House of Flying Daggers
The Tang Dynasty in China is threatened by a faction known as the House of Flying Daggers. The police had been successful in assassinating its leader, but with its new replacement, the House is once again a threatening figure. A new dancer named Mei (Ziyi Zhang) is suspected to have ties with them, so the police headed by Jin (Takeshi Kaneshiro) and Leo (Andy Lau) hatch up a plan to infiltrate the House. But while all is not what it seems to be, Jin and Leo begin to show their love for Mei, leading to a greater battle between the three of them.

Director Zhang Yimou's second American offering falls off in quality from the first, Hero with Jet Li. This movie doesn't have the same natural beauty, though it's still pretty high, and it's really heavy on the melodrama. Frankly, it delivers the same tepid impact Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon produced. Mixing a heavily romantic storyline with multiple scenes of martial arts weakens the movie as a whole even if some of these scenes were exquisitely done. In fact, the House itself is completely forgotten about in the last half of the film. None of this takes away from the outstanding choreography of the fight scenes, a staple of Asian action films. 2.5 stars