obligations to help their families tend the land. The young girl, Wei Minzeh, who has no previous acting experience is stunningly sweet, incredibly determined, and savy. It is hard to imagine why she was not nominated for Best Actress. The Director did much more than expose life in China to the outsiders view, he showed the universality of human traits such as indifference, bureaucratic thinking and finally compassion. Ulitimately one realizes that this movie could have just as easily been filmed in West Virginia, Maine or the farmlands of California.

GOOD
WHAT CAN I SAY?IT IS VERY GOOD.I LOVE THE MOVIE.IT IS MY FAVOR,GREAT WOEK

Another Great Film from Zhang Yimou
I really think that Zhang Yimou is the best director alive today. While in a sense he has dropped off from his ultra classic early dramatic collaborations with Gong Li (Red Sorghum, Ju Dou, Raise the Red Lantern, Qiu Jou, To Live, Shanghai Triad), I still find the humble films of this middle stage of his career to be heartwarming and engrossing in a most subtle way. Happy Times, The Road Home, and Not One Less are all simple films that manage to express and evoke a surprising depth of sympathy and emotion, much like Frank Capra was able to do during the classic era of American cinema with films like It's a Wonderful Life, It Happened One Night, and Mr. Smith Goes to Washington. And the fact that Not One Less was done with non-actors is a triumph not only for their success but also for the innovative courage that Zhang continues to display. Many consider films like this to be evidence of Zhang's fall from grace. On the contrary, I think they show why he is so great. How could he improve upon Raise the Red Lantern, the veritable Casablanca of Chinese cinema? Rather than continuing with similar films, he made the bold move to forge other paths. The next phase of his career will apparently be wuxia films. I have a feeling it is there where his name will come back into the popular radar abroad. Not that he should be concerned, as he's done very well without it, as the future will surely show...

A quasi-realistic fairy tale of modern China
Wei Minzhi (played by Wei Minzhi, essentially playing herself) is a 13-year-old peasant girl pressed into being "Teacher Wei" at a small rural elementary school when the regular teacher must take a month off. She knows one song (a Maoist propaganda song) and that not very well. She hasn't a clue about how to manage a classroom. Her arithmetic is suspect and her people skills are those of a self-centered beginner. It's not even clear that she wants to do the job. In fact she seems more concerned about the 50 yuan she's supposed to get than anything else.

Thus acclaimed Chinese film maker Zhang Yimou sets the stage for a most compelling fairy tale which illustrates how the determined spirit of a little girl might triumph over poverty, ignorance, and the hard-headed reality of the post-Maoist bureaucratic society.

And is she determined! She is given 30 pieces of chalk and warned not to waste any of it. The lesson plans are to copy some lessons on the chalkboard and to get the students to copy the copy. That's it! Both the regular teacher and the town's mayor point to the other as the one who will pay her. When the regular teacher starts to leave without paying her, she chases after him. She is told she will get paid when he returns, and if all the students are still enrolled, she will get a ten-yuan bonus.

Thus we have the movie's title and the source of "Teacher Wei's" determination. When one little girl is picked to go to a sports camp because she can run, Wei hides her from the authorities. When Zhang Huike, the class trouble-maker (played by Zhang Huike), quits school and heads for the city to find work, Wei schemes ways to get him and bring him back.

At this point the magic begins. With this common goal both teacher and the kids figure out ways to raise money to send Wei by bus to the city and back. They figure the cost for Wei's round trip and for Zhang Huike's one-way trip back, with the kids themselves taking the initiative at the chalkboard with the math. Wei makes them empty their pocketbooks, and when there is not enough she takes them on a field trip to a brick-making factory and together they move bricks to raise the cash. Again they calculate how many bricks they must move at so many "cents" per brick.

I mention all this because what is demonstrated, by the by, is some real teaching and learning taking place. In fact the mayor comes by and peeks into the classroom and is delighted to see that the substitute teacher knows how to teach math!

This sequence of events is very moving and is at the heart of the film. Any teacher anywhere in the world will recognize how brilliantly this is done. The kids become so eager to learn that they learn effortlessly, which is the way it is supposed to be. Furthermore, one of the phenomena of the profession is exemplified: that of the real teacher learning more (partly because she is older) than the students from the lessons they encounter.

