- Played by emerging Chinese superstar Zhang Ziyi as a young Chinese woman in love with Itami (Toru Nakamura), a Japanese man about to be sent home for military service. Devastated, she moves back to Shanghai only to witness the death of her elder brother during an attack by the Japanese extreme right then, changes her name to Ding Hui and joins a secret resistance group code-named Purple Butterfly.
The story of a man's parents' courtship unfolds when he comes home to bury his father.
Genre: Foreign Film - Chinese
Rating: G
Release Date: 27-NOV-2001
Media Type: DVDAt the start of the most recent film from Chinese director Zhang Yimou (
Raise the Red Lantern,
Ju Dou,
Shanghai Triad), a young man returns to his native village after the death of his father, the village's schoolteacher, who died while trying to raise money for a new school! house. His body is in a neighboring town; the young man's mother insists that it be brought back on foot, lest his spirit not find his way home. From this starting point, the young man recounts the tale of his parents' courtship, which involved a red banner, mushroom dumplings, a colorful barrette, and a broken bowl.
The Road Home is beautifully filmed, particularly the luminous face of Zhang Ziyi (from
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon), whose performance is a heartrending portrait of hope and yearning. A simple but deeply emotional film.
--Bret FetzerHOUSE OF FLYING DAGGERS - DVD MovieNo one uses color like Chinese director Zhang Yimou--movies like
Raise the Red Lantern or
Hero, though different in tone and subject matter, are drenched in rich, luscious shades of red, blue, yellow, and green.
House of Flying Daggers is no exception; if they weren't choreographed with such vigorous imagination, the spectacular action sequences would s! eem little more than an excuse for vivid hues rippling across ! the scre en. Government officers Leo and Jin (Asian superstars Andy Lau and Takeshi Kaneshiro) set out to destroy an underground rebellion called the House of Flying Daggers (named for their weapon of choice, a curved blade that swoops through the air like a boomerang). Their only chance to find the rebels is a blind women named Mei (Ziyi Zhang,
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon) who has some lethal kung fu moves of her own. In the guise of an aspiring rebel, Jin escorts Mei through gorgeous forests and fields that become bloody battlegrounds as soldiers try to kill them both. While arrows and spears of bamboo fly through the air, Mei, Jin, and Leo turn against each other in surprising ways, driven by passion and honor. Zhang's previous action/art film,
Hero, sometimes sacrificed momentum for sheer visual beauty;
House of Flying Daggers finds a more muscular balance of aesthetic splendor and dazzling swordplay.
--Bret FetzerCynthia is a young Chinese woman in! love with Itami, a Japanese man about to be sent home for military service. A devastated Cynthia moves back to Shanghai only to witness the death of her elder brother during an attack by the Japanese extreme right. She changes her name and joins a secret resistance group code named Purple Butterfly the same group that years later will plot to assassinate ItamiZhang Ziyi looks as beautiful as ever in
Purple Butterfly, a film that takes her out of the martial-arts world of
Hero and
House of Flying Daggers. She plays a member of Purple Butterfly, an underground resistance group fighting against the Japanese aggression in early-1930s China. The movie's central dilemma comes when her ex-lover, a Japanese agent (Toru Nakamura), returns to Shanghai and is earmarked for assassination by Purple Butterfly. This compelling-sounding set-up is frustratingly unfulfilled, as director Ye Lou (
Shuzou River) opts for an opaque brand of storytelling, in which ch! ronology is jumbled and drama short-circuited. The film looks ! gorgeous , but it is close to impossible to understand what is going on at any given moment. If handsome images and dreamlike editing are enough, the movie might work for a very select group of patient viewers and Zhang Ziyi fanatics.
--Robert Horton
6:08 AM
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