The House of Flying Daggers

(Herald rating: * * * * *)

House of Flying Daggers arrives not long after director Zhang's Hero finally made it to our screens, having been the all-time box-office champ in China.

While that previous fantasy epic was visually dazzling, it still felt like a museum piece - a movie to be admired for its historical grandeur and colour scheme rather than to engaged by.

The House of Flying Daggers isn't as ambitious, but it's the greater film.

Yes, it does as wondrous things with swords, arrows, daggers, bamboo and colour-coded scenery as Hero did with its armoury. But there's a sense of intimacy and big romantic heart beating beneath its beautifully stylised martial arts violence, while its story is a taut web of deception and double-cross.

What's really great about House of Flying Daggers is that while there is much eye-popping wire-assisted high-flying combat and general disrespect for the laws of physics and human physiology, the film doesn't rely on it to remain airborne. It's just as gripping back at ground level in scenes where the three leads are facing off against each other.

In its own Chinese way it's got more star-power and chemistry that that guy Ocean and his mates will ever manage, what with the pan-Asian triple threat of Taiwanese-Japanese Kaneshiro, Hong Kong's Lau and mainlander Zhang Ziyi.

It's set in the year 859 during the fading and corrupt Tang Dynasty. The elusive Flying Daggers have become the local Robin Hoods.

Local cops Leo (Lau) and Jin (Kaneshiro) have 10 days to bring in the gang's leader. There is a rumour the new blind girl Mei (Zhang Ziyi) at the local house of ill-repute might be connected to the rebels. Cue a couple of dazzling dance numbers and the spur for the film's dash into the wilderness as the undercover Jin rescues Mei in an effort to find the Daggers' forest lair.

Of course, all is not as it seems and to explain more of the plot's intrigues would be to deserve a sharp object thrown with uncanny accuracy from afar.

There are quite a few computer-assisted projectiles throughout this, whizzing across the Zhang's lush, painterly landscapes where the seasons change elegantly, if abruptly, to reflect the trio's states of mind.

It's lovely to look at. So exquisite, in fact, it's almost a shame to say The House of Flying Daggers kicks arse too. But that it surely does.

CAST: Takeshi Kaneshiro, Andy Lau and Zhang Ziyi
DIRECTOR: Zhang Yimou
RATING: M (violence, sex scenes)
RUNNING TIME: 121 mins
SCREENING: Village, Hoyts, Rialto cinemas from Thursday