Esotropiart

Well, I was utterly surprised by this movie. I was expecting to sit down and watch a considerably enjoyable film, but was astonished to find myself mostly turned off by House of Flying Daggers. Sure, the film had its share of beautiful choreography, imagination and special effects. Nevertheless, the plot was too entwined with the romance side of things for my taste. I don't mean to say I don't like romance movies. I am not so macho that I can't admit to enjoying a good love story. But this movie had too many questionable scenes in it for me to ignore.

There was more than one time when the main female character was nearly forcibly raped. The men in the film showed little respect or discretion in their "love" for women. Though the movie did not condone such actions, and there was usually some sort of retribution or punishment, I didn't appreciate having to shield my eyes or fast-forward over sizeable segments.

To the absolute detriment to the genre, modern chinese filmmakers are finally realizing the power of sex in movies. There are only a couple very recent movies that I have seen where sexuality is overly exploited in martial arts films. Prior to this, for the most part, the warriors and masters (the characters in the movies) remained true to their disciplines, and modesty and respect were highly sought after. Most of the sexual inferences were rather harmless. I can see the industry changing, however, and I probably won't be able to bear the martial arts films of the future. Too bad... to destroy such a "pure" art form by introducing the same dirty material that all other movie genres take advantage of. To most Americans (especially the men), this move is probably a positive thing, but I see it as a waste. The point of martial arts movies for me is the art, the stories, the photography and amazing skill displayed. The whole adult material thing doesn't keep me interested. I'll just watch and re-watch my old Jet Li and Jackie Chan DVDs until they melt!

For the martial arts material and special effects, the movie was otherwise relatively enjoyable. I admit that I really like watching such films where the perfected skill of a martial arts master is seemingly supernatural. I generally like the main actress, Ziyi Zhang. She did a great job in both Hero (2004 with Jet Li - yay!) and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000). The photography was probably the movie's greatest strength. But I probably would not watch this movie again for the prior stated reasons. Bummer.