Opening:

CINEMATOGRAPHY: 

• Mid-shot/long-shot of her standing in-front of Jin, then after a reaction, a close-up of Mei
• She’s framed in the centre, giving her more of a presence than the other girls
• high key lighting, low contrast
• Crane shot – tug of war
• Zoomed in to wide – tracking shot of women entering. Also happens later with Mei
• central framing

 

MISE EN SCENE:

• text to set up the plot and the historical context
• Green and red outfits
• Peony Pavilion: colourful, stylised, elaborate
• Colourful outfits (Peony Pavilion)
• Blue dress – blue can be seen as a military colour BUT it’s more to do with feelings than a symbolic meaning
• Specially made flooring
• During the opening titles – red art on a white background – foreshadowing the ending with the blood on the snow
• military/police base has dull colours/lack of colour especially when compared to the Peony Pavillion
• Saturated colours
• Bits of blue on the carpet – butterflies – and Mei’s dress is blue (high angle shot)
• Red lipstick and paint separates her from the other women (and she said she was unlike them) and a possible link to the red associated with the soldiers/police

 

EDITING:

• Long take of her dancing (then it starts cutting – still her dancing)
• Slow motion of her robe falling down after Jin cuts it
• Cross fade of red lines to…….
• Action reaction shots – conversation

 

PERFORMANCE:

• Mei is walking cautiously – deceiving us that she is blind
• Jin is drunk
• Leo is polishing his sword and sitting upright, contrasting to Jin who is slouched and drinking (but they are of equal rank)
• Picking up swords compared to the women and instruments (similar/same shot) – representation of men and women
• Repetition of men picking up the swords and the repetition of the women carrying the instruments.
• Although everyone is lying – Leo true emotions are technically revealed as he feels jealous due to be in love with her
• ‘Why can’t a blind girl work here?’ – Mei stands up for herself which Jin likes

 

SOUND:

• Opens with classical Chinese orchestra
• Song lyrics that Mei sings
• Distant sounds of laughter
• Magical treatment to the sound one instrument echoes but not the rest – highly stylised sound scape
• diegetic music
• talking sets up the deception
• “A second glance leaves the whole nation in ruins”

 

MESSAGES/MEANINGS/RESPONSE:

• Aesthetics: set (auteur), colour, elaborateness
• Aesthetics: dedicates 3-4 minutes to a dance sequence

 

REPRESENTATION – GENDER:

• women laughing as they lose tug of war against a single man (Jin)
• He undresses Mei with his sword
• Women all try and tear Jin away form hurting Mei
• She’s arrested for being indecently dresses, but it’s not her fault – plan to arrest her then to ‘save’ her??
• women are giggling, frivolous, named after flowers
• women scared of the men
• women falling over Jin

 

CONTEXTS:

• Tang Dynasty – Peony Pavilion  may seem over the top and stylised, but it has an element of truth. Correct representation.
• Actress is in Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon

 

Middle:

Cinematography:

• close-up of the bamboo going through the bamboo and smashing on the bamboo – tension
• long shot/extreme long shot of her being surrounded – link to other title
• high key lighting
• long shots to close ups of their faces when they are trapped
• close up of them holding hands

 

Mise en Scene

• shot on location in a bamboo forest
• women – house of flying daggers – rescue them, standing together in a line – unstoppable (bar main three who are stood further forward)
• flying daggers
• bamboo cage
• claustrophobic feel – then the HOFD show up with a lightness in the background

 

Performance

• martial arts – Wuxia – wire work
• mixture of special effects and wire work
• Mei is acting blind still
• Foreshadowing –  Jin throws the sword past Mei and hits the tree
• Holding hands
• The army/police fall down together x3
• Mei’s fighting the urge to look at him – keeping up the facade

 

Editing

• reduced cutting rate
• slow-motion shots – flying people after being kicked, bamboo smashed against the bamboo, bamboo running together (with slow music when they are running together)

 

