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House of 1K Daggers
	Topic by: kamapuaa Posted: October 12, 2004 - 9:44 PM PDT Last Reply: October 12, 2004 - 10:22 PM PDT

author	topic: House of 1K Daggers
kamapuaa	post #1  on October 12, 2004 - 9:44 PM PDT   Saw the movie selling for $2.95 in Oakland's Chinatown, and thought I would pick up a copy - for those not in the know, it's Zhang Yimou's follow-up martial-arts film to "Hero." I believed it placed third in Cannes, behind the "Fahrenheit 9/11" and the amazing "Old Boy." Definitely better than "Hero," which I would have rated a 6/10. The main advantage is the plot, which is melodramatic but touching, with a few surprises, although an equal number of gaping holes. The visuals were better than "Hero," and more integrated into the movie. Zhang Ziyi has a number of scenes in this epic where she carries the picture alone, which sounds like a recipe for disaster given her somewhat slight performances elsewhere, but here she's pretty much up to the job. She also gets groped a lot, and does the splits in nearly every scene. Man I can't stand Takeshi Kaneshiro in his HK movies (well he was OK in the Wong Kar Wai one). Andy Lau was great though. This movie doesn't beg the comparison to "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" as strongly as "Hero" did, but I might as well: "Crouching Tiger" is better, better written with better fighting, better acting, and arguably a better look. However these two movies are of a very similar quality and I could definitely see somebody preferring "H1KD" (as it would be called if it was getting a summer release). So I'll rate it 8/10 - tentatively. I might appreciate it more on a big screen, than on a medium-quality VCD. I admit, three movies in the genre of Hollywoodish artsy Kung-Fu movies, and I'm already a little sick of them.
kamapuaa	post #2  on October 12, 2004 - 10:22 PM PDT   > Man I can't stand Takeshi Kaneshiro in his HK movies (well he was OK in the Wong Kar Wai one). Andy Lau was great though. I should have said, Chinese-language movies. As opposed to his Japanese-language ones, which are kind of fun.