Went to the Odeon, Freeman's Common, to watch this with Lisa, Thomas And Patrick on Wednesday night.
Takeshi Kaneshiro (Chungking Express) plays the handsome Jin, sent on an undercover mission by Andy Lau (Infernal Affairs)'s corrupt Tang-Dynasty Officer Leo to investigate Mei (Ziyi Zhang - Crouching Tiger, Hero), a blind dancer rumored to be the daughter of the last known leader of the mysterious Flying Daggers, a band of deadly outlaws who rob from the rich and give to the poor.
That's about it, without giving the plot away. I really liked it. The whole Peony Palace section at the beginning of the film is astonishingly beautiful. The Tang Dynasty may have had it's problems, but where else could you play tug-of-war with a bunch of beautiful prostitutes? If any one knows the collective noun for prostitutes, please let me know. 'Bunch' seems extremely wrong.
The other outstanding section of the movie is the bamboo forest fight. One of the impressive things about the movie is how good the police are - all too often the police are regarded as nothing but fodder. And while most of them do end up butchered here, they demonstrate the kind of skill on their way to their heroic deaths usually reserved for lead characters.
Spoilers after the jump.
People have been complaining about the comedy ending, but it really made the film for me. Most of the audience laughed and people were shouting 'welcome back!' when Mei shows she was only having a rest, despite being stabbed in the heart and the guys fighting for about three months (Hurry up and kill him! Or it will be winter!).
Some guy in the audience actually shouted "look behind you!" in frustration at Jin's poor hearing. Usually going to the pictures is a reasonably solitary or at least unsociable activity, so I always love it when the audience is provoked into an audible community.
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