Set in 9^th century China, this martial arts extravaganza follows two deputies who have been tasked with killing the leader of the House of Flying Daggers, a rebel group who rob from the rich and give to the poor. One of the deputies, Jin (Takeshi Kaneshiro) goes undercover at a brothel and arrests a blind dancer named Mei (Ziyi Zhang from Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon) he suspected of having information.

When Mei refuses to talk, his partner (Andy Lau) proposes that Jin pose as a rebel, break Mei out of jail and attempt to have her lead him to the House of Flying Daggers. Jin dubs himself “The Wind” and takes off across the countryside with Mei, hoping to seduce her. They instead fall in love, but double crosses, pitched battles in the bamboo forests and chases ensue before a climactic sword duel between the two deputies.

Directed by Zhang Yimou from a screenplay by Li Feng, Wang Bin and Yimou, House of Flying Daggers bends the scale to style over substance early on and never looks back. It does feature the doomed romance that Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon so involving. It also held my attention for much longer than Zhang’s previous film, Hero with Jet Li, but this is still a tough one to recommend.

Taken on its own, the film’s visual palette is sensational, particularly the “Echo Game” that opens the film. Dancing in a luxurious brothel, Mei is positioned on a stage surrounded by drums on poles. Her challenger flicks a nut at one of the drums, and she is to use her extrasensory hearing to hit the same drum with the long weighted sleeves of her robes. One nut, two nuts, three nuts and then hundreds are thrown as Mei spins like a human cyclone, aided deftly and illogically by computer effects.

Ziyi Zhang and Takeshi Kaneshiro have great chemistry, but a character driven story was not ever a going concern here. If computer generated ballet is your thing, you’ll love this. Fans of Ziyi should also be doing cartwheels; she’s one of the most gifted dancers and acrobats on the planet, is engaging as an actor, and impossible to take your eyes off of either way.

While I enjoyed the climactic sword duel, which takes place across a field of pure white snow, there’s not a lot behind the curtain of color schemes and computer effects here.