Friday, October 29, 2004
House of Flying Daggers & Space Travelers
In September at the Telluride Film Festival Lesley and I saw Zhang Yimou’s latest: House of Flying Daggers. It is a story of doomed love and betrayal set against political struggle in the mold of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, and related to Yimou’s next to latest: Hero (only with its theme being pretty much the opposite of that picture).
It was exquisitely beautiful to behold and the audience broke into spontaneous applause at the climax of several elaborate and brilliantly staged set-pieces. The film is a type of ballet involving arrows, swords, brightly patterned fabrics, and bamboo. Obviously many of the stunts are tricks utilizing wire, but still one can’t help but wonder often, "How they do that?"
Set in feudal China (is that a legitimate period?) the first 20 minutes or so take place indoors in a gloriously colorful house of entertainment (or house of a thousand fabrics maybe) where we meet all our new friends. Not long after, they all head outdoors into forest and field for the remainder. (This involves a change of clothes and identity for most.)
As a blind dancer (and so much more), Zhang Ziyi is as lovely as ever, especially when she changes into "men’s" clothes. Her rival (and also much more) as portrayed by Takeshi Kaneshiro is very cute in his blue silk suit. And that bamboo is gorgeous.
Even though House of Flying Daggers won’t officially premiere in the states until December, I have just received the Hong Kong DVD from one of the Internet sources for such things. While not quite as rich as the film, the transfer looks pretty damn good. I speak of the DVD 9 version. It has the good transfer, DTS audio (oooh, listen to the wind!) and removable (and legible) English subtitles.
The DVD 5 version is not recommended, as it lacks all the above and features instead blurry transfer, plain stereo, and burned-in hard-to-read subs. Ugh.
I enjoyed the movie enormously when we first saw it. On repeat viewings the seemingly endless twists of the plot become more laughable when there’s no surprise and they seem to make less sense each time. But still it’s a visual/aural treat.
Mr. Kaneshiro looked vaguely familiar, and after doing a little research, I realized I had another of his films in my collection: a Japanese comedy (mostly) entitled Space Travelers, in which he is the good-looking leader of a trio of young would-be bank robbers.
Another of the gang is obsessed by an anime series with the same name as the movie. His real life has not featured much fun, so in his fantasy life he projects himself and his friends as incarnations of the cartoon heroes: the Space Travlers.
The three young men see this bank robbery as a quick way to fund their trip to paradise, which they understand must be just like the image on a postcard they carry with them: waves crashing on a tropical beach. Somewhere.
Space Travelers is goofy, but eventually moving.
Like the three young men who have filled their lives with dreams and fantasy, I must admit that as I walk away from a film like House of Flying Daggers I am filled with the momentary feeling that I could swing from sky high bamboo by my feet, swinging my sword expertly as I plummet screaming towards my enemy. I guess I can understand how with nothing else in their lives but each other, they might try to parlay a feeling like that into the down payment on an equally unrealisitc new life.
But my advice to the youth of Japan and maybe even America is: robbing banks is not a suitable way to achieve your goals.
My version of Space Travelers is a VCD I scored on ebay a few years ago during a period when I figured any movie I never hard of must be worth sending a few bucks to Hong Kong for. VCDs look like DVDs but they are actually CD Roms. The video compression on these shiny discs is pretty crummy and the subtitles are usually burned in and hard to decipher. A movie of normal running time requires two discs. The VCD experience adds even more foreignness to foreign films. If the movie is any good, you forget how hard on the eyes it was. Mostly.
Sometimes I do miss those VCD collecting days a little, but not when I spin up as sumptuous a DVD as House of Flying Daggers. Wind blowing through bamboo never looked (or sounded) so good.
