2022/12/04

House of Flying Daggers - Wikipedia

House of Flying Daggers - Wikipedia

House of Flying Daggers

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House of Flying Daggers
House of Flying Daggers poster.JPG
Theatrical release poster
Traditional十面埋伏
Simplified十面埋伏
MandarinShí Miàn Mái Fú
CantoneseSap6 Min6 Maai4 Fuk6
Directed byZhang Yimou
Written by
  • Li Feng
  • Peter Wu
  • Wang Bin
  • Zhang Yimou
Produced by
Starring
CinematographyZhao Xiaoding
Edited byLong Cheng
Music byShigeru Umebayashi
Production
companies
  • Edko Films
  • China Film Co-Production Corporation
  • Elite Group Enterprises
  • Zhang Yimou Studio
  • Beijing New Picture Films
Distributed by
Release dates
  • 19 May 2004 (Cannes)
  • 15 July 2004 (Hong Kong)
  • 16 July 2004 (China)
  • 3 December 2004 (United States)
Running time
119 minutes[1]
Countries
  • China
  • Hong Kong
LanguageMandarin
Budget$12 million
Box office$92.9 million

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 3 December 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 in United States box office, and then went on to significantly overperform in home video market in the United States.[2]

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. It did receive a nomination for Best Cinematography.

Plot[edit]

In AD 859, as the Tang Dynasty declines, several rebel groups are established, the largest of which is the House of Flying Daggers, based in Fengtian, who battle the corrupt government that oppresses the people. Its members use special throwing daggers that always hit their targets to steal from the rich and give to the poor, gaining the support of the locals. Two police officers, Leo (Andy Lau) and Jin (Takeshi Kaneshiro), are ordered to kill the leader of the group within ten days, a task that appears to be impossible as no one knows who the leader of the House of the Flying Daggers is.

To accomplish this, Leo arrests Mei (Zhang Ziyi), a blind dancer who is suspected of being the previous leader's daughter. Jin proceeds to assault the jail and set Mei free, pretending that he is a rebel sympathizer, an act which gains Mei's trust. As Mei and Jin travel to the Flying Dagger headquarters, Leo trails behind with reinforcements. Unfortunately, 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 ambushed again in a bamboo forest and almost killed, but they are saved by the House of Flying Daggers and taken to their headquarters. At this point, Mei is revealed to have been faking her blindness, and is not the actual former leader's daughter. Furthermore, she is engaged to Leo, who has also been revealed to have been pretending to be an officer, and is really a Flying Daggers member. 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 to infiltrate the police, 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 throws a dagger into Leo's back and reassigns them to new missions, separating them. Shortly after, Mei is told to execute Jin. She frees him instead but refuses to desert the House to join 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 of them while the other pierces her and seemingly kills her. At this point, Jin discovers Leo and the two of them fight, but their skills are too evenly matched. A raging blizzard falls upon them, while the military approaches the House.

Finally, with both men badly wounded and exhausted, Leo pulls Nia's dagger out of his back and threatens to use it on Jin. Mei reappears and threatens to pull the dagger out of her breast and throw it at Leo, which would cause her to bleed to death, but 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[edit]

Production[edit]

Anita Mui was originally cast for a major role, which was to be her final film appearance. She died of cervical cancer before any of her scenes were filmed. After her death on 30 December 2003, director Zhang Yimou decided to alter the script rather than find a replacement. The film is dedicated to her memory.

To prepare for her role, Zhang Ziyi lived for two months with a blind girl who had lost her sight at the age of 12 because of a brain tumor. Takeshi Kaneshiro injured his leg when he went horseback riding. As a result, Yimou had Kaneshiro spend two scenes sitting or kneeling down to alleviate the pain, which was stated in Zhang Yimou's audio commentary.

Most of the film was shot in Ukraine's Carpathian Mountains (the Hutsul Region National Park), such as the scenes in the snow or birch forests. The cast and production team spent 70 days on location from September to October 2003 and were largely based in Kosiv.[3] The notable bamboo forest sequences were filmed in China. However, due to the early snowfall, the filmmakers opted to alter the script and certain sequences rather than wait for the snow to thaw as the leaves were still on the trees. Director Zhang Yimou later stated that despite the unpredictable weather forcing the alterations, he had achieved the desired effect in the scenery and was happy with the final result.[4]

Like its predecessor Hero, House of Flying Daggers uses wuxing color theory in both a deliberate and ironic manner.

