HOUSE OF FLYING DAGGERS - Blu-ray review

"Shi mian mai fu." That is what "House of Flying Daggers" is known as in its native mandarin language. It follows in the wake of other recent Hong Kong and Chinese classics as "Ying Xiong" ("Hero") and "Wo Hu Cang Long" ("Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon"). The film's lovely star Ziyi Zhang appeared in both "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" and "House of Flying Daggers." The film's director, Yimou Zhang, directed both this film and "Hero." Asian cinema is riding a wave of momentum that is allowing it to churn out product that is at many times superior to what Hollywood has to offer. The popular formula of combining ancient Chinese imagery and modern special effects along with whimsical storytelling is winning audiences on both sides of the Pacific Ocean.

"Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" captivated me. I saw it twice in the theaters and rushed out to purchase the DVD. It was one of those films that I had to spread the word about and let everybody know it was certainly worth the price of admission. I watched "Hero" after a very long day and struggled to stay awake through its running time. It is one of those films I should probably revisit and give a second chance. I was a bit hesitant at first to watch "House of Flying Daggers." It looked like a "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" knock off that was wrapped way too tightly around a love story. Give me "Shaolin Soccer" or "Kung Fu Hustle" and just a pass on "House of Flying Daggers" was my original thoughts.

Then along came Sony's new Blu-Ray format and a reason to actually invest in the film. It was the demonstration disc at Circuit City and all of the pretty colors caught my eye. I grabbed "The Terminator" and "House of Flying Daggers" and headed home with my new Samsung BDP-1000, eager to see how Blu-Ray compared to HD-DVD. On the first night I watched "The Terminator" and briefly scanned over a couple scenes from "House of Flying Daggers." Two days later a package came from Amazon.com with "xXx," "Underworld: Evolution" and "Fifth Element." I watched those three films and "House of Flying Daggers" continued to sit idle. The film was dissed by yours truly again. A rain storm took away my desire to be outside and finally, I made the decision to sit down and watch "House of Flying Daggers."

We all make mistakes. My waiting so long to watch this beautiful and captivating film was certainly a mistake. "House of Flying Daggers" held my interest in the same manner that "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" did a few years back. Yes, the film centered almost entirely around two characters destined to be tragic lovers who were unaware of each other's ruse. Some of the fight scenes were eerily similar to what had been seen in the older film. The bamboo tree sequence certainly feels like homage to "Crouching Tiger." However, the complete package is superb. The story is original and well written. There are a few unexpected plot twists and enough depth of the two principal characters that their lengthy screen time is never dull. The fight scenes were incredible.

Director Yimou Zhang paints a pretty canvas. He spends many feet of film showing the lovely China countryside and finds a plentiful palette. From the bright yellows and oranges of falling leaves to the vivid greens of a bamboo forest to the virgin whites of fresh snow, "House of Flying Daggers" finds a strong supporting actor in Mother Nature. There are but three or four interior sets. The vast majority of the film takes place in nature and Zhang takes every opportunity to convey the pure beauty of China in his picture. Not since a Terrence Malick picture can I remember a film that took careful moments to smile at nature. The canvas extends beyond nature as well. The costume design is exquisite as well and I found myself admiring the beautiful garments wore by the two main characters.

Takeshi Kaneshiro and Ziyi Zhang put forth wonderful performances as Jin and Mei. Jin is a police captain who believes Mei is the blind daughter of the Flying Dagger's former leader. He goes undercover and poses as her savior in a hopeful bid infiltrate the Flying Daggers and bring down their new leader. He pretends to be a playboy with honor who is like a playful wind. Mei is a young lady who posed as a blind dancer in a brothel. Her talents are amazing and her fleet feet are as good as dancing as they are the martial arts. They are being pursued by Leo (Andy Lau), a fellow policeman of Jin's and helping uncover the location of the Flying Daggers. Of course, all three have secrets that make for good cinema and would be unjust to reveal and spoil the great story in this review.

Video:

"House of Flying Daggers" was not my first, second or third viewing of a Blu-Ray disc, even though its demonstration at Circuit City was enough for me to purchase the title. At this moment in time it has become my personal demonstration title for Blu-Ray. "The Fifth Element" may have the occasional sparkle of visual brilliance that trumps what "House of Flying Daggers" can do. The title is visually inconsistent and moves between looking stunning and looking like a standard definition DVD title. However, it has style and lots and lots of pretty colors. I am not one to label a film as a ‘pretty movie,' but I have seen hundreds of movies in the past couple of years and I can easily say that "House of Flying Daggers" is a very pretty film.

