Recently Seen: House of Flying Daggers

I had no expectations of what I was going to get from Zhang Yimou's House of Flying Daggers. If I had put my mind to it, I would have been less taken aback by the visual extravaganza that awaited me. Zhang Yimou has after all made his name as the director of such cinematically beautiful movies as Red Sorghum, Raise the Red Lantern and The Road Home (which was also Zhang Ziyi's movie debut).

What I did know about the movie was that it starred three big names of Asian cinema, China's Zhang Ziyi, Hong Kong's Andy Lau and Japan's Takeshi Kaneshiro (who is also partly Taiwan's and Hong Kong's, such are his muti-lingual skills). That was a promising start. Any movie that took the trouble to gather such star power together should at least have a decent budget, and hopefully, a reasonable screenplay.

In the end, I am not sure if the screenplay counted for much. It was certainly not bad, by any means, but plot, dialogue and characterisation all seemed rather secondary to the visual splendours served up on the screen. This was such a sumptuous production, with scene after scene of breathtaking beauty.

Set in the 9th century, during the waning years of the Tang Dynasty, this is a ostensibly a tale of duplicity, hidden identities, political upheaval and double-crossing. Essentially, though, this is an old-fashioned love triangle, a romance that is swooningly ardent for the most part, with occasional injections of raging jealousy.

But emotional undercurrents take a back seat to visual ingenuity. The movie begins with two major set-pieces in interior sets. The rooms of the brothel named the Peony Pavillion are wondeful to behold, with intricate details in the draperies and decorations. The ladies of the brothel are decked out in vibrant colours and seemed like a hundred butterflies in a field of wild-flowers. In these early scenes, Zhang Yimou stages a wonderful ballet, in which the blind Xiao Mei (Zhang Ziyi) dances and flicks her long sleeves to beat a circle of drums, echoing the drums that Leo (Andy Lau) had earlier struck using a well-aimed nut.

Shortly after, Mei is revealed to be a spy; she is a member of the House of Flying Daggers, a dangerous rebel group. She is arrested by Leo and his partner, Jin (Takeshi Keneshiro), who are the Tang Dynasty equivalent of policemen. Leo and Jin hatch a plot to use Mei to discover the identity of the Flying Daggers' leader and the location of their stronghold. Jin stages a rescue of Mei, in the hopes that she will lead him to the Flying Daggers' secrets.

As they flee, we watch Jin and Mei fall cagily in love, while dodging attacks from the army sent after them (the secret plot is not known to the entire army, and pretty soon, Jin finds himself being forced to save his own life for real). The action moves outdoors and what glorious outdoors it is. The scenes alternate between autumnal forest glades with their shades of gold and red, open fields of wild flowers, a pond covered in lotus leaves, hilltops with spectacular views and most significantly, a bamboo grove.

In this bamboo grove, with a hint of mist and soft sunlight streaming through the trees, the movie stages an audacious martial arts combat, that pretty much rendered me speechless. Soldiers leap from tree to tree, raining bamboo spears down upon Jin and Mei as they dodge with quick-footed grace. The guards swoop down the bamboo branches to attack up-close and devise a trap of sharpened bamboo spears portruding from the ground. This is just extraordinary cinematic imagination, choreographed like a dance and filmed with loving attention to detail. I particularly enjoyed the play of lights as the attacking guards cast shadows on the ground through which the lovers are running.

In the end, the movie reveals that Leo is also a Flying Dagger and has been undercover as a policeman for three years. Mei is in fact not blind and hadbeen double-crossing Jin just as he was double-crossing her. Leo is in love with Mei and enraged by her feelings for Jin. And so, while everyone turned out to be a double-crosser of some sort, the final denouement had less to do with this and everything to do with the love triangle.

For this resolution, we moved to a vast field against a backdrop of autumnal hills. Leo and Jin battle to the death, while the season changes and a snow storm transforms the landscape from green and gold to shades of white. This transition is handled marvelously; the film-makers have truly used the visual language of cinema here. When blood is spilled, it splahes crimson against the snow - a spectacular effect.

The visual beauty of the movie extends to its cast.

Zhang Ziyi's fine-boned features are a boon to any cinematographer. I must admit to finding her somewhat irritating, ever since seeing her petulant brat role in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. Her role in Rush Hour 2 (the only other film I had seen her in, apart from her debut in The Road Home) did not help to endear her to me better. I thought at first that House of Flying Daggers would serve up more of the same petulance, but this role called for something different and more likeable. I will give credit where it is due; she is most sympathetic in this role and looks a dream (in this movie, a very important achievement).

