Word: jin
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...late years of the Tang dynasty, an insurgency has arisen, led by the mysterious Flying Daggers group. Government officers Leo (Andy Lau, of Infernal Affairs) and Jin (Takeshi Kaneshiro) are assigned to stamp out the conspiracy. Their first stop is a bordello, where the madam tells Leo she has a lovely blind girl, Mei (Zhang Ziyi), to dance for him--a dance of love, deception and death...
...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. Fierce in a battle with eight soldiers, coquettish as she bathes before the enrapt Jin, Zhang is charisma incarnate. She is already nearing American stardom, playing the lead in Memoirs of a Geisha. You can bet she will reveal a new kind of star quality, even as the dazzling Daggers shows Hollywood how to make an action film with depth and pizazz. --By Richard Corliss
When police captains Leo and Jin hear of a mysterious woman, Mei (Zhang), with possible connections to the Flying Daggers, they decide to investigate in a beautifully filmed but absurdly serious sequence involving Mei’s ability to hit drums with the long sleeves of her gown. The scene emphasizes the force that can lie beneath superficial appearances, a recurring theme in the film...
...resulting journey of Mei and Jin across the countryside of China is symbolic: The youths must find a path between their increasingly independent inclinations and their roles as pawns of greater organizations. Over the course of their journey, both realize that the organizations they serve are equally corrupt; neither the government nor the Flying Daggers keep the best interests of the people at heart...
...these movements in a personal “revolution” of their own is sweetly idealistic, although the theme of independence only serves to make the movie’s message more generic than its characters and setting. But these ideals are addressed realistically when Mei and Jin eventually discover how difficult it is to break free of these social constraints...