Along with Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, these two movies belong to that genre of Chinese films that can be at least described as mythic/melodramatic/martial arts extravaganzas. Yes, these films are absolute eye candy and you can just sit back and get an overdose of color for the next two hours, but other than that--blech. Great fight scenes but not much there in terms of plot. There are always a bunch of doomed lovers in there somewhere and the characters are always blabbing about honor and sacrifice, etc. And perhaps catering to the sensibilities of male horndogs everywhere, Zhang Ziyi gets laid in all three movies.
In Hero, a lone warrior called Nameless recounts the tale of how he defeated three legendary assassins, Sky, Broken Sword, and Flying Snow, to the King of Qin. Except there's one catch: is he really telling the truth? What's the real story? The film had a fairy tale feel to it--the colors bright, coordinated, and surreal. It captures quite well how many Chinese seem to view their own history--partly history and partly myth--actually mostly myth. My two favorite scenes were fight scenes: the fight between Nameless and Sky in a water drenched courtyard and the fight between Flying Snow and Broken Sword's apprentice Moon in a forest of golden leaves. The storytelling, though, left much to be desired. The film is more like a beautiful woman with an empty head and a pretty mouth parroting the same stereotypical lessons that most people know already.
The plotline for House of Flying Daggers thankfully has a little more depth. During the waning of the Tang dynasty, two captains plot to root out some underground rebels who call themselves "House of Flying Daggers". Things get a bit more hairy than what starts out as a straightforward plan to sneak into the outlaws' hideout. Romance, betrayals, and jealousy get stirred into the mix. The problem with all these films is that it is so obvious when they start using the tropes of the genre. To a Western audience that has seen little to no Chinese films, these conventions may seem ridiculous. Another problem, which is actually more endemic to House of Flying Daggers than the other films, is that although there is humor, I would say that the humor was written in such a way that the Western audience would think that it was specifically tailored for the Western audience. Also you have to suspend your disbelief. The minor bad guys can be downed with one blow but the more important characters take forever to die, even with fatal wounds. If you haven't seen very many of these kind of movies, be prepared to laugh your head off at the end even when you know you really shouldn't. My favorite scene in this one? Hands down, no questions asked, it's the Echo Game. Now that was a brilliant piece of work.
Brief endnote: If you do decide to see these movies, I wish you good luck on sitting through it with an understanding audience. I'm afraid most of the old people in backwoods New Hampshire just have no idea.
