Movie – House of Flying Daggers (2004)

After the success of his 2002 film Hero director Zhang Yimou returned to the wuxia genre to make House of Flying Daggers.  This movie is set several hundred years later than Hero, specifically in the 9^th century during the decline of the Tang Dynasty.  While Hero was overlooked by the Academy for a Cinematography nomination, House of Flying Daggers was not.  It was the only Oscar nomination the film received, though.  This time around Zhang’s movie has just as much intrigue and plotting as in Hero, but he adds a romantic component.  The result is a film that may go in directions that you are not expecting.

Movie – Hero (2002)

Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon had opened the door for big budget, well done martial arts dramas.  In my opinion the 2002 film Hero perfected them.  First, it is one of the most beautiful films I have ever seen.  How this did not even receive an Oscar nomination for Cinematography, let alone win, is beyond me.  Second it has universal themes of heroism and sacrifice that will resonate with most everyone who watches it.  Finally, it is directed by the most respected Chinese film director there is – Zhang Yimou.  The result is the best martial arts film I have ever seen.

Movie – Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000)

Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (CTHD) was a landmark martial arts film in many ways.  Prior to 2000 most people in the U.S. thought of that genre as badly dubbed, poorly plotted, “chopsocky” films with cheesy sound effects.  This was due to all the inexpensive films of this nature that made up a lot of weekend TV programming.  CTHD is about as far from that as you can get.  It was the first martial arts film ever nominated for a Best Picture Oscar (and this was back when only five films could be nominated).  In fact, it received a total of 10 nominations – the most ever for a foreign language film.  It won four of them, including wins for Cinematography, Score, and Art Direction.  No foreign language film has ever won Best Picture, but in my opinion this should have been the one to do it.  While Gladiator was an entertaining film, CTHD was the better of the two.

Movies Where Ballet Dancers Kick Ass

“She does 95% of her [fighting] stunts herself, which was important to me because I could do long takes of her.  She’s a dancer and therefore we were able to train her in ways other action heroes simply cannot do, including this kick coming up.  The stunt coordinator came to me and said, ‘She can kick a guy in the head, behind her, around a pole.’” – Joss Whedon discussing actress and former ballerina Summer Glau in his commentary for his 2005 movie Serenity

I don’t know about you, but ballet dancers are not the first people I think of when the phrase “kicking ass” is mentioned.  (Just look at the street gangs in the opening of 1961’s West Side Story, for instance.)  However, a few of them have found a home in movies where they get to play action heroes or villains.  In these cases, their ability to learn complex series of fighting exchanges, and to move their bodies in ways most people cannot, serves them well.

One woman in particular has used her skills in several movies.  That actress is Zhang Ziyi.  She has appeared in three movies that I will be reviewing – Hero (2002), House of Flying Daggers, and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.  She also appeared in Rush Hour 2, but I won’t be reviewing that.

Another actress who I know started out as a ballerina is Summer Glau.  She is referenced in the quote at the top of this post.  I have a link to my Serenity review below.

As for the men, the two most famous that made the transition to acting are Mikhail Baryshnikov and Alexander Godunov.  I have not seen any movie of Baryshnikov’s where he really gets to do a big action scene.  Godunov does get to play a major villain in Die Hard.  He has a big fight with Bruce Willis (or at least Willis’ stunt double).  I have a link to my Die Hard review below.

As I post the new reviews, I will come back and post the links to them here:

Serenity (previously posted)

Die Hard (previously posted)
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
Hero (2002)
House of Flying Daggers

On to the reviews…

Movie – Die Hard (1988)

I’m old enough that I saw Die Hard during its original run in the theaters.  I convinced my friend to go see it with me.  Even though it had a great trailer (“It will blow you through the back wall of the theater!”) he just didn’t think it would be that good.  The theater was only about 1/3 full on opening night, so a lot of other people probably thought it wasn’t going to be that good, either.  Well, it turned out to be one of the best, if not the best, action films ever made.  It’s number 1 on my list of the best non-traditional Christmas movies.

Movie – Serenity (2005)

Serenity was a movie Joss Whedon wrote and directed based on his TV show Firefly.  Please see my post on the TV series here.  It was a hugely satisfying movie, not just for fans, but also for people who had never seen the TV show.  One reviewer said that this was the kind of movie that Star Wars fans wished George Lucas was making when he was doing the prequels.  I consider this movie to be the best science fiction film released since The Matrix had come out six years earlier.