I'm going to predict a bit lower at $800,000 next weekend. The film will probably top out at $10-$15 million.

Now can anyone tell me if it's Zhang ZiYi or Ziyi Zhang?

The posters say Ziyi Zhang, i always thought it was Zhang Ziyi? I'm lost

i was confused also, but im pretty sure its zhang ziyi

Zhang is her family name, and Ziyi is her given name. In Chinese, we put the family name first, so we call her "Zhang Ziyi". It's like Yao Ming. People in the states call him "Yao" even though that's his family name. With English tradition, it would've been "Ziyi Zhang" and "Ming Yao".

This is one of my favorites this year, and it's less than stellar last weeked was a little unsettling, but I still have high hopes, and I really want this to crack a million this weekend. I think it can.

Going to see it tonight. Also, Ebert finally posted his review, and it's nothing but raves.

Please please please give me your review when get back! Especially on the martial arts aspect of the film.. I really want to see it as well.

Sorry my friends changed the plan, and we weren't able to go to see it last night. Hopefully I can catch it tomorrow.

Xiayun, I've upgraded by rating for Hero after taking a closer look at it.


I was initially disappointed because I expected something else. Now, while I can't say the film as a whole particularly affected me, the visuals certainly did, and it's artistry is nothing short of stunning.


I felt a greater attraction to CTHDr, but that doesn't mean I don't admire Hero's achievements as well.

I'm looking forward to seeing this asap I can't wait!

Watched it for the 8:10pm show on Saturday. One word: Wow! Going in, I was expecting something similar to Hero where I would be awed by the visual but not be able to get into the story, but it turned out to be quite different. The visual is as stunning as ever, but unlike Hero, it flowed with the story very well. With Hero, I felt I was constantly reminded how good the film looks to the point it really distracted the story, and that's also because the story didn't work that well with me. With HOFD, I was very much into the story the whole way and never felt the visual was taking over the film. The multiple twists were very well done and took me by surprise. Zhang Ziyi really showed her skill here and gave the best performance of her career IMO. It's hard already to play a blind person convincingly, and it's even harder when you have to fight and do martial arts blind. Ziyi pulled it off magnificantly. Her eye expression and body movement were perfect throughout. She also showed off her great dancing skills at the beginning Takeshi Kaneshiro was also very good, but I found Andy Lau's performance rather bland. The dialog in Chinese is still cheesy at times, although they did a very good job with the English translation. They should've cut a few more minutes from the final act because it dragged on a little too long and diminish the overall emotional impact. The lady sitting next to me was choking tears and crying for the last 30 minutes of the movie, and I was afraid she might stop crying before the movie ended. That would be a failure IMO since it should leave the audience at their emotional high, such as what CTHD did with Michelle Yeoh dying at the end.

Overal, a great experience at the movie theater. I highly recommend it, especially those who are disappointed with Hero (e.g. Zing and Dolce). I believe you'll find it quite different. The story here is simpler and flows better. Currently my No. 3 film of the year. A-.

How does it compare to Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, Michael?

Hard to say. They're right next to each other in my book. I still think CTHD's story telling is more delicated and better structured, but the way HOFD unfolded, I couldn't find more than a few small faults about it. All three (CTHD, Hero, and HOFD) feel different, and there is no gaurantee that you like one then you definitely like another.

Well, the thing is that I do not like CTHD. I thought that the action, while well-done at times, way too overdone at other times and I found the story to be a bit bland and the movie overall somewhat overrated. As of now, I'd give it a B- (originally when it came out it was a B+).

HOFD has much less over-the-top flying actions. There is no flying over the pond or suspending in the air, so in a sense, the action is more realistic here but still beautifully choreographed.

Crouching Tiger, with the exception of the faux-looking over-the-top flying action scenes, was the better movie

Too bad Ang Lee's next effort ended up driving BKB insane.

I agree with most of xaiyun's comments. Here's what I wrote in the crowd report thread:



So, basically I rank it very highly. hehe. Slightly ahead of CTHD in my book. The visuals are better then Hero IMO. As spectacular as I found the visuals in I, Robot to be, espcially with that Robot fight in the hallway and the finale on the catwalks, HOFD was better largely with shots the flying daggers themselves. The action isn't always realistic but it is more so then Hero or CTHD. Purely as a visual spectacle I can't think of another film off the top of my head to match it.

Really the main difference with Hero IMO was the story as xiayun said. I'm usually good at seeing the twists coming, but for this film I was caught off guard by most of them. That might be because they were hard to guess, or because I didn't find myself thinking about what the next twist would be. Either way I think it's telling. I also thought Takeshi Kaneshiro and Zhang Ziyi were both great.

I was thinking of my top films of all time recently, and I came to realize that they overwelmingly share one characteristic. HOFD has that, and it probably caused me to rank it more highly then I otherwise would have, but even without it, I think this is a great movie.

I can't wait to see it! Thanks for the review.

I just finished watching Kill Bill vol. 1 and 2 on a gigantic screen tv with 800 watt sorround sound.. It was great

And i hope i get crouchign tiger DVD for xmas

I might see it the day after Christmas or the weekend after that (If it's out of the theatre I go to I'm going to cry...), I'm psyched. I feel like watching Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon now, I'll watch it tonight. I still need to see Hero.

Zhang Yimou's "House of Flying Daggers" tops Chinese box office in 2004. Hero still has the record with about 300 million RMD, or $36.3 million dollars.

Sounds good to me. I'll probably check it out.

As for the box-office performance in the States, well, it is far from stellar. I see it barely crossing $10 million in total. If it wins Best Foreign Picture, then maybe $12-14 million.

Does anyone have any clue as to when this movie is going wide (ie., more than 145 theatres)? I've already seen it once on a bootleg DVD, but I really need to appreciate its brilliance on the big screen. My number 3 movie of the year behind The Village and Kill Bill Volume 2.

It's currently scheduled to go wide (over 1000 theaters) on January 14. You can check its main site for more showtime details.

I'm watching this very, very soon, and looking as much forward to it as ever.

I'm glad you guys enjoyed it and seemed to prefer it to Hero.

Hey Box is it playing in Toronto? And if so do you know where? I should just check some movie website .. I hope it's not playing at a crap theatre.