Month: January 2011

There is a scene in House of Flying Daggers where Jin, played by Andy Lau, is being attacked by one of “the general’s” men. He is armed only with a bow and arrow and there is no good shot because his attacker is carrying a shield big enough to hid his entire body behind it. The bodies of the rest of the general’s men lie strewn about on the field of battle, their shields were of no help to them. And yet we the audience are not exactly sure how Jin is going to get the arrow through the shield of the man coming toward him. The solution is, like the rest of the House of flying Daggers, both ingenious and practical. He fires, but the arrow seems to be off its mark. It appears to be headed for one of the already dead soldiers. The oncoming attacker appears to be safe until Jin’s arrow bounces off the deceased soldier’s shield and is deflected into the oncoming soldier knocking him off his feet, deftly circumnavigating the soldier’s now useless shield. This is a scene that is indicative of The House of Flying Daggers as a whole.

Released in 2004 this movie hit at the height of America’s brief obsession with a genre called wuxia. Which basically means “awesome kung fu” in English. The trend was started by an earlier film on our list the brilliantly titled Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon. Daggers was directed by Yimou Zhang who is a famous foreign director famous for directing famous foreign films. One of which (Ju Dou) I actually saw in film class once, which basically goes to show you just how useless film class is. The one thing people always say about Yimou Zhang is that he has a fantastic gift for color. Which amazingly, is true this time and it is put on display in many sequences in Flying Daggers. And even more amazing is that he doesn’t fill the screen up so much with color that it overpowers the rest of the film.

The plot is fairly basic. Two warriors are escaping back to the secret fortress of the Flying Daggers, which is basically a band of rebels who rob from the rich and give to the poor. Sound familiar? Even though the plot is simple there are plenty of twists and turns. The two warriors are a man and a woman so is it any wonder they fall in love? Though one of them is blind they are both incredible masters of martial arts, which is good for us, because just as you think the movie is getting bogged down in the love angle. The action cuts in and takes the film for a dance. The ending is a tad over-dramatic, but the direction is crisp and the action is some of the best-choreographed work I’ve seen, even better than the aforementioned Crouching Tiger, even better than the Matrix, but still one below Jackie Chan.

Next up … 73!

Let’s take just a minute here to talk about Brendan Fraser. He really is quite the anomaly among Hollywood actors. He seems, in certain movies, to possess a degree of movie star swagger and bravado, yet his true persona seems to be somewhere on the level of Encino Man. He seems to be able to swing jauntily from Gods and Monsters, which is a highbrow hard-hitting drama about the director of Frankenstein, while simultaneously he also seems to be very good at being George of the Jungle. In his best movie, The Mummy, he actually hits every note almost perfectly. The rumor is that the role of Rick O’Connel was offered to Tom Cruise, Brad Pitt, Matt Damon, and Ben Affleck. I feel confident in saying that none of those actors could have pulled off the challenges presented in The Mummy.

You see, I believe that there are lines in The Mummy that would be impossible for any other Hollywood actor to say, but Fraser pulls them off with the aforementioned grace and aplomb. That is to say that because of Brendan Fraser, you will be hard pressed to catch where the screenplay is bad. The same can also be said of Rachel Weisz, who has her breakout role here, and (wisely) did not go on to reprise her role in Mummy 3. Arnold Vosloo as the mummy himself is also good, but it’s Fraser that holds everything together. It is a performance so sincere that it circles back around sincere and becomes tongue in cheek again.

It was written and directed by Stephen Sommers who to the best of my knowledge has not come close the balance between camp and adventure that resides here. Though G.I. Joe is not half bad, it still is not exactly good either. The Mummy universe is one where there is a canopy under every open window. This is extremely efficient because the filmmakers do not have to go on establishing why it is safe for the heroes to jump out of open windows. Or dive off of burning riverboats. Or fly into a blizzard of sand that was breathed out of an undead Egyptian criminal from 4000 years ago. All of these elements were Sommers’ ideas so it’s hard to fault him because they are all pretty good. You know, for some one who’s previous movie was Deep Rising.

Next up … 74!