Takeshi Kaneshiro is blessed with good genes. His half-Chinese, half-Japanese heritage gave him striking looks and a cut-glass profile that is the hallmark of a movie star. Jin is not a particularly demanding role, calling more for charm and charisma than actual thespic endeavour. Kaneshiro handles charm and charisma without any apparent effort. Most importantly, he has sizzling chemistry with Zhang Ziyi and in their scenes together, they add not only to the beauty of the scenery but also to our emotional engagement with the proceedings.

Andy Lau has looked better in his life. There, I have said it. I know he is wildly popular in Asia, due in some part to his cultured good looks. But he really is not looking so hot nowadays. In the 1980s, this was one of the best looking people in East Asian cinema. With age, he has become rather gaunt and haggard. The camera that used to so love him is rather less enamoured nowadays. I think part of the problem that we are supposed to believe him to be younger than his appearance (at least, that is the impression that I get). Andy Lau's current visual appearance is of a man in 40's. This is not a slight; the man is 44 years old. He is certainly a fine specimen for his age. But I get the sense that he is trying to pass off as someone ten years younger. And it does not work for me as a viewer. In House of Flying Dagger, he professes a romantic interest in Zhang Ziyi's character when he looks old enough to be her father. When he reveals his relationship to Mei (the spiel about "It's been 3 years since I saw her), in all seriousness, I kept expecting him to say that she was his daughter! But putting the issue of looks aside, I think this was one of Andy Lau's better acted roles. It stretched his range and he rose to the challenge well.

Ultimately, when I think of House of Flying Daggers, I will remember it mainly for it's beauty. I suspect that the plot will slip my mind within days, but that bamboo grove battle will go down as a cinematic highlight for all time.

Overall rating: 10 out of 10 (for style), 8 out of 10 (overall)

Fandom favourites

This is one of the things going around Livejournal:

Pick 5 fandoms and do this for each of them:
1. The first character you first fell in love with:
2. The character you never expected to love as much as you do now:
3. The character everyone else loves that you don't:
4. The character you love that everyone else hates:
5. The character you used to love but don't any longer:

This made me realise that I have dabbled in quite a number of fandoms, from rather diverse sources. Hmmm, that geek rating seems even more accurate now.

Austen's World
I hope this is not stretching it, but I think that there is a valid Austen fandom. There are discussion sites, theoretical discussions by academics and amateurs alike and that ultimate insignia of fandom - fan-fiction. Whether this is technically a fandom, Jane Austen's novels remain my longest-standing source of fannish-devotion. That is enough to make it count, for me.
1. The first character you first fell in love with:
Elizabeth Bennet. P & P was my first Austen novel and Lizzie grabbed my attention the moment she first appeared. I think Darcy has now overtaken Lizzie as my favourite P&P character (because he is a gentleman despite his imperfections and those are so wonderfully human), but she will always be not just a great literary character, but a person I would like to have known. I love her spunk, her wit and most of all, her willingness to admit her faults.
2. The character you never expected to love as much as you do now:
Anne Elliot. When I first read Persuasion, I liked Anne Elliot fine, but she seemed a little understated, too quiet when held up against the liveliness of Lizzie Bennett and Emma Woodhouse. Anne improves upon re-reading and I now appreciate her maturity, her calmness, intelligence and kindnessperhaps. These are traits that are perhaps harder to come by than liveliness of spirits.
3. The character everyone else loves that you don't:
Henry Crawford. Well, it's not like everyone loves him, but people seem to think he is redeemable because he clearly does love Fanny Price. To me, his devotion is not in doubt but his character is. Even his kind treatment of her family and his own persistence in pursuing her seems calculated. His improved behaviour stems from a desire to claim a prize rather than sincerity.
4. The character you love that everyone else hates:
Fanny Price. Well, I don't love her, but I am rather fond of the old goose. She is a little preachy at times, and massively lacking self-confidence, but she is kind-hearted and a good person. Good people are underestimated and undervalued.
5. The character you used to love but don't any longer:
None that I can think of, really.

Les Miserables (The Musical)
1. The first character you first fell in love with:
Jean Valjean, of course. He is almost the first character we meet and his story is immediately appealing. By the end of the show, he has aged many years and we have grown to regard him almost like a family member.
2. The character you never expected to love as much as you do now:
Marius. He was the cliche juvenile romantic lead (oh, who am I kidding? This is musical theatre, most characters are cliched in some way!), who was a little too concerned about his love affair when unrest raged around him. Now, when I listen to Les Mis, what I remember most about Marius is his kindness to Eponine in A Little Fall of Rain, and his introspection during Empty Chairs at Empty Tables. He is not just a romantic lead, but a person who deserves his happy ending.
3. The character everyone else loves that you don't:
Eponine. I don't get it, sorry. I don't hate her but I really do not see anything truly loveable in Eponine apart from courage (and even then, I believe it to be motivated by her obsession with Marius). She gets a great song and she is angsty. She is also something of a stalker and not a little creepy.
4. The character you love that everyone else hates:
Cossette. I could say that this is corollary to my lack of Eponine love. I think Cosette survives a horrific, possibly abusive childhood and grows up to be a caring, loving person.
5. The character you used to love but don't any longer:
Enjolras. Again, I don't hate him, but I have come to realise that his character is seriously under-developed in the show. His noble sacrifice in the end does come across as having been fool-hardy.

