House of the Flying Daggers

I think people expecting another "Hero" when going to see HoFD is a big mistake, and would easily infringe upon their enjoyment of HoFD.

I think Yimou's directorial style is in abundance in this film, and, while there are the 'cool' scenes/shots, at its core, it develops into a love story, and its scale is much smaller than "Hero" and not even the same type of story.

By the end of the film, I got caught up in 3rd act, and I think it's beautifully set up and wrings out as much emotional content as possible from the given situation and characters. To me, that's Yimou's main focus in making this film, and he carries it off well.

I give it 3.5 stars, or a grade of B+.