北方有佳人

I saw 十面埋伏, or House of Flying Daggers, on the flight from Tokyo to New York. Finally. Only one problem though -- the subtitles were in Japanese.

So the dialogue is in Chinese, which I kinda understand and the subtitles were in Japanese, which I kinda understand. Thankfully both were in (what I assume to be) the same style as 英雄, or Hero, which is halfway between the two... I'm going to have to watch it again with English subtitles just to make sure I'm understanding everything I should be understanding.

But just like 英雄,十面埋伏 is incredibly, incredibly beautiful. The scenery is amazing, the costumes brilliant, the actress gorgeous.

Pity about the story though. As far as I can tell...

A lot of people didn't like Hero because of the ending. I wasn't too happy with the ending, but it was respectably consistent. But House of Flying Daggers... it's a sappy, SAPPY love story with the only twist being that one loved her for three years and the other for three days yet she chose the one she knew for three days.

Life sucks, get a helmet, okay?

It may be that the song is prophetic, there are many different symmetries and all that. Still.

Life sucks, get a helmet.

Thankfully, unlike Lucy Liu, 章子怡 is actually beautiful and 和田恵美's costumes are stunning. They don't redeem the story or lack thereof, but do make it worth watching House of Flying Daggers again and again.