HOUSE OF FLYING DAGGERS







OVERVIEW

This is one of my most anticipated films for the rest of this year. I have a deep respect of martial arts films, even those I don't consider to be great films. Case in point: I found Hero to be somewhat disappointing, but nevertheless saw great beauty in it. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon is easily my favourite, and for good reasons, I should think.


House of Flying Daggers is in the same vein as Hero and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. One connection between all three is Zhang Ziyi, who stars in this one as well.

From Yahoo:

Near the end of the Tang Dynasty, police deputies Jin (Kaneshiro) and Leo (Lau) tangle with Mei (Ziyi), a dancer suspected of having ties to a revolutionary faction known as the House of Flying Daggers. Enraptured by her, the deputies concoct a plan to save her from capture, and Jin leads her north in what becomes a perilous journey into the unknown.

The story, by all accounts, is supposed to be simplistic, with the visuals used to tell the real story. In other words, if what you saw in Hero and CTHD satisfied you, you might give this film a try.


It has already been out in China for a long time, and opened there on July 16th, in fact (July 15th in HongKong). It is coming to North America in limited run on December 3rd, and will hopefully expand thereafter. I'm not fancying big bucks here; chances are Spidey made more in a day than this will during its entire run. It should be noted that this is an Oscar contender, and his been submitted as such.

Credits

Starring: Ziyi Zhang, Andy Lau, Anita Mui, Dandan Song, Feng Lu, Takeshi Kaneshiro, Song Dandan

Director: Zhang Yimou

Producer: Zhang Yimou, Bill Kong

Screenwriters: Li Feng, Bin Wang, Zhang Yimou, Wang Bin

Executive Producer: Zhang Weiping

Release Dates

France May 19 (Cannes Film Festival)
Hong Kong July 15
China July 16 (Beijing) (premiere)
Singapore July 29
USA August 3 (Telluride Film Festival)
Malaysia August 5
Thailand August 5
Japan August 28
South Korea September 10
Canada September 11 (Toronto Film Festival)
Italy October 1
Norway October 7 (Films From The South Festival)
USA October 9 (New York Film Festival)
Philippines October 13
Norway October 14 (Bergen International Film Festival)
Argentina October 18 (Semana de Cine Chino)
UK October 28 (London Film Festival)
Denmark October 29
France November 17
Belgium November 24
USA December 3 (limited)
Canada December 17 (presumably this is the wide release, I hope at least)
Germany January 6
Netherlands January 6
Australia January 20
Czech Republic March 17

You can see that it is rolling out unevenly. I'll put up as many Intl. numbers as I can find, since the film has already been released in quite a few markets, including some big ones. But you can see some heavy areas are still ahead of it, not least the US, France, and Germany.






RESOURCES


To view the trailer click here

Official website: http://www.houseofflyingdaggers.com/

Sony website: http://www.sonyclassics.com/houseofflyingdaggers

Sony Classics is the US distributor, btw.

Even more trailers (and additional info):

http://www.thezreview.co.uk/comingsoon/ ... aggers.htm


IMAGES

From the images you have shown so far, it looks to be of the same calibur of Crouching Tiger and Hero.

The story synopsis sounds vauge and open. I have no idea what type of movie it could become.

I will likly base my decision to see it or not on WOM and reviews. Most likly it looks to be a blind buy dvd if it has good reviews.

Any word on how many theaters it is expected to roll out in?

KJ

To be honest, I have no clue beyond the basic facts. It seems to me that they will give it a run at a few select theatres, see how it does there, whether WOM spreads, etc. If it does look promising, they will hopefully expand it.


I would think that Hero's success would give this film a major boost; at the least, Sony will know there is a market for it.

My prediction at this moment would be that, if they release it in less than a handful, it could have a great PTA, maybe $50,000 for the first weekend simply based on the great buzz (considering it's such a small film compared to the blockbusters). I just hope word gets around quickly; December is filled with small films vying for viewer attention, and unlike Garden State and Napoleon, great films don't have enough space to get around before other ones come along.

Here's hoping for the best