Harry Potter
1. The first character you first fell in love with:
Remus Lupin. And I have explained why before. This is a function of having read PoA before any of the other books. I suspect if I had started with Philosopher's Stone instead, my answer here would be Harry himself. The kid is wonderful human and REAL.
2. The character you never expected to love as much as you do now:
A tie. Firstly, Neville Longbottom. He is a minor character, but in OotP, he came into his own. His story is so poignant and his courage in dealing with his past is truly touching. There is no doubt at all why he is a Gryffindor.
Secondly, Arthur Weasley. He was a minor character, taking a backseat to Molly in the parental stakes. Now, I think he is among my favourite adult minor characters. His fascination with Muggle ways is delightful, as is his Everyman (Everywizard) normality.
3. The character everyone else loves that you don't:
Draco Malfoy. He is very popular in the fandom, partly because of the Tom Felton fangirls and partly because he has been envisioned as redeemable. HBP seems to have shown that he is in for a redemption arc. But I don't know - the kid has been a petty bully, a bigot and a spoilt brat for the better part of six books. He might be redeemable, but I don't find him remotely lovable.
4. The character you love that everyone else hates:
Nobody in particular, although if I was pushed to, I would say Tonks. Not counting the obvious villains (Umbridge and the Death Eaters), the only two characters that come in for universal villification are Tonks and Ginny. I like Tonks a lot, and am fairly indifferent towards Ginny.
5. The character you used to love but don't any longer:
Nobody.

Smallville
This show hasn't been good for a couple of seasons, but I find myself still watching it while complaining about its general suckitude. I guess that's what you call true-fandom.
1. The first character you first fell in love with:
Lex Luthor. This has a lot to do with Michael Rosenberg's initial appearance on the show; bewildered from the accident, grateful to Clark, resentful of his father and charming to a fault.
2. The character you never expected to love as much as you do now:
Chloe Sullivan. She is hands down my favourite thing about the show. I liked her pretty much from the get-go but I adore her now, for bringing a refreshing honesty to proceedings where everyone is lying their heads off.
3. The character everyone else loves that you don't:
Okay, I am going to cheat on this one. This character is only loved by half the fandom and the other half (to which I belong) positively loathes her. I speak of course, of Lana Lang. She's just so annoying, self-involved and completely uninteresting.
4. The character you love that everyone else hates:
I cannot really think of any character that is universally hated in the fandom.
5. The character you used to love but don't any longer:
Martha Kent. She started out as the coolest mom ever with a drippy son, but has gotten almost as preachy as old Jonathan. Her handling of of various situations have rubbed me the wrong way - Clark's relationship with Lex, Clark's relationship with Lana and Lois Lane's house-guesting.

Star-Trek (The Next Generation)
1. The first character you first fell in love with:
Jean-Luc Picard. I fully acknowledge that this has as much to do with Patrick Stewart as the Picard character. His dignity and gravity are such a relief after Kirk (and Bill Shatner).
2. The character you never expected to love as much as you do now:
Data. A cliched choice, I know, but there you have it. He was the source of some of TNG's most inspired episodes. Towards the end, they relied on his "emotion chip" a little too often for plot, but that didn't diminish my fondness for the old droid.
3. The character everyone else loves that you don't:
Will Riker. I am entirely indifferent to him, and to his relationship with Deanna Troi (who annoys me).
4. The character you love that everyone else hates:
Geordie. Not that he is hated, exactly, but he does not get as much attention as some of the other characters. I wouldn't say that I love the character, but I do think Geordie is funny, a great friend and obviously rather good at his job.
5. The character you used to love but don't any longer:
Nobody, mainly because I really only love Data and Picard, and they have not done anything (on either small or large screen) to change my mind.

Well, that's five. If I had a mind to, I could have done this for Arrested Development (TV), Piers Anthony's Xanth novels, the works of Jin Yong (TV adaptations), CSI (TV), Friends (TV), Seinfeld (TV), Phantom of the Opera (musical) ... the list is running away with me!