Now, it is true that director Zhang Yimou does not show us the real poverty that exists in China nor does he point to the horrid dangers encountered by children who go to the city to work. Neither the little boy nor Teacher Wei is preyed upon in the manner we might fear. Recapitulations of the baser instincts of human beings are not part of Zhang Yimou's purpose here. This is in fact a movie that can be viewed by children, who will, I suspect, identify very strongly with the story. Zhang Yimou is talking to the child in all of us and he does it without preaching or through any didactic manipulation of adult verses child values. It is true he does manipulate our hearts to some degree, but with all the ugliness that one sees in the world today, perhaps he can be allowed this indulgence.

Although I would not say that this film is as good as Zhang Yimou's internationally celebrated films such as Red Sorghum (1987) (his first film) or Raise the Red Lantern (1991) (which I think is his best film) or The Story of Qiu Ju (1991) (which this film resembles to some extent), it is nonetheless a fine work of art exemplifying Zhang Yimou's beautiful and graceful style and his deep love for his characters and their struggles. And as always his work rises above and exists in a place outside of political propaganda as does the work of all great artists.

Perhaps more than anything else, however, one should see this movie to delight in the unselfconscious, natural, and utterly convincing "amateur" performance by Wei Minzhi as a most determined and brave little girl. She will win your heart. ... Read more

Reviews (27)

Chilling
Critics have tended to give this film the thumbs down finding it a bit to commercial. The director Zhang Yimou is better known for dramatic social realist type films, such as raise the Red Lantern.

However Shaghai tried gets you in from the moment it starts. The opening scene shows Gong Li the star belting out a number in a way that exudes sex and style. The film is seen through the eyes of a young boy who is sent by his family to work with a criminal gang. His first job is to serve the Gong Li character.

An attempt is made on the life of the mob boss and the characters have to move to a small island to set a trap for those who pursue them. A trap which works all too well.

The film is an extremely effective gangster film. Probably it is effective because such films set in a western context have explored every known configuration of cliches so that it is necessary to move to another culture to make the genre work. However work it does, the film is chilling and the final resolution is unexpected.

Part of the attraction of the film apart from the ability of the director to create atmosphere is the performance of Gong Li who is as ever astounding.

A DVD zone GONG LI
I'm not so sure that SHANGHAI TRIAD is Zhang Yimou's best movie, I personally prefer the drama HAPPY TIMES. But, what is certain, is that Gong Li gave in this movie one of her most luminous interpretations. The musical score and the singing acts of SHANGHAI TRIAD are a sufficient reason to keep the movie in one's library.

Beware, SHANGHAI TRIAD is not your regular action film. The scenes that would have been the highlight of an european or an american movie such as the attack of the Tang headquarter or the siege of the island where the boss of the Tang family have retired, are deliberately absent of the movie or just evoked by shadows.

So let's enjoy the always interesting descriptions of the Chinese psychology that reach their highest point in the last scenes of SHANGHAI TRIAD when the gang boss Tang rubs out for a while his eternal smile and condemns the traitors to an inhuman death. Absolutely chilling since the execution of the sentence, that concerns two of the main characters of the film, will not be shown to us.

I LIKE THIS MOVIE
OH THE MOVIE IS VERY GOOD,YOU NEVER SEEN,IT IS BETTER THEN HAPPY TOGETHER.YOU HAVE TO SEE.

Great
I'm not much for the style of Chinese movies. Many of them are just overly dramatized to the point where it's somewhat funny. Nevertheless, I do check on IMDB for the highest rated ones and watch them in hopes of finding a gem. This one one of those gems.

"You will die as white as a lily."
The film, "Shanghai Triad" from Chinese director, Yimou Zhang, is a week in the life of 14 year-old Shuisheng Tang--a country boy who is sent from the provinces to live in decadent Shanghai in the 30s as a servant to a glamourous nightclub singer named Bijou (Li Gong). Bijou is the beautiful, spoiled, petulant, bored mistress of "The Boss"--arguably the most powerful man in Shanghai and head of the Tang family triad. Bijou, who is prone to unpredictable temper tantrums, isn't thrilled to have yet another member of the Tang family in her presence, and so Shuisheng becomes the recipient of Bijou's sporadic cruelty and spiteful mirth.

