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	House Of Flying Daggers
	Zhang Yimou Takeshi Kaneshiro, Andy Lau, Zhang Ziyi, Dandan Song 2004		Chinese director Zhang Yimou made his name with passionate, intimate dramas including "To Live" and "Raise the Red Lantern," then enhanced the martial-arts genre with his splendiferous epic "Hero." Soaring, whirling kung fu must be intoxicating. For his subsequent film, he went right back to sword-and-gravity-defying hijinks, though he went a little more personal and romantic in tone. While the mind-swirling visuals of "Hero" are revisited, "House of Flying Daggers" is more of a full-on love story. Political intrigue in a bygone era of Chinese history is central to both films, but the multiple-angle storytelling of "Hero" is replaced in "House of Flying Daggers" by a more linear approach. "Daggers" is more fraught with symbolism, too. Zhang Ziyi, the beautiful ingénue of "Hero" and a co-star in the equally sophisticated martial-arts drama "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon," plays Mei, a blind dancer/comfort girl suspected of ties to a revolutionary, Tang Dynasty-era faction known as the House of Flying Daggers. Police deputies Jin (Takeshi Kaneshiro) and Leo (Andy Lau) target Mei as a way to learn more about the Flying Daggers, but they don't expect to contend with her womanly charms and astounding fighting skills. From a remarkable face-off between the sightless Mei and a horde of her enemies to a battle-laden wilderness odyssey, the cinematic dazzle doesn't stop until a perplexing final confrontation.


	Wednesday, December 18, 2024





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