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House of Flying Daggers
EMAILPRINTSony Pictures Classics

Universal acclaim
Based on 37 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
Based on 140 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie >
Movie Info
Genre(s): Action | Drama | Foreign | Romance
Written by:
Feng Li
Bin Wang
Yimou Zhang
Directed by: Yimou Zhang
Release Date:
Theatrical: December 3, 2004
DVD: April 19, 2005
Running Time: 119 minutes, Color
Origin: China / Hong Kong
Language(s): Mandarin (with English subtitles)
Summary
RATING: PG-13 for sequences of stylized martial arts violence, and some sexuality
Starring Takeshi Kaneshiro, Andy Lau, Ziyi Zhang, and Dandan Song
The year is 859 AD, and China's once flourishing Tang Dynasty is in decline. Unrest is raging throughout the land, and the corrupt government is locked in battle with rebel armies that are forming in protest. The largest and most prestigious of these rebel groups is the House of Flying Daggers, which is growing ever more powerful under a mysterious new leader. (Sony Pictures Classics)
Also On Metacritic
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Also On The Web: Internet Movie Database View The Trailer Official Studio Site
What The Critics Said
All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
Film Threat Phil Hall
Quite simply, House of Flying Daggers is a film that sets several new standards for production and entertainment values. It is a wild riot of color, music, passion, action, mystery, pure old-fashioned thrills and even dancing.
Read Full Review >Los Angeles Times Kevin Thomas
House of Flying Daggers finds the great Chinese director at his most romantic in this thrilling martial arts epic that involves a conflict between love and duty carried out to its fullest expression.
Read Full Review >Wall Street Journal Joe Morgenstern
An astonishing combination of spectacle, suspense, martial-arts flash, sublime silliness, anti-gravity action and passionate intensity -- before and after everything else, it's a grand love story.
New York Daily News Jami Bernard
The most gorgeous movie of the year. This smashing martial-arts romance from Chinese director Zhang Yimou is stunning in other ways, too, like the eroticism that ripples just beneath the surface.
Read Full Review >New York Post Lou Lumenick
The movie equivalent of a 12-course feast crammed with unforgettable images and mind-boggling stunts.
Read Full Review >Time Richard Corliss
The cast list is like a convocation of the Three Chinas: Taiwan's Kaneshiro, Hong Kong's Lau and the mainland's Zhang Ziyi. All are terrific, but the lady shines brightest.
Read Full Review >Chicago Tribune Michael Wilmington
It's as thrilling and lushly beautiful a movie as has been released all year, matched only by Zhang's epic "Hero." And I think this film is the more powerful.
Read Full Review >Washington Post Desson Thomson
Chinese director Zhang Yimou understands perfectly that the small can be epic and awe-inspiring. And, by the way, he knows how to get big, too.
Read Full Review >Chicago Reader J.R. Jones
Zhang weaves in both thrilling martial-arts set pieces and stunning studies of period silk tapestry and costume.
Read Full Review >Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert
Forget about the plot, the characters, the intrigue, which are all splendid in House of Flying Daggers, and focus just on the visuals.
Read Full Review >Washington Post Stephen Hunter
The sheer joy of letting go as a tale overwhelms your senses and drives the known world away -- that's the story.
Read Full Review >Slate David Edelstein
This is the most intoxicatingly beautiful martial arts picture I've ever seen.
Read Full Review >Philadelphia Inquirer Steven Rea
It's action opera, sword-and-sorcery song-and-dance, and it's a heart-pumping, jaw-dropping thrill. OK, so I kind of like the thing.
Read Full Review >Dallas Observer Robert Wilonsky
Its exquisiteness can overwhelm in a single sitting.
Read Full Review >Charlotte Observer Lawrence Toppman
He's (Yimou) like a painter combining bloody reds, sunshine yellows and pale blues in the harmony of a masterpiece.
Read Full Review >Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman
An outrageously gorgeous spectacle of balletic aggression. At the same time, it offers something we rarely encounter in a whirling martial-arts extravaganza: a romantic passion that's woven into the very fabric of the action.
Read Full Review >The Hollywood Reporter Kirk Honeycutt
A glorious new addition to martial-arts cinema.
Read Full Review >Austin Chronicle Kimberley Jones
I don't know if the many plot swerves withstand a second viewing, but I suspect the meat of the matter – the swooning visuals, the expert choreography, the teasing love story – does.
