I know we discussed this a bit before, and disagree, but I liked the fact that House of Flying Daggers focused on the individuals. It's reasonably rare that a movie looks at people, but still shows how much they are affected by the larger situation - usually we get either sweeping epics w/ the individuals nearly lost, or we get personal stories where the outside world is only really there as an obstacle - here you had people who'd given up years of their lives and contact w/ loved ones over the large issues, and lovers who were forced to choose between their ideals and each other (or they would have had to if they hadn't all died). It wasn't all- oh, I love you and nothing else matters, but rather, I love you, and that doesn't fit in neatly and and what do I do now?
After all, what is the whole crazy world if not just a conglomeration of individual people, and what was Casablanca if not an intimate look at a few people whose lives were derailed by interesting times? House of Flying Daggers may not have done it as well as Casablanca, but I think it's exactly the same type of storytelling, at exactly the same scale. A love triangle, with war as a backdrop. We weren't shown any of the larger battles or final outcomes in Casablanca either, we just happen to know about them from history class.
Although I admit to being dissappointed in Leo at the end of the film- if he'd kept playing grownup for just a few more minutes, no one needed to die at all.
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Date: 2005-02-17 02:25 pm (UTC)After all, what is the whole crazy world if not just a conglomeration of individual people, and what was Casablanca if not an intimate look at a few people whose lives were derailed by interesting times? House of Flying Daggers may not have done it as well as Casablanca, but I think it's exactly the same type of storytelling, at exactly the same scale. A love triangle, with war as a backdrop. We weren't shown any of the larger battles or final outcomes in Casablanca either, we just happen to know about them from history class.
Although I admit to being dissappointed in Leo at the end of the film- if he'd kept playing grownup for just a few more minutes, no one needed to die at all.