House Of Flying Daggers (2004)

Definitely a smaller scale effort than Hero, but still showing Zhang Yimou's master touch. The story is more of a potboiler affair, putting this film closer to Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon than HERO in many ways.

Performances from all the main actors are excellent, with Takeshi Kaneshiro coming off best - perhaps because he hasn't had as many great roles as Andy Lau or Zhang Ziyi in the past. Action scenes are mostly excellent, with some very innovative shots, but occasionally hampered by some conspicuous CGI in my opinion. Cinematography is luscious, though not equal to Christopher Doyle's work in HERO.

Not a profound film, or especially artistically ambitious, but aesthetically certainly very pleasing.