Literary origins[edit]

The film features the theme of a beautiful woman who brings woe to two men. This theme is borrowed from a famous poem written by the Han Dynasty poet Li Yannian (李延年):

北běi 方fāng 有yǒu 佳jiā 人rén， 絕jué 世shì 而ér 獨dú 立lì。 一yí 顧gù 傾qīng 人rén 城chéng， 再zài 顧gù 傾qīng 人rén 國guó。 寧nìng 不bù 知zhī 傾qīng 城chéng 與yǔ 傾qīng 國guó。 佳jiā 人rén 難nán 再zài 得dé。

Traditional ChineseSimplified Chinese

北方有佳人，絕世而獨立。
一顧傾人城，再顧傾人國。
寧不知傾城與傾國。
佳人難再得。

北方有佳人，绝世而独立。
一顾倾人城，再顾倾人国。
宁不知倾城与倾国。
佳人难再得。

Pinyin transcriptionEnglish translation

Běifāng yǒu jiārén, juéshì ér dúlì.
Yí gù qīng rén chéng, zài gù qīng rén guó.
Nǐng bù zhī qīng chéng yǔ qīng guó.
Jiārén nán zài dé.

In the north there is a beauty; peerless and independent.
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 a nation that will be overthrown.
As it would be difficult to behold such a beauty again.

Release[edit]

Box office[edit]

House of Flying Daggers opened in North America on 3 December 2004 in 15 theatres. It grossed US$397,472 ($26,498 per screen) in its opening weekend. The film's total North American gross is $11,050,094. Afterwards, the film went on to earned at least 50% more in United States home video market than in theatrical box office.[2]

The film made an additional US$81,751,003 elsewhere in the world, bringing its total worldwide box-office gross to $92,801,097. It was also the third-highest-grossing foreign-language film in the North America market in 2004.[5]

Critical reception[edit]

House of Flying Daggers debuted in May at the 2004 Cannes Film Festival[6] to enthusiastic receptions.[7][8] The film reportedly received a 20-minute standing ovation at its Cannes Film Festival premiere.[9]

The film received critical acclaim.[10] At film review aggregation website Metacritic, the film received an average score of 89 out of 100, based on 37 reviews, indicating "universal acclaim".[10] Rotten Tomatoes gives the film a "Certified Fresh" score of 87%, based on reviews from 173 critics, and an average rating of 7.76/10. The website's critical consensus states, "The visual splendor of the movie makes up for the weak story".[11] Metacritic also ranked the film at the end of the year as the fifth-best reviewed film of 2004.[12]

Phil Hall of Film Threat wrote: "Quite simply, House of Flying Daggers is a film that sets several new standards for production and entertainment values. It is a wild riot of color, music, passion, action, mystery, pure old-fashioned thrills, and even dancing. With an endless supply of imagination and a kinetic force of nature in its amazing star Zhang Ziyi, House of Flying Daggers cuts all other films to shreds."[13] Desson Thomas of The Washington Post praised the director Zhang Yimou's use of color in the film as "simply the best in the world" and described the film as: "the slow-motion trajectory of a small bean, hurled from a police captain's hand, is a spectacular thing. It's a stunning, moving image, like a hummingbird caught in action."[14] While Kevin Thomas of the Los Angeles Times praised the film by stating: "House of Flying Daggers finds the great Chinese director at his most romantic in this thrilling martial arts epic that involves a conflict between love and duty carried out to its fullest expression."[15]

A. O. Scott of The New York Times described the film as: "A gorgeous entertainment, a feast of blood, passion, and silk brocade." The review also stated: "House of Flying Daggers for all its fire and beauty, may leave you a bit cold in the end."[16] Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun Times gave the film four out of four stars and states: "Forget about the plot, the characters, the intrigue, which are all splendid in House of Flying Daggers, and focus just on the visuals", and Ebert also states: "the film is so good to look at and listen to that, as with some operas, the story is almost beside the point, serving primarily to get us from one spectacular scene to another."[17] House of Flying Daggers was placed at number 93 on Slant Magazine's best films of the 2000s.[18] and ranked number 77 in Empire's "The 100 Best Films Of World Cinema" in 2010.[19]

Home media[edit]

In the United Kingdom, the film was watched by 1.7 million viewers on Channel 4 in 2007, making it the year's most-watched foreign-language film on UK television.[20] It was later watched by 600,000 UK viewers on Channel 4 in 2009, again making it the year's most-watched foreign-language film on Channel 4.[21] Combined, the film drew a 2.3 million UK viewership on Channel 4 in 2007 and 2009.

