After the commercial success of Hero, Zhang Yimou and the same team return to the screens with House of Flying Daggers, also known as Lovers. I was visually hypnotised by the cinematography in Hero, if not the plot, so how does Yimou’s follow up in the same “Wu Xian Pian” genre fare?
Yimou has a great eye for visuals, whether it’s the large, varied landscapes of The Road Home, or the amazing use of strong colour in Hero, Yimou never fails to feed your senses with beauty and imagination. The same can be said for HoFD. The set design, the intricate detail in clothing and environment are quite a sight to behold.
The sense of visual splendour isn’t apparent until a third of the film through, and then we see the film at work with strong colours of green, yellow, red and so on. I have the utmost respect for a director tries to create something different, and in terms of aesthetics, Yimou never fails to impress, and you only have to watch a film like Raise the Red Lantern, or even the rather sombre Qiu Ju to know that colour has strong presence in his work.
In terms of cast, it’s an interesting mix. From Japan there is Takeshi Kaneshiro, who’s started in some big budget Japanese films. Andy Lau is perhaps one of the most popular actor’s and pop artist in China, and then of course there is Zhang Ziyi, currently starring and making a lot of new films, and perhaps could be seen as Gong Li’s successor as Yimou’s favourite leading female.
It is to Yimou’s detriment that the film comes across as style over substance. With Hero, he managed to get away with it, due to solid performances, strong visual flair, and a half decent script
The plot is perhaps more contrived than that of Hero, and the acting leaves a lot to be desired. Lau and Kaneshiro play Captain’s under the control of the Government during the decline of the Tang Dynasty. The Government is trying to suppress rebellion, and one group of rebellions exist in the form of the House of Flying Daggers. A new leader has replaced the one who was executed, and Lau and Kaneshiro decide to plan a trap in order to find out and capture the new leader.
It’s quite disappointing to find a cast so wasted, in a script that neither musters excitement, emotion nor depth. The characters are far from engaging, and provide no basis for the decisions they make during the film. The scene that I suspect was supposed to be suspenseful and poetic at the end, comes across as a tragic comedy. I slapped my forehead in disbelief at the stupidity, and abysmal acting that played in front of my eyes.
Andy Lau is not a great actor. He always needs someone with more weight, with more conviction to play along side him in order to come across as real. On his own, or with someone who isn’t really an acting stalwart, Lau comes off as pedestrian and never really manages to evoke any sympathy for his situation. Even Zhang Ziyi (who grows with every film as an actress, and surely someone to keep an eye on for future films) takes two steps back in acting terms, displaying a mediocre and inept performance.
Rather than building on Hero’s average-but-entertaining base, Yimou seems to have gone all out for style over substance, with a cast that just doesn’t cut it in terms of acting. The wire work is at times comic, but when it works, it is incredible, and there are many examples of positive wire work. Fighting is a mixture of wires, CGI and incredible over use of the bloody slow motion button. I like to watch fights that are fluid, AI don’t mind them being poetry in motion, with slow down here and there; but when it happens every three seconds, in order to accentuate the need for style, it starts to grate, and you begin to hope that they will actually let the fight continue at pace rather than continually breaking up with unnecessary slow down.
The use of CGI works well most of the time too. When daggers are flying, they work well against the backdrop of real actors and environments, and rather than looking stupid, it looks spectacular. There are, however, some unoriginal moments, and severe over use of CGI sometimes, at which point you start hammering your head against the wall and scream “Why?”.
The sense of visual splendour isn’t apparent until a third of the film through, and then we see the film at work
It is to Yimou’s detriment that the film comes across as style over substance. With Hero, he managed to get away with it, due to solid performances, strong visual flair, and a half decent script. With HoFD, the script comes off as a reject, perhaps waiting on the success of Hero before it could be made. It’s neither ambitious, nor original, with the only thing setting it apart from other action-cum-romance films is the vivid use of colour and over use of special effects, often beating the viewer on the head with a big “look at me” placard.
HoFD severely lacks any depth or belief in itself to convince the viewer that it actually cares about what happens to its characters. When the cast look back at this film, I hope they realise what a comical farce this turned out to be. The film seems lumped together, stretched over 120 minutes, and all the blank spaces filled with scenery. Even by his own standards, I think Yimou will see this film as a severe disappointment, even if he doesn’t admit. I admire him for trying something different, but he’s tried too hard and it is, in the end, quite a dull mess.
Verdict: Lackluster, disappointing, and below average entertainment. Beautiful, yet dull.