Jessica and I saw House of Flying Daggers tonight. The French make all kinds of passionate I-hate-you/I-love-you relationship movies that I like to call kiss-n-slaps (and that I see far too many of in proportion to my regard for them).

Zhang Yimou has made what may be the first kiss-n-stab. I loved the tweaked-’til-it-hurts color palette and the fight scenes are generally pretty good. The green-on-green-on-green ambush in the bamboo forest is spectacular. Like Zhang’s previous and much superior film Hero, there’s a hefty amount of artifice involved in the proceedings. Why, then, do I feel the need to complain about how contrived the love triangle is?

This might as well be actual dialog:

I love you, but I must kill you, but I hope you are not that dead, because really I love you. Oh, you are not quite dead yet? I might have to fight you some more. You’re more dead now? Why did you have to die?

Some nice action set pieces (that Zhang Ziyi is quite an action set piece herself) and art direction, but it’s all ruined by hoke. 6/10.