Shuisheng is told by his Uncle Lui that the Boss surrounds himself with Tang family members, and serving "Miss" is Shuisheng's chance to be "somebody" in Shanghai. Uncle Liu instructs Shuisheng--and tells him basically--that a servant is to be unobtrusive, subservient and the recipient of whatever treatment is doled out.

It's clear that Shuisheng has landed in the middle of a very bad situation, and he is both fascinated and terrified by the exquisitely beautiful Bijou. Although Shuisheng actually has very few lines in this film, his feelings are mirrored in his eyes. As a servant, he can't express his feelings or even show them, but his eyes never lie. His situation is complicated by his Uncle's obsequience that covers only contempt for Bijou. Shuisheng isn't really capable of the sort of duplicity his Uncle has mastered.

While Shuisheng's is fascinated with Bijou, he isn't mature enough to analyze her behaviour--that's for the viewer to do. She is obviously a bitterly unhappy woman--nothing more or less than a exotic pet kept in a gilded cage by a man old enough to be her grandfather. Her unhappiness shows in her random cruelties, and in the humilation she suffers from being Tang's mistress. The Boss may have installed her in a beautiful home, but she's there to serve--only as long as the Boss wills it, and she may be a nightclub singer, but her songs are picked for her, and the Boss troops his friends to her performances so they can envy him. As the precariousness of Bijou's situation becomes clearer, she becomes a more sympathetic character.

"Shanghai Triad" is not widely accepted as Yimou Zhang's best film (with Li Gong), and indeed it is not an easy thing for me to select an Zhang/Gong collaboration as my absolute favorite--"Ju-Dou," "Raise the Red Lantern," "Red Sorghum"--other Zhang films which star Li Gong--are all perfect, unforgettable films--no argument there. However, of them all, "Shanghai Triad" has a special appeal for me. It is the character of Bijou and the relationship she has with Shuisheng that makes "Shanghai Triad" my favourite Yimou Zhang film. Critics blasted "Shanghai Triad" for containing too many scenes with Li Gong singing. I thought the nightclub scenes were integral to the story, and I didn't consider this overdone. Seeing the beautiful Li Gong dressed up in rather ridiculous outfits singing rather pathetic little songs that pleased the Boss served to underscore her position as the 'pet'--she performed only to please, and amuse, and then her use was ended. There is a sort of inevitability to this film, and the sense of the inescapable and hopelessness of one's fate looms throughout the film. Visually, the film was stunning. Some of the photography--especially in the island scenes--were some of the best I've ever seen--displacedhuman. ... Read more

Reviews (17)

Bitter-sweet story
There was a time when I longed to see another Zhang Yimou film. His greatest films, "Raise the Red Lantern," "Shanghai Triad," "Ju-dou," and "Red Sorghum" are--without a doubt--some of the richest cinematic experiences--and I'll stress the word "experiences" that I've EVER had.

But something happened to Zhang Yimou, and his artistry--as perhaps one of the greatest directors of all time--waned. Was it perhaps because he lost his muse, Gong Li, star of "Shanghai Triad" and "Raise the Red Lantern"? Many professional reviewers speculate that Gong Li's departure is the cause for Yimou's artistic slump, but regardless of the cause, Yimou seems to be on the rise again with this film "Happy Times."

Zhao (Bensahn Zhao), an unemployed, middle-aged lonely factory worker longs for a wife. After being jilted 18 times, he decides to marry an unpleasant, domineering divorcee. While friends scoff at photographs of Zhao's large new fiancee, Zhao defends her rubenesque proportions by stating that the other 18 women left him because they were skinny, and as this fiancee is far from skinny, Zhao believes she will stay put and marry him.

Zhao, in order to impress the divorcee, brags that as the manager of the "Happy Times" hotel, he is fairly well-to-do. Problems develop when the divorcee contends that they need 50,000 yen in order to get married in style, and this is when Zhao starts to involve his friends in his relationship. Acting on the advice of his best friend (who also has no money), Zhao refurbishes an abandoned bus as a romantic retreat for lovers with the idea that the lovers will pay for their privacy.

The divorcee, who really is a most unpleasant character, decides that the non-existent "Happy Times" hotel would be the perfect place to dump her unwanted blind step-daughter, Ying, and before Zhao realizes it, he is responsible for the neglected, frail blind teenage girl. Zhao's faulty logic, accompanied by his unrelenting desire to please and placate his nasty fiancee lead to further fabrications and eventually to disaster.

