There’s a certain type of martial arts movie that consists of a lot of slow-motion and action that flows more like a ballet than anything else; I’ve seen the style in “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon”, “Hero” and “Iron Monkey” and this one doesn’t match any of those but it’s still good.

In “House Of Flying Daggers”, Zhang Ziyi (“Hero”, “Rush Hour 2”) stars as Mei, who is the supposed blind daughter of the old leader of a rebellious group named the ‘Flying Daggers’. A plot is constructed to have Mei be used as a pawn to find the extremists but not all is as it seems. While the plot has some twists and turns it ultimately comes down to a clichéd love triangle and I think that’s why I like some of the movies I mentioned earlier a little more.

Zhang Ziyi isn’t my favourite action star and she certainly doesn’t hold her own as much as the likes as some other tough female stars like Uma Thurman (“Kill Bill”) nor is she as skilled at fighting as the likes of Jet Li (“Fist Of Legend”) but nevertheless she is somewhat likeable here. The fight scenes here are interesting and creative in the way the other movies mentioned are.

“House Of Flying Daggers” has some great visuals and some decent fight sequences and is worth seeing if you really liked “Hero” or anything such as that but make sure you get your priorities right. I think the reason I was so disappointed with this film from a storytelling perspective is because it shows promise of being something more but sells itself out in the last act. This is definitely a weak recommendation from me as you’re certainly not going to come out of this feeling the genre has been redefined or anything like that but it’s still a recommendation.