House of Flying Daggers
Sony Pictures Classics | Release Date: December 3, 2004 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
89
METASCORE
Universal acclaim based on 37 Critic Reviews
Positive:
36
Mixed:
1
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
Film ThreatPhil Hall
Quite simply, House of Flying Daggers is a film that sets several new standards for production and entertainment values. It is a wild riot of color, music, passion, action, mystery, pure old-fashioned thrills and even dancing. Read full review
100
Christian Science MonitorDavid Sterritt
It's great, fantastical fun. Read full review
100
Los Angeles TimesKevin Thomas
House of Flying Daggers finds the great Chinese director at his most romantic in this thrilling martial arts epic that involves a conflict between love and duty carried out to its fullest expression. Read full review
100
Wall Street JournalJoe Morgenstern
An astonishing combination of spectacle, suspense, martial-arts flash, sublime silliness, anti-gravity action and passionate intensity -- before and after everything else, it's a grand love story.
100
New York Daily NewsJami Bernard
The most gorgeous movie of the year. This smashing martial-arts romance from Chinese director Zhang Yimou is stunning in other ways, too, like the eroticism that ripples just beneath the surface. Read full review
100
New York PostLou Lumenick
The movie equivalent of a 12-course feast crammed with unforgettable images and mind-boggling stunts. Read full review
100
TimeRichard Corliss
The cast list is like a convocation of the Three Chinas: Taiwan's Kaneshiro, Hong Kong's Lau and the mainland's Zhang Ziyi. All are terrific, but the lady shines brightest. Read full review
100
Chicago TribuneMichael Wilmington
It's as thrilling and lushly beautiful a movie as has been released all year, matched only by Zhang's epic "Hero." And I think this film is the more powerful. Read full review
100
Washington PostDesson Thomson
Chinese director Zhang Yimou understands perfectly that the small can be epic and awe-inspiring. And, by the way, he knows how to get big, too. Read full review
100
Chicago ReaderJ.R. Jones
Zhang weaves in both thrilling martial-arts set pieces and stunning studies of period silk tapestry and costume. Read full review
100
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger Ebert
Forget about the plot, the characters, the intrigue, which are all splendid in House of Flying Daggers, and focus just on the visuals. Read full review
100
Washington PostStephen Hunter
The sheer joy of letting go as a tale overwhelms your senses and drives the known world away -- that's the story. Read full review
100
SlateDavid Edelstein
This is the most intoxicatingly beautiful martial arts picture I've ever seen. Read full review
100
Philadelphia InquirerSteven Rea
It's action opera, sword-and-sorcery song-and-dance, and it's a heart-pumping, jaw-dropping thrill. OK, so I kind of like the thing. Read full review
100
Dallas ObserverRobert Wilonsky
Its exquisiteness can overwhelm in a single sitting. Read full review
100
Baltimore SunMichael Sragow
By turns breathtaking and heartbreaking. Read full review
100
Charlotte ObserverLawrence Toppman
He's (Yimou) like a painter combining bloody reds, sunshine yellows and pale blues in the harmony of a masterpiece. Read full review
91
Entertainment WeeklyOwen Gleiberman
An outrageously gorgeous spectacle of balletic aggression. At the same time, it offers something we rarely encounter in a whirling martial-arts extravaganza: a romantic passion that's woven into the very fabric of the action. Read full review
90
The Hollywood ReporterKirk Honeycutt
A glorious new addition to martial-arts cinema. Read full review
89
Austin ChronicleKimberley Jones
I don't know if the many plot swerves withstand a second viewing, but I suspect the meat of the matter – the swooning visuals, the expert choreography, the teasing love story – does. Read full review
88
Rolling StonePeter Travers
Forget "Hero" -- that cult hit was just Zhang Yimou's warm-up for this martial-arts fireball that throws in a lyrical love story, head-spinning fights and dazzling surprises. Read full review
88
Miami HeraldRene Rodriguez
The result is one of the most visually astonishing martial-arts fantasies ever made. Read full review
83
Portland OregonianShawn Levy
The second action melodrama released in the United States this year by director Zhang Yimou, and if I prefer the previous one, "Hero," it's partly a matter of degrees. Read full review
80
VarietyDerek Elley
The tangled tale of love and disguise is awesome in its action sequences but doesn't touch the heart to the same degree. Read full review
80
L.A. WeeklyDavid Chute
The most seamless piece of sensuous expressionism Zhang has created since "Ju Dou" (1990). Read full review
80
The New York TimesDana Stevens
A gorgeous entertainment, a feast of blood, passion and silk brocade. But though the picture is full of swirling, ecstatic motion, it is not especially moving. Read full review
80
The New YorkerAnthony Lane
You feel wiped and blinded by such ravishment, yet a voice within you asks: Come on, guys, can't you just stop for the holidays? Read full review
80
EmpireDan Jolin
This is how action movies should be made. Read full review
75
ReelViewsJames Berardinelli
If you think "Hero" is a sumptuous film, prepare to be blown away by House of Flying Daggers. Read full review
75
PremiereGlenn Kenny
All told, while the goods that Daggers offers are choice, the movie ultimately demonstrates that too much can be, well, more than enough. Read full review
75
Boston GlobeTy Burr
It's a perfect example of how far production design and editing WON'T take you when the story's not there. Read full review
75
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Liam Lacey
Actors Zhang Ziyi and Takeshi Kaneshiro are the kind of startlingly good-looking, glamorous stars that evoke classic Hollywood adventure films. Read full review
70
The A.V. ClubKeith Phipps
Choreographed to the last beat, the action scenes have a depth that the film's thinly sketched characters never quite develop. Read full review
70
Village VoiceMichael Atkinson
If only this epic had enough substantial melodramatic hooks to hang this woman's beauty on; emotional traction is most often buried under acres of carefully coordinated vistas and CGI-hued flora. Read full review
70
TV Guide MagazineMaitland McDonagh
This film pivots on a romantic triangle as overwrought as it is stylized. It's like a Douglas Sirk melodrama ratcheted up with fists of fury and wrapped in apparently endless yards of shimmering silk. Read full review
67
Seattle Post-IntelligencerWilliam Arnold
It's exuberant, exhilarating, poetic and -- intentionally and not -- rather silly. Read full review
50
San Francisco ChronicleCarla Meyer
Beautiful but hollow. Read full review
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