Review: House of Flying Daggers (2004)

* * * *
Director: Zhang Yimou
Starring: Andy Lau, Zhang Ziyi, Takeshi Kaneshiro

The most surprising thing about Zhang Yimou's House of Flying Daggers is that it gained a high enough profile in North America to net cinematographer Zhao Xiaoding an Oscar nomination, but didn't receive nominations for its costume or production design. House of Flying Daggers is a stunningly beautiful film in every respect, one that moves from one amazing set piece to another as it unfolds a tale of adventure and romance. One of China's major contemporary filmmakers (and one who may cross over in North America when his first English-language film, The Great Wall is released later this year), Zhang has several great, gorgeous looking films to his credit and House of Flying Daggers is one of his best and most enthralling.

Review: The Grandmaster (2013)

* * 1/2
Director: Wong Kar-wai
Starring: Tony Leung, Ziyi Zhang

As a visual work, Wong Kar-wai's action biopic The Grandmaster is nothing short of spectacular. Photographed by Philippe Le Sourd (Oscar nominated for his work here) the film is crisply, gorgeously rendered, capturing the sumptuousness of the more ornate sets and the brutal precision of the action sequences in equal measure. As a visual piece, it works splendidly. As a story it finds less success, following its characters over the course of twenty or so years and during a period of intense social and political flux and change, but never really finding its center. It's saved by strong performances and perfectly executed action pieces, but remains a film with a measurable disparity between its ambition and its execution.