Zhang Yimou’s martial arts epic The House of Flying Daggers has just set a Chinese box office record, bringing in $6.7 million while playing on only 360 screens. That’s a mighty impressive per screen daily average of $6203 US. On a per dollar basis that’s slightly better than Spider-man 2 did in the US this weekend, but when you factor in the fact that Chinese theaters don’t charge anywhere close to as much for admission as North American theaters do – this is, after all, a country where new non-bootleg DVDs sell for as little as $3 – Daggers just kicked all sorts of ass in terms of ticket sales.
Oh … and the previous record holder? That’d be Yimou’s Hero. Which Miramax has just officially pushed back another week to August 27th in the US.
Why is the girl tearing out the knife in the final scene? What was here intention and where did she throw the knife? I did not get this… Can anyone help me?
“House of Flying Daggers” (I’ve seen it) is a masterpiece, but much more intimate than “Hero.” There are multiple great action setpieces and the love story is actually very effective and moving. My own interpretation is that it’s an anti-war film, which should make for interesting reactions in these times when the film is released.
Takeshi Kaneshiro is half-Taiwanese, and he speaks Mandarin fluently.
Actually, isn’t Takeshi half-Taiwanese? Chances are, his Mandarin is passable — if he knows any.
Well no one can use the excuse that “well this film got a standing ovation at Cannes” dosen’t mean squat. Anyone who is a frequent goer to Cannes Film Festival will tell you it’s traditional to stand and applaud after the Director and Actor/Actresses have stood up.
Every film gets an ovation so you can’t use Cannes as a possible crutch for it’s success. However, I do love Hero and Yimou’s previous films very much and would like to see this one badly as well. My only worry is the use of the Japanese actor in it. Yea he’s stunningly beautiful to look at like the sets and costumes but much like the Chinese laughing at Michelle Yeoh & Chun Fat’s Mandarin will his chinese be as laughable or an earsore. The trailers, especially the Japanese version Lovers, kind of led me to believe so. Hopefully the film at least is entertaining… Yimou did say after all Hero was his serious film and this one was his fun one.
i heard there were some awkward moments in there, like the main female role playd by zhang ziyi is stabbed multiple times in her chest and she is still able to fight
or the fact when arrows are fired one by one, the transition shot goes to show all the arrows hitting a guy at the same time
just lil illogical things like that
does anyone know where to get the bootleg dvd? ;)
I don’t know why anyone would be pissed off about the music- the English song only plays during the credits. The rest of the music is a movie-tweaked form of traditional instrumental music. The theme song is sung by Zhand Ziyi’s character, a really fantastic incredcibly beautiful chinese song.
I can see why the europrats went apeshit over this movie. The movie is at times spectacularly beautiful, but nothing that hasn’t been done before, either in earlier Zhang Yimou films or in the average mainland kung fu flick. The sleve-dancing scene was brilliant, as was the bamboo fight scene, but everything in between seemed like a handycammed afterthought in comparison. The dialouge was weak, but it might be doctored up in subtitles. Some of the story editing was strange, especially towards the end, but I’ll have to see the movie again before I can decide what kind of strange it is and whether I like it or not.
The movie is out on bootleg DVD for anyone not willing to wait for the north american realease.
Have you actually seen Hero? It’s incredible. One of the best looking films you’ll ever see with incredible action sequences, stunning performances and a great script. It’s one of the best films I’ve ever seen. And I’ve seen thousands.
Sheesh, dude, haven’t you learned? The French are pretentious to a fault. Throw any ol foreign film up there (i.e. not American), add some subtitles, and make the whole thing incomprensible, and they’ll loooooooooove it. But if you happen to be American, and so is your film, be sure to make your film about how crappy/evil/bad America is. That, too, gets them all a’plaudin’.
On the topic: FLYING DAGGERS will probably be another pretentious, artsy fartsy attempt at a kung fu flick. The much hyped and much underwhelming HERO turned out to be the case. This one, it seems, is more of the same.
Blah.
[Ed Note: Geez, At least no one here’s all hopped up on bigotry, huh?]
That’s great news. However there have been reports that critcs from China have panned the film as oppose to the standing ovation it received in Cannes. Anyone know why without giving spoilers?
I read somewhere along the lines that Chinese people weren’t happy with the music – that it should’ve been music reflective of the Tang Dynasty instead of having opera singer Kathleen Battle do an english song.
If that’s all they’re dissing about, that’s fine with me.
A few flaws here and there I don’t mind. As long as it’s an enjoyable film. Besides, how do you follow up to a great film such as HERO ?
spider man 2