A Level Film Studies - Focus Film Factsheet House of Flying Daggers/ Shi mian mai fu (2004, Zhang Yimou, China & Hong Kong)

Component 2: Global Filmmaking fast tracking movements follow the daggers. Perspectives (AL) Mise-en-Scène • Emphasis on production values, visually Core Study Areas: beautiful settings and costumes, elaborate film Key Elements of Film Form set create the fantasy. Peony Pavilion rich, Meaning & Response exotic ancient China. Beautiful, extravagant The Contexts of Film Tang Dynasty costumes, authentic detail of interiors props, musical instruments. Costumes Rationale for study by Emi Wada, a Japanese designer who has worked for director Akira Kurosawa. House of Flying Daggers is a Chinese wuxia/martial • Landscapes bamboo forests, birch forests, arts film, featuring the genre elements of spectacular meadows and fields with mountain ranges fighting, breath-taking acrobatics and exotic fantasy. in the background. Green forests, red and It combines these with a tragic triangular love story gold autumn leaves in the meadows, white and a narrative where nothing is as it first appears. snow provide the setting for the emotion and the imagination of the film. STARTING POINTS - Useful • Dramatic effect through visual imagery, Sequences and timings/links colour and composition. Highly stylised choreography of fight scenes. The Echo Game - Blind Mei dances for Leo 0:10:55 - 0:18:40 Editing • Mei’s dance intercuts long shot of her Bamboo Fight - Mei and Jin are attacked by performing in the circle with a closer shot of Government soldiers 1:05:10 - 1:08:03 the drummers outside the circle. Movement of beans towards drums, close up of faces. CORE STUDY AREAS 1 - STARTING • Use of CGI to follow swift trajectory of daggers. POINTS - Key Elements of Film • In the bamboo forest cuts between Form (Micro Features) vertical and horizontal above ground swaying soldiers, ground level traps. Cinematography • Film as spectacle, the “look” of the film is of Sound paramount importance. Cinematographer Zhao • Mei at the beginning is portrayed as Xiaoding’s use of the wide screen to dramatic blind; sounds serve as a clue to her effect. The plot twists and turns but, like those of understanding. Peony Pavilion echo game most operas, plot points are the devices that take sounds used to emphasise her reliance on the spectator from one gorgeous scene to another. them. Tension, excitement, chattering of • Exotic interior of the Peony Pavilion: high women, drumming, slapping, silence. key lighting, sumptuous colour. Whip pans • Action scenes, action emphasised by sounds follow the beans as they hit the drums, high of bamboo fronds, counterpoint of flying angle shots show the pattern of Mei’s dance. daggers, whoosh of bamboo spears, clash • Bamboo forest, green filter, high angle shots of of bamboo poles. Also sounds of flying swaying bamboo, soldiers. Sweeping, whirling, bamboos, falling leaves, sound of sword cutting the air - Mei’s perception of the fight. 1 A Level Film Studies - Focus Film Factsheet

• Music by Shigeni Umebayashi mostly low Today this is a highly popular fiction in Mainland register: cello, drums. Women’s voices China, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Singapore. used towards conclusion of action scenes, • The director, Zhang Yimou is a household name action not signalled by music which acts in China, responsible not only for films but for as a commentary at the conclusion. the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics of 2008, also for huge open air spectacles such as the Impression Lie Sanji Show held on the banks CORE STUDY AREAS 2 - STARTING of the Li River featuring more than 600 amateur POINTS – Meaning & Response performers. A graduate of the Beijing Film Representations Academy, one of the so called ‘5th generation • In Peking Opera all roles originally played filmmakers’ he began as a cinematographer by men. Strong female characters central and moved on to directing films about Chinese to the tradition of wuxia. They fight with life, particularly that of women. House of swords and take part in combat. In the Flying Daggers is his second action film. Flying Daggers the leaders are now women. Mei demonstrates female sexual power. CORE STUDY AREAS 3 - STARTING • Representation of China. Zhang Yimou POINTS - Contexts has called cinema “an excellent channel for promoting China’s culture” with “cultural and Social historical information” for Western audiences. • China the most populated country of over 1.381 However he has been accused of “selling Oriental billion, and the world’s second largest state. exoticism” and received criticism that his Historical version of China “feeds his Western audience’s image of exotic, primitive, timeless China”. • During the Cultural Revolution (1966-1978) the Beijing Film Academy closed, hardly any • Male and female passion is subject to films were made. The Academy reopened in tradition and duty. Male characters are “Just 1978. For 10 years the teachers there had not pawns on the chessboard”. The concluding had any students. They did want to resume fight to the death between Leo and Jin teaching in the old way, which, against the is about honour as well as jealousy. new styles emerging from Hong Kong and Aesthetics (i.e. the ‘look and feel’ elsewhere now appeared old fashioned. Like their of the film including visual style, counterparts in other cinemas they wanted to influences, auteur, motifs) experiment. In 1982 the first academy students • Mandarin title of the film translates as since the reopening graduated. These were the ‘Ambushed from Ten Directions’. Motif of so-called “5th Generation” and included Chen multiple deceptions, false identities, nothing Kaige and Zhang Yimou. The 5th generation is as it first appears: Leo appears to be an had been through the hardships and upheavals imperial soldier but is really a mole, the of the Cultural Revolution. Their reaction former lover of Mei; Mei a rebel pretending was to make “exploratory films” that would to be a courtesan, pretending to be blind; Nia examine issues so far unexplored in Chinese appears to be the madam of the Peony Pavilion, cinema. The Fifth Generation became the then the leader of the Flying Daggers, then first Chinese film-makers to achieve fame and only pretending to be the leader; Jin is an become widely known outside China. China Imperial soldier who pretends to be a rebel. was the subject of their films, although very • Wuxia pian: Wu=martial + xia = chivalrous. different view of China than the socialist Origins of the Wuxia pian genre are to be found realism of Mao before the Cultural Revolution. in North Chinese Mandarin culture after the Political 9th century. Rival warlords ruled China and • After the Cultural Revolution foreign films were unattached swordsmen could be hired as killers, imported to supply cinemas. Discussions were heroes who followed codes of honour and held concerning artistic freedom. Zhang’s earlier chivalry defending the helpless against corrupt films were often criticised by the government leaders and officials. Swords, magic, fantasy and for their treatment of the realities of social the supernatural are central to wuxia mythology. life in China. Since then he has enjoyed huge 2 A Level Film Studies - Focus Film Factsheet

success with his wuxia films, example of global making. The “home” audience for these films or transnational cinema’s demand for ethnic is potentially huge; cinema-goers in the region cultural elements and lustrous visuals. “Exotic” spend millions per year on cinema tickets. and “arty” China, popular with audiences. The industry has invested in digital cinema and the revival of Chinese language films. Technological • Use of CGI and digital effects and wire work enhance acrobatics and fantasy. Institutional • Half the world’s films are produced on the continent of Asia. India, Japan, Thailand, South Korea and the 3 Chinese cinemas of Mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan all have large film industries. Success of Chinese global film

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