The title of the DVD, "Happy Times," is ironic--just as the "Happy Times" hotel does not exist, there are also really no "happy times" for any of the characters in this film. Happiness remains elusive--or exists in the imagination, at best. Zhao's make-believe hotel--a metaphor for life--is really only a gutted, abandoned bus that serves as a tacky love nest. Similarly, happy times for Zhao and Ying are elusive and fleeting moments spent eating an ice cream, and describing the colours and patterns in a dress. There is no lasting happiness in reality, and yet indulging in fabrications and make-believe ultimately also brings unhappiness to those who indulge in fantasies.

Heart rending
My university's east asian cultures department is showing an east asian movie every friday for a month and this was the first one shown. I finished watching this movie a little over an hour ago, and it still is affecting me.

It is about a lonely man named Zhao who is trying for the 18th time to get the perfect wife who he thinks he has found in quite a large woman with an obnoxious son, and a blind step daughter. Zhao tells the woman that he owns a hotel and that he has the money pouring in. What he has in fact is an old bus that young couples frequent to make out in.

The woman hates her step daughter and dumps the girl on Zhao. In order to keep up his appearance as a wealthy man he builds a fake massage parlor along with a group of his friends who are also out of work. The girl Mu(?) is happy working with Zhao, but of course things don't stay that way.

I loved themain character Zhao from the instant he appeared on the screen he is just a very likeable guy. But one does feel pretty bad for the yung girl who is not wanted by her step mother or her father. She finds olace with a middle age man who keeps her just to put up appearnces. The ending will leave you in tears once you see how Zhao and the girl's relationship grows.

Perfect
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I've long been a film buff - my favorite films tend to be artsy and rather pedantic. Because of this, my family generally doesn't like to sit with me and watch movies.

So, when I started "Happy Times" last night, I thought they'd gradually wander off and find something else to do.

But, they were enthralled! This movie is the perfect balancing act between comedy, drama, and the enduring love we feel for those who have touched us in a special way.

This is a great, great movie.

Too many Americans shun foreign films. This is one they shouldn't miss. When the movie ended, my oldest son turned to me and said, "Wow. I think Hollywood has forgotten how to make movies like this!"

American filmmakers seem to think they have to descend to the baser instincts in order to make "adult" movies.

Yet, "Happy Times" - and countless other foreign films - never seem to sink to this level. These films are always excellent.

I think the issue is that Hollywood has forgotten how to write a good story; they've forgotten that basic human values can be enduring, can be entertaining, if only they would jettison their cynical baggage.

"Happy Times" will make you laugh and cry, smile and reflect with pride on the better angels of our nature.

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IT IS MY FAVOR
I DO NOT KNOW HOW TO SAY,BUT IT IS REALLY GOOD,I LIKE IT VERY MUCH

Happy viewing, at least.
Zhang Yimou's ironically titled *Happy Times* is really a remarkable tightrope act: it offers us some very sappy melodrama while commenting on its own artifices, and gets away with it like a charming thief. Get a load of this plot. . . . A fat divorcee with two teenagers -- her own boy and a blind, unwanted step-daughter left behind by her ex-husband -- gets involved with an unemployed proletarian named Zhao. Zhao, depressed, broke, and lonely, claims he's a big-shot hotelier in order to impress the divorcee, who turns out to be very hard to impress. Hence, Zhao's lies -- as one might expect -- become more grandiose and difficult to sustain, especially after the divorcee dumps the unwanted blind girl onto his doorstep. "I'm sure you can find SOME work for her at your fancy hotel!" the woman declares. Zhao hits upon the idea of hiring the girl as a masseuse for the imaginary hotel's wealthy guests. But how is he going to pull THIS off? Desperately, he lets the girl stay in his shabby apartment, which he claims is a "worker's apartment" -- his OWN place, of course, is some unspecified mansion elsewhere. Of course, by now he's forced to get his fellow-unemployed friends in on the act: they pose as the wealthy guests and receive massages from the girl in a decrepit factory that they have hastily dressed up as a massage parlor at the "hotel". Once these jobless pensioners run out of real disposable income, they tip her with rectangular cuttings from brown paper bags instead of money. This all sounds very cruel, I know, but just watch the movie: Zhao and his friends come to feel a deep fondness for the poor wretch, who -- you guessed it -- just wants to find her father somewhere in Beijing so that he can pay for a procedure to cure her blindness. This whole set-up -- poor man, blind girl, and their unlikely friendship -- could so easily slide down toward appalling sentimentality. But Zhang Yimou avoids that by making his characters well-rounded: selfish one minute, solicitous the next; hopeful one minute, suicidal the next; comic one minute, tragic the next. The story requires an artist to negotiate the narrative through the pitfalls of cliches that would otherwise sink it. But then, there aren't too many directors equal to Zhang Yimou's artistry, anyway. And here's a tip to the filmmakers out there: don't mistake the manipulative plot devices in *Happy Times* for universal situations. This is a story that could only happen in China. Therefore, no "loose remakes", please. Leave it alone. ... Read more