The film is presented in 2.35:1 widescreen in a full 1080p transfer. Early Blu-Ray titles are forced to be squeezed onto a single-layer disc as the dual-layer discs are proving difficult to manufacture. They are also compressed in MPEG-2 compression and are not quite pushing the envelope of what the technology can do. In the early days, Blu-Ray is disappointing and for nearly half the film, "House of Flying Daggers" echoes that disappointment. There are moments when the film is amazing looking. One such scene is the "Echo Game" scene where Mei is adorned in brightly colored garments and must beat drums based upon the hit of a small bean or pebble. You can see the detail of the fabric pattern. There are other scenes where the film is more akin to the hokey kung fu films of the Seventies than it is to the modern Hi Definition era.

In a time when standard definition is still king, "House of Flying Daggers" on Blu-Ray does look good. The film takes place mostly in the great outdoors of China and the scenery is breathtaking. The colors are perfectly saturated and among the best you can see on home video. Black levels are solid. Detail is good about sixty percent of the time. It is during these times that the film looks like the next generation of technology. The other forty percent of the time, the disc looks marginally better than standard definition and on a player that does HD upconversion, it may look almost equal. The level of detail is just wildly inconsistent. I'm not sure if this a problem of the MPEG-2 compression and the limited space of the single layer or something else, but compared to what I've seen on HD-DVD, Blu-Ray needs a bit more work to fill its claim of being ‘beyond high definition.'

Sound:

Though it may routinely disappoint in its visual splendor, "House of Flying Daggers" is one of the finest examples of sound design in years. The ‘Echo Game' scene and the fight in the bamboo forest are of reference quality. During the echo game, the drums pound of a deep and powerful bass that recreates the sound of a drum to near perfection. To hear a drum in person is to also feel that same drum. I can honestly never say that I've never before felt the drums like I did with the Blu-Ray disc. These booming drums are accompanied by the sharp notes of swords clashing that are as shrill and high-pitched as the bass is deep. The bamboo scene features a rustling of leaves that fills the listening space completely and presents a completely different sound of bass in the splitting of bamboo.

"House of Flying Daggers" features five soundtracks. The original mandarin (Chinese) language is available in a Dolby Digital 5.1 multichannel soundtrack and a 5.1 uncompressed PCM soundtrack. In addition to the mandarin 5.1 mix, there are English, French and Spanish 5.1 Dolby Digital soundtracks. English, French and Spanish subtitles are provided. Whereas the English and Mandarin 5.1 Dolby Digital mixes sound good, the uncompressed PCM soundtrack is in a word, awesome. The two scenes I mentioned previously are just two examples of great sounding moments in the film. There are many more equally impressive moments to behold. Blu-Ray has not been impressive visually, but thus far the PCM soundtracks are far superior to what DVD had to offer.

Extras:

HD-DVD has been porting over the best available supplements from the standard definition DVD release, minus a few filmographies and theatrical trailers. Blu-Ray on the other hand has been omitting most or all of the value added content from the previous releases. "House of Flying Daggers" manages to keep a small number of the supplements from the DVD, but original discs commentary track, making of featurette, music video and costumes gallery are all lost to the next generation format. What did survive the cut was the four minute long Creating the Visual Effects Featurette and a few Storyboard Comparisons. I do not know how much space the French and Spanish soundtracks took, but I think Blu-Ray would have been better served if they had used that space to port over a few more features. As it is now, Blu-Ray is a limited format and is not showing potential borrowers much inclination to step into this ‘next generation' of technology.

Closing Thoughts:

I thoroughly enjoyed "House of Flying Daggers" and found it to be a captivating and beautiful picture. This was a film I had passed over, but now regret not having watched it earlier. The gorgeous shots of nature and vibrant and plentiful colors are as good as can be found in a film. Making its high definition debut on Blu-Ray, the film features a horribly uneven visual presentation. It borders on magnificent one moment and the next moment doesn't differentiate itself from the older technology it strives to replace. The sound, on the other hand, is incredible. The uncompressed PCM soundtrack is lively and easily one of the best I have heard through my speakers. If I want to show off the aural capabilities of my home theater setup, this disc is one of the first ones I'll reach for. Sadly, the inconsistent visual presentation and less than adequate supplemental materials make for a hard sell on spending the extra dollars for the Blu-Ray disc. I would rather have seen a second disc with the supplements contained on it than have them ignored almost completely.