House of the Flying Daggers

The obvious comparison here would be Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. This did not hold a candle to that film. House of the Flying Daggers was extremely beautiful. The score and the cast were beautiful, but it did not have the same resonance as Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. Nor was the love story as touching. I think when May's (Zhang Ziyi) long lost love; Leo (Andy Lau Tak Wah) said that she had only known Jin (an extremely hot Takeshi Kaneshiro) for 3 days, and how could she love him, he hit the nail on the head. The relationship between the characters that were played by Chow Yun Fat and Michelle Yeoh in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, was far more subtle, and believable...and heartbreaking. I found myself toward the end of House of the Flying Daggers, anxiously awaiting the final moments. I sometimes wonder if a certain mood I am in will trigger a bad reaction to some films. This film lent itself to a definite, "no". I was with it from the get-go, but by the end, I had lost interest. The overuse of slow motion was very distracting. The final battle between Jin and Leo went on forever, and I found it ironic that w/in the scene, the seasons changed. I really tried to like this, but it did not do it for me. However, one of the early sequences; the drum dance; was breathtaking. The film looked nice, but I could have cared less about the plot or the characters. I tried. The filmmakers failed. Not completely. I am not that mean.