House of Flying Daggers (Chinese: 十面埋伏) is a 2004 wuxia romance film directed by Zhang Yimou and starring Andy Lau, Zhang Ziyi and Takeshi Kaneshiro. Unlike other wuxia films, it is more of a love story than purely a martial arts film.
The film opened in limited release within the United States on December 3, 2004 in New York City and Los Angeles, and opened on additional screens throughout the country two weeks later. The film grossed $11,050,094 at the United States box office, and then went on to significantly overperform in the home video market in the United States.
The film was chosen as China's entry for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film for the year 2004, but was not nominated in that category; however, it received a nomination for the 2004's Academy Award for Best Cinematography.
Plot[]
In AD 859, as the Tang dynasty declines, several rebel groups emerged. The largest of them is the House of Flying Daggers in Fengtian, who battle the corrupt government. Its members steal from the rich and give to the poor, gaining the locals' support. Two police officers, Leo and Jin, are ordered to kill the group leader within ten days, an impossible task given no one even knows the leader's identity.
To accomplish this, Leo arrests Mei, a blind dancer suspected of being the previous leader's daughter. Pretending to be a rebel sympathiser, Jin breaks Mei out of the jailhouse, gaining her trust. The two travel to the Flying Dagger headquarters, with Leo trailing behind with reinforcements. Slowly, Mei and Jin fall in love.
To make the deception more realistic, Leo and his policemen pretend to ambush the pair. Later, though, they are ambushed for real by soldiers. At a secret meeting, Leo explains that the military has gotten involved and wants Jin and Mei dead.
A few days later, Jin and Mei are attacked again in a bamboo forest and almost killed, before the House of Flying Daggers saves them and takes them to their headquarters. At this point, Mei is revealed to have been faking her blindness and is not the former leader's daughter. Furthermore, she is engaged to Leo, who turns out to be the Flying Daggers' mole. The Flying Daggers are not afraid of the military and are actually looking forward to an open battle.
A heartbroken Leo tells Mei that he waited for her for three years since he went undercover, and asks how she could fall in love with Jin after only three days, only to be told she has her heart set on Jin. Leo tries to attack Mei, but their superior Nia intervenes and gives him new assignments, separating them. Mei is ordered to execute Jin. She frees him instead but refuses to run away with him. Later, Mei changes her mind and rides after Jin, but is ambushed by Leo, who casts two daggers at her. Mei manages to deflect one while the other seemingly kills her. Jin and Leo fight but are evenly matched. A raging blizzard falls upon them, while the military approaches the House.
With both men badly wounded and exhausted, Leo prepares to kill Jin with Nia's dagger. Mei reappears, Leo's dagger still stuck in her chest, and threatens to kill Leo with it. Jin begs her to save herself. After several tense moments, Leo decides to pretend to throw his dagger, intending to die by Mei's dagger while sparing Jin. However, Mei attempts to use her dagger to intercept Leo's dagger in flight. The result is that neither Leo nor Jin dies, but only Mei. In the end, Leo stumbles away in guilt while Jin cries over Mei's body, singing a song praising her as a "rare beauty", the likes of which he will never see again. Whether the House won against the military is left ambiguous.
Cast[]
- Takeshi Kaneshiro – Captain Jin
- Andy Lau – Captain Leo
- Zhang Ziyi – Mei