The House Of Flying Daggers

    Japanese Title - The Lovers

        Cantonese Title - Shi Mian Mai Fu

Cult Chinese Director Zhang Yimou (Born in Xi'an, China) has seemed to broken records with his 14th Movie to date. The film stars; Andy Lau (Infernal Affairs & Running On Karma), Zhang Ziyi (Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon & Hero) & Takashi Kaneshiro (The Returner & Downtown Torpedoes).

Zhang Ziyi should be friendly or at least familiar with director Yimou has she has worked with him on two past films, Hero (2002) along side Jet Li and The Road Home (1999) with Sun Hong-Lei.

The plot of the movie (IMDB);

Near the end of the Tang Dynasty, police deputies Jin (Takashi Kaneshiro) and Leo (Andy Lau) tangle with Mei (Zhang Ziyi), a dancer suspected of having ties to a revolutionary faction known as the House of Flying Daggers. Enraptured by her, the deputies concoct a plan to save her from capture, and Jin leads her north in what becomes a perilous journey into the unknown.

 

The House Of Flying Daggers Japanese Poster

Andy Lau, Zhang Ziyi, Takashi Kaneshiro & Zhang Yimou at the Taiwan Premier

Andy Lau, Takashi Kaneshiro, Zhang Yimou and Ching Siu-Tung at the Hong Kong Premier

Filming started in Lviv in the Ukrine. Then they traveled to such locations as Beijing, Sichun Province and mainland China. At that time Canto-Pop legend, Anita Mui Yim Fong was a part of the cast. Anita was giving the of playing Zhang Ziyi's older sister, although filming had taken place, Anita Mui was diagnosed with Cancer. She did continue working on the film until her untimely death on the 30th. This left Zhang Yimou no chance to edit the storyline, removing Anita's character from the movie.

The film had originally premiered at the Cannes film festival on the 17 May 2004. Where after the first showing the cast and crew were given a stand applause, in the crowd as Cult US director, Quentin Tarentino. With this great success, premier dates have all started popping up all over Asia.

The Official Premier of House Of Flying Daggers was on the 16th July 2004. The takings from 16th to the 18th was up to 6.94 Million Hong Kong Dollars. The premier in Beijing also made over 60 Million Yuan in its opening weekend. In Taiwan House had easily knocked off films such Spiderman 2 and Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. The Japan release in August. Also Sony Entertainment has bought the rights to release the film internationally, expected for a Christmas Release.

More quick trivia points. Anita Mui's role was contemplated between two other candidates, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon star Michelle Yeoh or Zu Warriors from the Magic Mountain actress Brigitte Lin.

Zhang Yimou also insisted that real weapons were used for some of the main one on one fight scenes. This led to Andy Lau receiving an injury to his fore head, which can be seen on a poster above. Takashi Kaneshiro received a strong injury to his knee, whilst filming one scene on a horse, the horse ran wild and struck Kaneshiro into Tree. Kaneshiro was sent back to Japan for further testing. Zhang Ziyi has received minor strangle marks on her neck during one scene when Andy Lau was attempting to drown her by forcing her under water by her neck.

In Conclusion, has Zhang Yimou got himself another winner under his belt? I think so

Read AdAmAs's Review of House Of Flying Daggers