Sound

• swords swooshing
• clinging etc. – utilised to reinforce the idea that she’s blind when paired with the action-reaction shot of leaves falling, etc and the close up of her reaction
• it’s from Mei’s perspective – heightened sound effects – she has to focus on sound (far away and close up has the same foregrounding)
• no non-diegetic music (before Jin)
• screaming
• punctuation sound when Jin comes to save Mei
• diegetic sound when Jin’s fighting
• Whistling – throw bamboo call
• when they’re trapped, the song she danced to plays
• hear the dagger coming

 

Genre

• Wuxia and wire work

 

Meanings/Messages/Response/Themes

• politics and romance
• deception

 

Representation

• Jin/Mei/Leo represents the youth?
• Mei is strong and powerful
• House of Flying Daggers people/women contrast the women at the Peony Pavillion
• How the film is reflective of Chinese culture, and how it is a Chinese film

 

Contexts

• Oppressive, trapped, chased – regime?

 

Ending:

Cinematography 

 

• Extreme long shot of Jin and Leo fighting with the contrast of the snow on the ground and the autumn coloured trees.
• Mid shots of the fighting
• Close up of the swords intertwining
•  Mid shot of a drop of blood on the snow from Leo’s dagger
• Close up showing that Leo didn’t throw the dagger he wanted to kill her. Mei smiles, she keeps them both alive.
• Close up of Leo’s face when Mei is dying in Jin’s arms
• Close up of Leo dropping the dagger
• Extreme long shot of Leo walking away
• Extreme long shot of Jin holding Mei
• Camera tracks round as they elbow each other
• Sequence of crash zooms
• Close up of Mei crying
• Series of mid shots and close ups of the three individually and then an extreme close up
• Close up of eyes – reaction – crash zooms
• Extreme long shot – almost triangle like – Jin throws his sword and moves closer to Leo, trying to help.
• Circling camera
• Close up/mid shot of Leo’s angry face then close up  of the blood he has drawn from Jin
• Camera tracks around them when they have stabbed each other in the back

 

Mise en Scene 

 

• Snowing (happened on set). The blood from Mei with the snow was foreshadowed at the beginning.
•  contrast of the snow on the ground and the autumn coloured trees.
• Army with their swords getting ready to attack the HOFD is the only thing we see of that attack. It’s about the romance story really. Plus, we probably know who will win anyway. The raid was set up as the point of the movie at the beginning, this is now cast aside.
• Blood flying across the scene
• Blood on the snow from the men (foreshadowed)
• Drop of blood on the snow
• Daggers hits the blood in the air – slow mo
• Blood pours from Mei
• Different from the bamboo fight scene. No wire work. Less special effects but still some. Bloodier and more brutal.
• White is a funeral colour for the Chinease
• Dagger sticking up might by symbolic of death – bad luck to leave chopsticks sticking up because they look like incense which get burned at funerals??
• Notches on the sword – isn’t a ballet like scene that’s pretty it’s a fight to the death
• Repeated cutting each other’s shoulder and blood
• Jin cuts off Leo’s hat that represents his status
• In previous scenes they have used nature as a weapon, the snow is like nature fighting back against the injustice of the situation??

 

Sound 

 

• Loud foley sword sounds but only when they clash
• Diegetic screaming
• High pitched singing – holding long notes and snowy landscape over the fight scene
• Orchestral music when Mei gets up – we’ve heard it before – music about the love triangle/ tragic song of the film
• ‘You shouldn’t have come back’ repeated from earlier
• No music when Mei has hit the tree and before? Jin is running to Mei and holding her
• He cries holding her
• Jin sings Mei the song from the beginning to Mei while holding her as she dies
• ‘ I came back, for you, my love’ – romance genre
• Instrument playing over those ready to attack the HOFD is the same as the ones from the opening – history and politics – then it changes to the romance story
• Magical sound of the blade – sound of Leo’s (fake – tricks us) and Mei’s

 

Performance 

• They fight despite being injured. Originally they were set up to be on the same side.

