All three films feature Zhang Ziyi. House of Flying Daggers is originally called Shi Mian Mai Fu, whose literal translation is actually Ambushed From Ten Directions. Which is true of the movie but doesn't have the same impact as House of Flying Daggers does.
I want Andy Lau!!! Or at the very least, I want to take home the Andy Lau tarp that hangs in Galleria!!! One of my favorite scenes is where his character Leo has captured the blind rebel Mei (Zhang Ziyi), and is trying to get her to talk. He takes her into a chamber and props her up against a wooden contraption and tells her, "This is a torture device." He slides his hands up her arms and places her hands on the thing. He places his faces beside hers, breathing into her ear, into her neck. He explains to her what will happen to her limbs if she doesn't cooperate while his soldiers are demonstrating with slabs of bamboo. As the bamboo cracks, he leans into her some more, pressing her against the torture device, pressing against her back. She shudders, seemingly more from him than from the sound of the splintering bamboo.
I swear, I'm taking him home.
While I was a bit bothered that I had some deja vu regarding a bath scene where Jin (Takeshi Kaneshiro) walks away and assures Mei that he is far away by clanging on his sword. Isn't that so Dark Cloud singing as he walks out of his cave? What is it about Zhang Ziyi that men are always making her take baths? Hmmm, actually I know the answer to that.
This movie has way lots more sexual tension than either Crouching Tiger or Hero; though it is breathtakingly pretty, it's not as breathtakingly pretty as Hero, which is the prettiest of the three. So I guess the sexual tension is making up for it. It's also way funnier than either of the two predecessors as Jin is hilarious in his plays for Mei and has you laughing for most of the movie. And yet, there's a tearjerker in the end as well. All in all, it's a winner. I want to see it again. Aaaaah, DVDeeee!!!
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