Ah, this one movie is one of my certain favourites — not only does it portray a most excellent change in life itself, but it is also action-packed and enjoyable to the highest degree.
So, this soon-to-be decade old Chinese movie speaks about a group of anti-governmental fighters (i.e., thugs) named the House of Flying Daggers who have exceptional skills with… daggers. Well, the last wasn’t really said but we could see as much from the movie.
I certainly enjoyed the sights of the Tang warriors fighting with perfectly choreographed moves but even beside that the movie had so much to say — the topic at large was again love (or so it could be described), and while my personal thoughts on it are not that well articulated in any specific work, then at least I enjoy the dramatic take on it.
Now listening to some of the songs from the soundtrack (with my certain favourite in this movie having been the Chinese song of the northern beauty, apparently taken from a poem by Li Yannian, that goes like this /the in-movie English translation was somewhat different/):
In the north there is a beauty; surpassing the world, she stands alone.
A glance from her will overthrow a city; another glance will overthrow a nation.
One would rather not know whether it will be a city or nation overthrown.
As it would be hard to see a beauty like this again.
I have to say that the entire movie was thrilling and the soundtrack was one of the biggest supporters of the plot that could have been. In any case, the song above is named ‘Jiarenqu’ (or ‘Jia ren qu’ as I found it sometimes on YouTube) and I’d suggest people to listen to it as presented in the movie:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bpyP4hVK1W4&feature=related]
I think the picture ratio is a bit off but the music is the important part here. * Sorry, the original video didn’t stream so I changed it to another one which has still pictures instead of a proper video. Search it up by its name or movie title on YouTube if you want the proper one.
Now, aside from that song, the other very wonderfully played scene in this movie was one during the final duel — with the landscape changing and everything. But I will say no more, for if you know it, you know it; and if you don’t, you should. 🙂
But I’ll add that it might have brought to my mind now the writings of that Polish master of literature, Henryk Sienkiewicz, who so well detailed the change of the steppes with the passings of seasons.
Overall, a most excellent movie (and certainly one of my favourites of the Chinese cinema alongside ‘Hero’), no doubt in that.