Accolades[edit]

Won
Nominations

Soundtrack[edit]

House of Flying Daggers
Soundtrack album by 
Shigeru Umebayashi
Released
  • 15 July 2004 (Hong Kong)
  • 7 December 2004 (United States)
GenreStage & Screen Classical
Length49:37
LabelEdko (Hong Kong)
Sony (United States)
ProducerShigeru Umebayashi

The soundtrack was produced and created by Shigeru Umebayashi, featuring vocals by Zhang Ziyi and Kathleen Battle. It was released in Hong Kong on 15 July 2004 by the film's production company and distributor Edko Films. The US version was released by Sony Music Entertainment on 7 December 2004.

  1. "Opening Title" – 0:58
  2. "Beauty Song" (佳人曲) – 2:32 (Zhang Ziyi)
  3. "The Echo Game" – 1:17
  4. The Peonyhouse – 1:22
  5. "Battle in the Forest" – 3:26
  6. "Taking Her Hand" – 1:14
  7. "Leo's Eyes" – 1:51
  8. "Lovers-Flower Garden" – 2:19
  9. "No Way Out" – 3:59
  10. "Lovers" – 1:54
  11. "Farewell No. 1" – 2:42
  12. "Bamboo Forest" – 2:36
  13. "Ambush in Ten Directions" (十面埋伏) – 2:01
  14. "Leo's Theme" – 2:36
  15. "Mei and Leo" – 3:06
  16. "The House of Flying Daggers" – 1:27
  17. "Lovers-Mei and Jin" – 4:21
  18. "Farewell No. 2" – 2:49
  19. "Until The End " – 2:55
  20. "Title Song Lovers" – 4:12 (Kathleen Battle)

See also[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ "House of Flying Daggers (15) (CUT)". British Board of Film Classification. 14 December 2004. Retrieved 24 November 2016.
  2. ^ Jump up to:a b Kaufman, Anthony. "Survivor: Niche island", Variety, Feb 6, 2006
  3. ^ Dmitrenko, Natalia. "Китай у Карпатах, або Як в Україні знімали блокбастер "Будинок літаючих кинджалів" (China in the Carpathians, or how the blockbuster House of Flying Daggers was filmed in Ukraine)" (in Ukrainian). Україна Молода. Retrieved 1 October 2015.
  4. ^ "House of Flying Daggers". Landmark Theaters. Archived from the original on 22 November 2008. Retrieved 30 April 2009.
  5. ^ "House of Flying Daggers (2004) – Box Office Mojo". www.boxofficemojo.com.
  6. ^ "Festival de Cannes: House of Flying Daggers". festival-cannes.com. Retrieved 5 December 2009.
  7. ^ "Cannes Film Festival 2004". Maclean's Magazine. Retrieved 28 July 2008.
  8. ^ Peter Bradshaw (20 May 2004). "Cannes 2004: Review roundup". The Guardian. Retrieved 28 July 2008.
  9. ^ "Daggers of the mind". Japan Today. 29 July 2004. Archived from the original on 20 December 2008. Retrieved 28 July 2008.
  10. ^ Jump up to:a b "House of Flying Daggers". Metacritic. CBS. Retrieved 28 July 2008.
  11. ^ "House of Flying Daggers". Rotten Tomatoes. Flixster. Retrieved 28 July 2008.
  12. ^ "Best Movies for 2004". Metacritic. CBS. Retrieved 28 July 2008.
  13. ^ Phil Hall (5 September 2004). "House of Flying Daggers". Retrieved 28 July 2008.
  14. ^ Desson Thomson (17 December 2004). "'Daggers' Flies Off The Screen". The Washington Post. Retrieved 28 July 2008.
  15. ^ Kevin Thomas (3 December 2004). "'House of Flying Daggers'". Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on 11 June 2008. Retrieved 28 July 2008.
  16. ^ A. O. Scott (3 December 2004). "Fanciful Flights of Blood and Passion". The New York Times. Retrieved 28 July 2008.
  17. ^ Roger Ebert (17 December 2004). "House of Flying Daggers". RogerEbert.com. Retrieved 28 July 2008.
  18. ^ "Best of the Aughts: Film". Slant Magazine. Retrieved 10 February 2010.
  19. ^ "The 100 Best Films Of World Cinema – 77. House of Flying Daggers". Empire.
  20. ^ "Statistical Yearbook 08" (PDF). UK Film Council. p. 87. Retrieved 21 April 2022 – via British Film Institute.
  21. ^ "Statistical Yearbook 10" (PDF). UK Film Council. 2010. p. 91. Retrieved 21 April 2022 – via British Film Institute.