Read Full Review >Miami Herald Rene Rodriguez
The result is one of the most visually astonishing martial-arts fantasies ever made.
Read Full Review >Rolling Stone Peter Travers
Forget "Hero" -- that cult hit was just Zhang Yimou's warm-up for this martial-arts fireball that throws in a lyrical love story, head-spinning fights and dazzling surprises.
Read Full Review >Portland Oregonian Shawn Levy
The second action melodrama released in the United States this year by director Zhang Yimou, and if I prefer the previous one, "Hero," it's partly a matter of degrees.
Read Full Review >Variety Derek Elley
The tangled tale of love and disguise is awesome in its action sequences but doesn't touch the heart to the same degree.
Read Full Review >LA Weekly David Chute
The most seamless piece of sensuous expressionism Zhang has created since "Ju Dou" (1990).
Read Full Review >The New Yorker Anthony Lane
You feel wiped and blinded by such ravishment, yet a voice within you asks: Come on, guys, can't you just stop for the holidays?
Read Full Review >The New York Times Dana Stevens
A gorgeous entertainment, a feast of blood, passion and silk brocade. But though the picture is full of swirling, ecstatic motion, it is not especially moving.
Read Full Review >The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Liam Lacey
Actors Zhang Ziyi and Takeshi Kaneshiro are the kind of startlingly good-looking, glamorous stars that evoke classic Hollywood adventure films.
Read Full Review >Boston Globe Ty Burr
It's a perfect example of how far production design and editing WON'T take you when the story's not there.
Read Full Review >ReelViews James Berardinelli
If you think "Hero" is a sumptuous film, prepare to be blown away by House of Flying Daggers.
Read Full Review >Premiere Glenn Kenny
All told, while the goods that Daggers offers are choice, the movie ultimately demonstrates that too much can be, well, more than enough.
Read Full Review >The Onion (A.V. Club) Keith Phipps
Choreographed to the last beat, the action scenes have a depth that the film's thinly sketched characters never quite develop.
Read Full Review >Village Voice Michael Atkinson
If only this epic had enough substantial melodramatic hooks to hang this woman's beauty on; emotional traction is most often buried under acres of carefully coordinated vistas and CGI-hued flora.
Read Full Review >TV Guide Maitland McDonagh
This film pivots on a romantic triangle as overwrought as it is stylized. It's like a Douglas Sirk melodrama ratcheted up with fists of fury and wrapped in apparently endless yards of shimmering silk.
Read Full Review >Seattle Post-Intelligencer William Arnold
It's exuberant, exhilarating, poetic and -- intentionally and not -- rather silly.
Read Full Review >What Our Users Said
The average user rating for this movie is 7.7 (out of 10) based on 140 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
Jace A gave it a10:
It has beautiful imagery and stunning scenes.
Phillip R. gave it a10:
I am not a film buff and don't normally have much time for watching films, but this one just grabbed me and kept me enthralled. The twists and turns of the story are mesmerizing and the beauty of Mei is captivating. The depiction of the Martial Art fighting leaves you in awe, even if a little unbelievable. The closing scenes of fighting and death leave you emotionally drained. Fantastic
Kastus L gave it a10:
Poetic in every scene, in every touche, in every voice. Unbelievably how Zhang can create this? Like picture of Rembrandt in movie.
Denise G. gave it a10:
a beautiful film with jaw dropping action & achingly tender love scenes. The scenery is stunning.
Reikon gave it a10:
Best of his genre.
J B gave it a9:
It's a good story with great acting, that actually does the reverse of what most stories do: it starts out on a grand scale (rebels vs. government) and then focuses inward on a smaller scale (character devotions vs. personal responsibility). Luckily for us, HoFD is one of very few films that does this well. I would rate this higher than Hero.
Pat C. gave it an8:
The film starts as a political confrontation between government and rebel interests, but no one is who they seem, and through many plot twists the story converts into a romantic confrontation between love and freedom interests. A Mata Hari kind of thing. But unlike a Hollywood romance, the characters all realize they are expendable, that no one cares whether they live or die. In the confines of this oriental mindset they find a way to make their obscurity empowering, which is interesting though perhaps not memorable. The martial arts action is precise but reeks of improbability. The most remarkable thing by far in this project is its attention to the art of the photoplay. Every scene is lush in color and light and finely crafted with the meticulousness of an impressionistic painting. As a feast of visual splendor for those with an eye for art, this is a wonderful movie.