• Mei starts to get up
• Mei hits the tree – romance not politics – not picking a side or an accident. It was going to hit the dagger as shown by the blood. Leo’s final deceit.
• Leo walks away (stumbling)
• Different from the bamboo fight scene. No wire work. Less special effects but still some.
• Both Leo and Jin stab each other at the same time while facing back to back. They then remove the swords at the same time. They are equals. Betrayed each other.
• Leo removes his dagger
• Leo and Jin both being equally damaged in the same way etc
• Leo and Jin are different. Jin shows a softer side, he runs over to Mei and cries. Leo just leaves – he’s bitter, his undercover work has left the relationship with Mei stale, he’s hurt. Maybe it’s saying something about it not being what’s happened to you, but how you deal with it?
• Close up showing that Leo didn’t throw the dagger he wanted to kill her. Mei smiles, she keeps them both alive. Leo deceives. Mei is selfless.
• Leo can’t look
• Left and right movement throughout the film. Leo turns right and leaves. Jin breaks this and goes to Mei.
• Fighting feels less choreographed than earlier in the movie. Bloodier. Gritty. Harsh. Contrasts.
• Close up/mid shot of Leo’s angry face then close up  of the blood he has drawn from Jin

 

Editing 

• Slow motion of them punching/kicking sometimes??
• Slow motion of the dagger
• Special effects of throwing the dagger and it hitting the blood in the air
• Editing compacts the different areas (bamboo forest and open space by tree of forest)
• Fade from snow covered to snow storm
• Fade to black
• Break of continuity for effect – edit the same fight moment twice – crash into each other- emphasis
• Slow motion of edited blood when they slash one another
• Treats both men equally
• Conversation between Mei and Jin

 

Meanings and Response

 

• Aesthetics

 

Representation 

 

• Women as strong and with their own feelings and motivations

 

Context 

 

• Political context

 

 

Context:

Historical:

 

During the Cultural Revolution (1966-1978) the Beijing Film Academy closed, hardly any films were made. The Academy reopened in 1978. For 10 years the teachers there had not had any students. They did want to resume teaching in the old way, which, against the new styles emerging from Hong Kong and elsewhere now appeared old fashioned. Like their counterparts in other cinemas they wanted to experiment. In 1982 the first academy students since the reopening graduated. These were the so-called “5th Generation” and included Chen Kaige and Zhang Yimou. The 5th generation had been through the hardships and upheavals of the Cultural Revolution. Their reaction was to make “exploratory films” that would examine issues so far unexplored in Chinese cinema. The Fifth Generation became the first Chinese film-makers to achieve fame and become widely known outside China. China was the subject of their films, although very different view of China than the socialist realism of Mao before the Cultural Revolution.

 

Political:

 

After the Cultural Revolution foreign films were imported to supply cinemas. Discussions were held concerning artistic freedom. Zhang’s earlier films were often criticised by the government for their treatment of the realities of social

life in China. Since then he has enjoyed huge success with his wuxia films, example of global or transnational cinema’s demand for ethnic cultural elements and lustrous visuals. “Exotic”and “arty” China, popular with audiences.

 

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. Chinese: The “home” audience for these films is potentially huge; cinema-goers in the region spend millions per year on cinema tickets. The industry has invested in digital cinema and the revival of Chinese language films.

 

Zhang Yimou’s Visual Style and Aesthetic:

 

• Elaborate sets 
• Brilliant costumes 
• Brilliant scenery – frequently outside?
• Use of lots of colour 
• Frequently working with cinematographer: Xiaoding Zhao   

 

Representation of Men and Women: 

 

Courtesans were renowned for their polite behaviour. However, the courtesans were known to dominate conversations with the elite men. They weren’t scared to criticize male guests who spoke too much or too loudly, boasted too much, or whose rude behaviour had ruined dinner for everyone. This validates “House of Flying Daggers” as an accurate historic re-imagination of the attitudes of the time.”

 

Tang Dynasty:

 

• • The Tang Dynasty is often considered a “golden age” of Chinese civilization during which areas of culture as well as civilization flourished 

 

• Literature, poetry, painting, commerce, science and innovation 

• Bordellos of the time were places of beauty and artistic expression, just like the one depicted in the film. The head mistresses of bordellos had wealth and power. Courtesans were intelligent, artful singers and poets who entertained guests with their skills and conversation.

 

 

Cast: 

 

• Well known and loved actors