Reviews (17)

Like a Greek tragedy
The title character, a peasant sold as a concubine to a cruel old man, is played by the beautiful Gong Li, one of the great actresses of our time who followed this brilliant work with spectacular performances in The Story of Qiu Ju (1991), Raise the Red Lantern (1992), and Farewell, My Concubine (1993). Li Wei plays her master, Yang Jin-shan, the childless owner of a dye mill in the agrarian China of the 1920s. Li Wei's fine performance combines craftiness with iniquity reminding me a little of the late great John Huston with scruffy beard. The third character in the tragic triangle is Jin-shan's nephew, Yang Tianqing, a modest man who does most of the work in the dye mill. The pent-up intensity of Li Baotian, who plays Tianqing, recalled to me at times the work of Ben Kingsley. Ju Dou falls in love with Tianqing almost by default, and it is their ill-fated love that leads to tragedy.

In some ways this visually stunning, psychologically brutal film about paternity and the old social order of China was Director Zhang Yimou's "practice" for the making two years later of his masterpiece, the afore mentioned, Raise the Red Lantern, one the greatest films ever made. The theme of patriarchal privilege is similar, and in both films Gong Li portrays a young concubine required to bear a son and heir to a cruel and ageing man of means. Even though the setting in both films is China in the twenties before the rise of Communism, both films very much annoyed the ageing leadership of Communist China and were censured (Ju Dou was actually banned), ostensibly for moral reasons, but more obviously because of the way they depicted elderly men in positions of power.

Ju Dou is the lesser film only in the sense that Sirius might outshine the sun were the two stars placed side by side. Both films are masterpieces, but for me Ju Dou was difficult to watch because of the overt cruelty of the master, whereas in Raise the Red Lantern, Yimou chose to keep the more brutal aspects of the story off camera. In a sense, then, Raise the Red Lantern is the more subtle film. It is also a film of greater scope involving more characters, infused with an underlining sense of something close to black humor. (The very lighting of the lanterns was slyly amusing as it ironically pointed to the subjugation.)

In Ju Dou there is virtually no humor and the emphasis is on the physical brutality of life under the patriarchal social order. Ju Dou is beaten and tortured while we learn that Jin-shan tortured his previous wives to death because of their failure to bear him an heir. The terrible irony is that it is Jin-shan who is sterile. He feels shamed in the eyes of his ancestors because the Wang line will die out with him. But a child is finally born through Ju Dou's illicit affair with Tianqing. (Note that this conjoining in effect saves Ju Dou's life.) Jin-shan thinks the infant is his son and briefly all is serenity. However, while two may live happily ever after, three will not. Notice too that now that Jin-shan has an heir, nephew Tianqing will inherit nothing.

Will they kill Jin-shan? Will fortuitous events put him out of the picture? Will they find happiness? Will the boy learn the truth about his paternity? Yimou's artistry does not allow superficial resolution, you can be sure.

Note the two significant turns the film takes early on. One comes after Ju Dou discovers that Tianqing has been spying on her through a peep hole as she goes about her bath. At first she is mortified, and then sees this as a chance to show him the scars from the torture she endures daily, and then she shows him her body to allure him. The other turn comes as the child pronounces his first words by calling the old man "Daddy." Instantly Jin-shan, now confined to a wooden bucket that serves as a wheelchair, divines a deep psychological plan to realize his revenge. He embraces the child as his own, hoping to turn the boy against the illicit couple.