External links[edit]

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Shan shui - Wikipedia

Shan shui - Wikipedia

Shan shui

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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This article is about a style of Chinese painting. For Chinese landscape poetry, see Shanshui poetry.
Early Spring, painted by Northern Song dynasty artist Guo Xi (c.1020 – c. 1090 AD)
A painting by Yuan dynasty artist Gao Kegong (1248–1310)
A painting by Ming dynasty artist Shen Zhou, 1467
Painting by Qing dynasty artist Wang Hui, 1679
A river journey with the first snow (五代南唐 趙幹 江行初雪圖) by Chao Khan

Shan shui (Chinese: 山水; pinyin: shān shuǐ; lit. 'mountain-water'; pronounced [ʂán ʂwèɪ]) refers to a style of traditional Chinese painting that involves or depicts scenery or natural landscapes, using a brush and ink rather than more conventional paints. Mountains, rivers and waterfalls are common subjects of shan shui paintings.

History[edit]

Chinese landscape painting timeline

Shan shui painting first began to develop in the 5th century,[1] in the Liu Song dynasty.[2] It was later characterized by a group of landscape painters such as Zhang Zeduan,[3] most of them already famous, who produced large-scale landscape paintings. These landscape paintings usually centered on mountains. Mountains had long been seen as sacred places in China,[4] which were viewed as the homes of immortals and thus, close to the heavens. Philosophical interest in nature, or in mystical connotations of naturalism, could also have contributed to the rise of landscape painting. The art of shan shui, like many other styles of Chinese painting has a strong reference to Taoism/Daoism imagery and motifs,[5] as symbolisms of Taoism strongly influenced "Chinese landscape painting".[5] Some authors have suggested that Daoist stress on how minor the human presence is in the vastness of the cosmos, or Neo-Confucian interest in the patterns or principles that underlie all phenomena, natural and social lead to the highly structuralized nature of shan shui.[6]

Concepts[edit]

Most dictionaries and definitions of shan shui assume that the term includes all ancient Chinese paintings with mountain and water images.[3] Contemporary Chinese painters, however, feel that only paintings with mountain and water images that follow specific conventions of form, style and function should be called "shan shui painting".[4][6] When Chinese painters work on shan shui painting, they do not try to present an image of what they have seen in the nature, but what they have thought about nature. No one cares whether the painted colors and shapes look like the real object or not.[3]

According to Ch'eng Hsi:

Shan shui painting is a kind of painting which goes against the common definition of what a painting is. Shan shui painting refutes color, light and shadow and personal brush work. Shan shui painting is not an open window for the viewer's eye, it is an object for the viewer's mind. Shan shui painting is more like a vehicle of philosophy.[6]

Compositions[edit]

Shan shui paintings involve a complicated and rigorous set of almost mystical requirements[7] for balance, composition, and form. All shan shui paintings should have 3 basic components:

Paths – Pathways should never be straight. They should meander like a stream. This helps deepen the landscape by adding layers. The path can be the river, or a path along it, or the tracing of the sun through the sky over the shoulder of the mountain.[3] The concept is to never create inorganic patterns, but instead to mimic the patterns that nature creates.

The Threshold – The path should lead to a threshold. The threshold is there to embrace you and provide a special welcome. The threshold can be the mountain, or its shadow upon the ground, or its cut into the sky.[3] The concept is always that a mountain or its boundary must be defined clearly.

