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Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.

House of Flying Daggers
Sony Pictures Classics


7.6

based on 37 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

based on 135 votes
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Rate this movie

FILM:

MPAA 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)

GENRE(S):	Action \| Drama \| Foreign \| Romance
WRITTEN BY:	Feng Li Bin Wang Yimou Zhang
DIRECTED BY:	Yimou Zhang
RELEASE DATE:	DVD: April 19, 2005 Video: April 19, 2005 Theatrical: December 3, 2004
RUNNING TIME:	119 minutes, Color
ORIGIN:	China / Hong Kong
LANGUAGE(S):	Mandarin (with English subtitles)

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...

100

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.

100

Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt

It's great, fantastical fun.

100

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.

100

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.

100

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.

100

New York Post Lou Lumenick

The movie equivalent of a 12-course feast crammed with unforgettable images and mind-boggling stunts.

100

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.

100

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.

100

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.

100

Chicago Reader J.R. Jones

Zhang weaves in both thrilling martial-arts set pieces and stunning studies of period silk tapestry and costume.

100

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.

100

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.

100

Slate David Edelstein

This is the most intoxicatingly beautiful martial arts picture I've ever seen.

100

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.

100

Dallas Observer Robert Wilonsky

Its exquisiteness can overwhelm in a single sitting.

100

Baltimore Sun Michael Sragow

By turns breathtaking and heartbreaking.

100

Charlotte Observer Lawrence Toppman

He's (Yimou) like a painter combining bloody reds, sunshine yellows and pale blues in the harmony of a masterpiece.

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.

The Hollywood Reporter Kirk Honeycutt

A glorious new addition to martial-arts cinema.

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.

Miami Herald Rene Rodriguez

The result is one of the most visually astonishing martial-arts fantasies ever made.

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.

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.

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.

LA Weekly David Chute

The most seamless piece of sensuous expressionism Zhang has created since "Ju Dou" (1990).

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?

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.

Empire Dan Jolin

This is how action movies should be made.

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.

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.

ReelViews James Berardinelli

If you think "Hero" is a sumptuous film, prepare to be blown away by House of Flying Daggers.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer William Arnold

It's exuberant, exhilarating, poetic and -- intentionally and not -- rather silly.

San Francisco Chronicle Carla Meyer

Beautiful but hollow.

The average user rating for this movie is 7.6 (out of 10) based on 135 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

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.

groundfisher gave it a5:
Incredibly over-rated. This is a silly movie. About two-thirds of the way through the film the plot is forgotten - and major aspects remain unexplained and unresolved - in favour of a love-story. Because it's merely a love story, the martial arts scenes lose all meaning and relevance - even the last scene. And the ending is nothing but preposterous. Sure, there are moments of visual beauty, but so what. What's the point of tacking on a somewhat adolescent melodrama? It started well enough, but by the end my companion summed it up using only four letters.

Gaz gave it a9:
Simply beautiful. A love story that breaks the stereotypical dimensions of the mainstream Western cinema, and in doing so, expresses that romance on a far greater and physical level. Far better than other easily predictable romances, it thereby deserves a higher mark.

Gnarles gave it a7:
The first 90 minutes or so are simply great, but the climax eventually becomes almost unbearably silly - and the alarmingly fake CGI snowstorm doesn't help. Until that point, though, this is a beautiful and satisfyingly passionate movie, with some of the best fight scenes ever shot (especially the bamboo forest). Recommended, but don't be surprised if you find yourself laughing at the end.

House of Flying Daggers Sony Pictures Classics

House of Flying Daggers
Sony Pictures Classics