The strength of the film is in the fine acting, the beautiful sets, the gorgeous camera work, and in the unsentimental story that does not compromise or cater to saccharin or simplistic expectations. Yimou is a visual master who turns the wood gear- and donkey-driven dye mill of the 1920s into a tapestry of brilliant color and texture. Notable is the fine work that he does with the two boys who play the son at different ages. He has them remain virtually mute throughout and almost autistically cold. Indeed part of the power of this film comes from the depiction of the character of the son who grows up to hate who he is and acts out his hatred in murderous violence toward those around him.

Zhang Yimou is one of the few directors who can bring simultaneously to the silver screen the power of an epic and the subtlety of a character study. His films are more beautiful than the most lavish Hollywood productions and as artistically satisfying as the best in world cinema. The only weakness in the film is perhaps the ending which is played like a Greek tragedy for cathartic effect. One senses that Yimou and co-director Yang Fengliang in choosing the terminus were not entirely sure how this tale should end and took what might be seen as an easy way out.

A tragic Chinese love story starring Gong Li
I would hesitate to qualify "Ju Dou" as erotic in the traditional Western sense of the word, but that may just be because the tragedy of this tale overwhelms the sensuality. The title character, played by Gong Li, is married off to the brutal owner of a dye mill in rural China in the 1920's who treats his wife as badly as he treats his nephew. In their misery the pair turn to each other and when Ju Dou is pregnant and bears a son, they have to pretend the boy is her husband's. However, their hidden love is just a tragedy waiting to happen and even the death of the old man does not provide any real happiness. "Ju Dou" is essentially a horror film, whose middle act happens to be a romance. But the way the uncle treats his nephew and how the nephew and Ju Dou pay for their love, will stand out in your memory more than the supposedly erotic middle section.

I am not sure I am willing to call "Ju Dou" director Yimou Zhang's best film (co-directed by Yang Fengliang), but like all of his films it is fascinating to watch. It does make the best use of the Technicolor equipment China bought from the U.S., especially as they work on dying all that fabric. The bright colors are truly spectacular. Although "Ju Dou" was the first Chinese film to be nominated for the Best Foreign Film Oscar, it was banned in China by the government. The assumption is because since the film is about an impotent old man ruining the lives of those under him the people would see it as a metaphor for a nation ruled by a bunch of old men. This is one of those take it or leave it levels of symbolism since the film is obviously not didactic.

WHAT IS THIS ,
WHAT IS THAT,THE MOVIE IS VERY GOOD ,THE BEST OF THE YEARS.

JU DO ,MY FAVORITE
JU DO ,MY LOVE ,I HAVE SEEN THE MOVIE 5 TIMES ,I NEVER SEE MOVIE LIKE THAT.THIS IS VERY GOOD,GREAT WORK.IT IS GOOD TO HAVE.

Spectacular Chinese cinematic experience
Ju Dou showcases the talents of both Zhang Yimou, its director, and Gong Li, its female protagonist. This was the first Zhang Yimou movie that I saw and it created a taste in me for more of such films. Zhang Yimou deals with complex human issues that has no easy resolution. Your patience with reading the subtitles will be rewarded. ... Read more

Reviews (21)

A parable of modern China
This is a story about saving face and winning face, and what can happen if you carry things too far. Gong Li stars as Qiu Ju, a peasant woman with child whose husband is kicked in the groin by the local chief. She wants an apology. The chief of course will not apologize since he would then lose face. Both are stubborn and obstinate. Proud and determined, Qiu Ju steers her way through the bureaucracy from the village to the district to the city; but the thing she desires, an apology from the chief, eludes her. He cannot apologize because he has only sired daughters. He has license (he believes in his heart) because he was insulted by her husband who said he raised "only hens."

The Chinese locales, from village roads to big city avenues are presented with stunning clarity so that the color and the sense of life is vivid and compelling. Director Zhang Yimou. forces us to see. From the opening shot of the mass of people in the city walking toward us (out of which emerges Qiu Ju) to the feast celebrating the child's first month of life near the end, we feel the humanity of the great mass of the Chinese people.

In a sense this is a gentle satire of the bureaucratic state that modern China has become. But Zhang Yimou emphasizes the bounty of China and not its poverty. There is a sense of abundance with the corn drying in the eaves, the sheets of dough being cut into noodles, the fat cows on the roads and the bright red chili drying in the sun. There is snow on the ground and the roads are unpaved, but there is an idyllic feeling of warmth emanating from the people. One gets the idea that fairness and tolerance will prevail.

