The House of Flying Daggers

I received this film over the holiday break, and finally got a chance to watch it last night.

It's a very nice Chinese film, made by Zhang Yimou, the same director that did Hero and Raise the Red Lantern. This film is just as amazing in its imagery as Hero, and the story is just as interesting. It is subtitled, which is a feature I'm glad for. You just can't get the same tonal inflection that occurs when English speaking actors dub over the film. While some of the visual effects are quite nice (the scenes in the bamboo jungle), others did need a lot of work, like almost all of the flying dagger blades that appear in the film. Ziyi Zhang plays a great role in this film as a blind brothel dancer, and is the only cast member which I have seen in more films than the other Chinese actors present.