House of Flying Daggers & Alfie

November 1, 2004 by Dennis Baker 

I saw two free screenings last week thanks to Elizabeth who works at the Director’s Guild:

House of Flying Daggers

I knew nothing of this film before I saw it and was pleasantly surprised. Near the end of the Tang Dynasty, police deputies Jin (Kaneshiro) and Leo (Lau) tangle with Mei (Zhang), a dancer suspected of having ties to a revolutionary faction known as the House of Flying Daggers. Enraptured by her, the deputies concoct a plan to save her from capture, and Jin leads her north in what becomes a perilous journey into the unknown.

Much like its predecessors “Crouching Tiger” and “Hero”, the movie has beautiful fights, beautiful costumes, and stunning visual images. While watching it I thought it was going to go the token story route of the officer dressing in disguise to follow the girl, later to realize he is in love with the enemy. Without giving anything away, the plot takes some twists and turns that are a pleasant surprise and keep it away from a token plot line. The Chinese language is beautiful and I found it easy to get lost in poetry of the words and was not distracted by the subtitles. If you enjoy this type of genre, you will enjoy this movie.

Alfie

The second movie we saw was Alfie. Much like the previous movie, I knew very little of this one was well. I knew it was a remake (and about two minutes into the movie, by the genre and type of character Jude Law plays, I guessed the original was done by Michael Caine).

The basic plot is that Jude Law plays a womanizer Alfie that comes to a realization of what he has been doing. I am not a big Jude Law fan, but was impressed with him in this movie. It is written as a first person narrative where Alfie talks to the audience as we journey with him through his life, much like John Cusack in High Fidelity. I am finding that I am a fan of this type of writing, and Jude Law carried it well.

As the movie was going through I saw it as modern day telling of the book of Ecclestiaties, where I predicted at the end Alfie would realize the wrongs he has committed to women. Alfie realizes that all the time he thought he was getting everything out of the fact that he never committed to women where in truth he was getting nothing at all. The movie basically ends with that realization leaving the audience to wonder if Alfie will really change.

Talking to Elizabeth afterwards, I thought the writer did not commit. In one way he didn’t decide if Alfie was going to change his life. During the movie Alfie goes through some pretty serious things that would make a man take stock in how he treats woman. But at the end we don’t know if the change happens due to this reflection. I realize the idea of leaving it open to let the audience decide, but when does that become a cop out for the writer?

Then Elizabeth, in her womanly wisdom, mentioned that maybe Aflie doesn’t change and that is the point. He has gone through all this and still treats women the same way. She went on to say that maybe people are so stuck in the way they live that a big revelation can pass through them and their character remain the same. I did not fully digest it when she mentioned it, but looking back on it, it makes the story some what sad. How can people experience a deep revelation and remain the same? Are we so routine, so mundane, so mediocre that an eternal experience that runs deep does not affect us. I hope not…

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Filed under: Film, Los Angeles

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