The Heart – The heart is the focal point of the painting and all elements should lead to it. The heart defines the meaning of the painting.[3] The concept should imply that each painting has a single focal point, and that all the natural lines of the painting direct inwards to this point.

Elements and colors[edit]

Shan shui is painted and designed in accordance with Chinese elemental theory with five elements representing various parts of the natural world, and thus has specific directions for colorations that should be used in 'directions' of the painting, as to which should dominate.[8]

DirectionElementColour
EastWoodGreen
SouthFireRed
NE / SWEarthTan or Yellow
West / NWMetalWhite or gold
NorthWaterBlue or Black

Positive interactions between the Elements are:

  • Wood produces Fire
  • Fire produces Earth
  • Earth produces Metal
  • Metal produces Water
  • Water produces Wood.

Elements that react positively should be used together. For example, Water complements both Metal and Wood; therefore, a painter would combine blue and green or blue and white. There is a positive interaction between Earth and Fire, so a painter would mix Yellow and Red.[4]

Negative interactions between the Elements are:

  • Wood uproots Earth
  • Earth blocks Water
  • Water douses Fire
  • Fire melts Metal
  • Metal chops Wood

Elements that interact negatively should never be used together. For example, Fire will not interact positively with Water or Metal so a painter would not choose to mix red and blue, or red and white.[2]

Connection to poetry[edit]

Main article: Shanshui poetry

A certain movement in poetry, influenced by the shan shui style, came to be known as Shanshui poetry. Sometimes, the poems were designed to be viewed with a particular work of art, others were intended to be "textual art" that invoked an image inside a reader's mind.[9]

Influence[edit]

Animation and film[edit]

The art form of shan shui has been popular to the point where a Chinese animation from 1988 entitled Feeling from Mountain and Water uses the same art style and even the term for the film's title. Additionally, many recent movies and plays produced in China, specifically House of Flying Daggers and Hero, use elements of the style itself in the sets, as well as the elemental aspects in providing "balance".[10]

Construction[edit]

The term shan shui is sometimes extended to include gardening and landscape design, particularly within the context of feng shui.[11]

See also[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ Wen Fong (1992). Beyond Representation: Chinese Painting and Calligraphy, 8th–14th Century. Metropolitan Museum of Art. p. 71. ISBN 978-0-300-05701-0.
  2. ^ Jump up to:a b Textual Evidence for the Secular Arts of China in the Period from Liu Sung through Sui (1967) by Alexander Soper
  3. ^ Jump up to:a b c d e f Sirén, Osvald (1956). Chinese Painting: Leading Masters and Principles. Ronald Press. pp. 62, 104.
  4. ^ Jump up to:a b c Yee, Chiang; S.I. Hsiung (1964). The Chinese eye: An interpretation of Chinese painting. Indiana University Press.
  5. ^ Jump up to:a b Northrop, Filmer Stuart Cuckow (1949). Ideological Differences and World Order: Studies in the Philosophy and Science of the World's Culture. Yale University Press. p. 64. ISBN 0-8371-5228-3.
  6. ^ Jump up to:a b c Robert J. Maeda; et al. (1970). Two Twelfth Century Texts on Chinese Painting. University of Michigan, Center for Chinese Studies. p. 16. ISBN 0-89264-008-1.
  7. ^ Wicks, Robert 1954 – "Being in the Dry Zen Landscape", The Journal of Aesthetic Education – Volume 38, Number 1, Spring 2004, pp. 112–122
  8. ^ Early Chinese Texts on Painting by Susan Bush, Hsio-yen Shih. Chinese Literature: Essays, Articles, Reviews, Vol. 7, No. 1/2 (Jul., 1985), pp. 153–159
  9. ^ Chu-chin Sun, Cecile (1995). Pearl from the Dragon's Mouth: Evocation of Scene and Feeling in Chinese Poetry. University of Michigan: Center for Chinese Studies. p. 43. ISBN 9780892641109.
  10. ^ Berry, Michael (2005). Speaking in Images: Interviews with Contemporary Chinese Filmmakers. Columbia University Press. ISBN 9780231133319.
  11. ^ Birmingham Museum of Art (1984). Landscape Painting in Contemporary China. Birmingham, Alabama: Birmingham Museum of Art. ISBN 9780931394164.

External links[edit]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Shan shui.
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