In another sense, this is a parable about the price of things and how that differs from what is really of value. So often is price mentioned in the movie that I can tell you that a yuan at the time of the movie was worth about a dollar in its buying power. (Four and a half yuan for a "pound" of chili; five yuan as a fair price for a short cab ride; twenty yuan for a legal letter.) Getting justice in the strict sense is what Qiu Ju demands. Her affable husband would settle for a lot less. He is the wiser of the two. Notice how Qiu Ju is acutely sensitive to price. She bargains well and avoids most of the rip offs of the big city. But what is the value of being a member of the community? This is a lesson she needs to learn, and, as the movie ends, she does.

Good Movie
I first saw Gong Li in "Raise the Red Lantern" So I had to see this one.
Here she plays a pregnant peasant woman, wife of a chili farmer. Who receives a kick in the groin, from the village chief. Because he believes the farmer insulted him.
Qiu Ju is hell bent on getting an apology for her husband. She is more determined in this than her husband.

The chief offers money but throws it on the ground, saying then she will be forced to bow to him as she picks it up. She refuses.

She sells their chilies a little at a time for money to travel to the city, to see if justice can be got there. But she's a country woman with not much city experience or money, can she do it?

I won't spoil the ending---- Good movie.

Yimou's Most Thoughtful Film
Zhang Yimou's "The Story of Qiu Ju" is not a masterpiece as is his film "Raise the Red Lantern." It doesn't have the epic qualities of "To Live" nor is it as visually stunning as "The Road Home." But "Qiu Ju" may well be Yimou's most thought provoking film, leaving you pondering the messages a long time after the film has ended.

Qiu Ju's husband has been kicked ("where it counts") by the village chief. The only bit of justice Qiu Ju wants is an apology. It seems to be a simple enough request, but her search for the apology proves to be elusive as she encounters a legal system more interested in its own red tape than in the needs of ordinary people.

But this is not "Erin Brockovich" where the sides of "good" and "bad" are easily defined. The people in the legal system Qiu Ju encounters are genuinely decent folks. They are also, unfortunately, a bit clueless. And Qiu Ju is not beyond reproach herself. At the conclusion of the film even she is realizing that she has pushed the matter too far.

Just how far should one go to seek justice in this world? Even if you are totally in the right, does there come a time when you must let the matter rest for your own sake as well as everybody else's? There are no easy answers.

This is another great performance by Gong Li in the title role. She may be one of the most beautiful women in the world, but here she is not above playing "dowdy." And as usual, Zhang Yimou is nearly flawless in his direction. He gives a wonderful tip of the hat to the late French director Francois Truffaut in the end, echoing that famous final shot of Truffaut's "The 400 Blows."

But this is a film that will stick with you well past that last shot.

OUTSTANDING in all respects
I viewed this film on a CVD without benefit of subtitles and had to rely on a Cantonese speaking colleague to translate the Chinese subtitles. It was well worth the inconvenience (for both of us). It is a simple story that takes on comic proportions as the stubborn protagonist pursues her concept of justice through the snakelike pathways of the bureaucracy to an unexpected outcome - a universal problem that is as much in evidence in a democracy such as North America as it is anywhere.

I lived in Hong Kong for twenty years ('66 - '86) and experienced only the farcical soap operas etc of the Hong Kong film industry. This production was an eye opener for me of the high quality that exists in Chinese films. It set me on a trail of discovery that has resulted in a substantial number of Chinese films on DVD gracing my bookshelf (some produced by Hong Kong companies - Shaw Brothers (HK))

Gong Li plays the role of the relentless, stubborn housewife superbly and is an actress who has built herself a solid reputation for excellence for her roles in many films. For a contrasting role by this brilliant star, I recommend Shanghai Triad.

The film is also expertly crafted and shows how much can be done with a simple story in the hands of skilled film makers. This is also true of Shanghai Triad which I also remember for its music and photography.

Some of the other Chinese films I admire are The Road Home, The King of Masks and Farewell My Concubine (which paved the way for me to the Peking opera The Peony Pavillion).

I eagerly await the release of The Story of Qiu Ju for the North American market so it too can