House of Flying Daggers

Director: Yimou Zhang

2004 / 119min / 35mm

Twists and turns abound in Zhang’s floridly colorful, ecstatically kinetic Tang Dynasty China–set wuxia fantasia, building on the stylistic exuberance of his 2002 Hero, also featuring Zhang Ziyi, who here plays a blind courtesan that, as a suspected member of a shadowy league of guerilla assassins, is taken into custody by military policemen Takeshi Kaneshiro and Andy Lau, setting into motion a series of double- and triple-crosses, with enough romantic intrigues to leave your head spinning. Zhang, “whose delicate facial features fill the screen and… lithe movements animate the film’s heady combat choreography” [The New York Times], is nothing less than a force of nature in this bravura celebration of cinematic sensory overload.