Chinese Movie Girl Pretends Blind

[Calfu Baransky]

Hereis the plot that I remember: The main character is a blind girl named Melody (or at least that's what the subtitle said). She lived alone in a very big house. She likes to write and always carries a typewriter with her. And then she found out that her family members are all dead (I remember the brother was crushed by a falling balcony ). She is very desperate and then commits suicide by jumping from the building. Then she somehow went to the "other side" and met her dad and brother here. Afterwards she is sent back to life and stayed alive. She is also the narrator who tells the story along the movie.

I'm not sure, but it seems like a 2005 Hongkong horror movie - 凶男寡女(Set up). The female leader is played by 钟丽缇(Christy Chung). At the end of the movie, the fl was committed to a psychiatric hospital.

The film opened in limited release within the United States on 3 December 2004, in New York City and Los Angeles, and opened on additional screens throughout the country two weeks later. The film grossed $11,050,094 at the United States box office and then went on to significantly overperform in home video market in the United States.[2]

The film was chosen as China's entry for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film for the year 2004, but was not nominated in that category. It did receive a nomination for Best Cinematography.

In AD 859, as the Tang dynasty declines, several rebel groups are established, the largest of which is the House of Flying Daggers, based in Fengtian, who battle the corrupt government that oppresses the people. Its members use special throwing daggers that always hit their targets to steal from the rich and give to the poor, gaining the support of the locals. Two police officers, Leo (Andy Lau) and Jin (Takeshi Kaneshiro), are ordered to kill the leader of the group within ten days, a task that appears to be impossible as no one knows who the leader of the House of the Flying Daggers is.

To accomplish this, Leo arrests Mei (Zhang Ziyi), a blind dancer who is suspected of being the previous leader's daughter. Jin proceeds to assault the jail and set Mei free, pretending that he is a rebel sympathiser, an act which gains Mei's trust. As Mei and Jin travel to the Flying Dagger headquarters, Leo trails behind with reinforcements. Unfortunately, Mei and Jin fall in love.

To make the deception more realistic, Leo and his policemen pretend to ambush the pair. Later, though, they are ambushed for real by soldiers. At a secret meeting, Leo explains that the military has gotten involved and wants Jin and Mei dead. A few days later, Jin and Mei are ambushed again in a bamboo forest and almost killed, but they are saved by the House of Flying Daggers and taken to their headquarters. At this point, Mei is revealed to have been faking her blindness and is not the actual former leader's daughter. Furthermore, she is engaged to Leo, who is revealed to be a Flying Daggers member pretending to be an officer. The Flying Daggers are not afraid of the military and are actually looking forward to an open battle. A heartbroken Leo tells Mei that he waited for her for three years since he went undercover, and asks how she could fall in love with Jin after only three days, only to be told she has her heart set on Jin.

Leo tries to attack Mei, but their superior Nia throws a dagger into Leo's back and reassigns them to new missions, separating them. Shortly after, Mei is told to execute Jin. She frees him instead but refuses to desert the House to join him. Later, Mei changes her mind and rides after Jin, but is ambushed by Leo, who casts two daggers at her. Mei manages to deflect one of them while the other pierces her and seemingly kills her. At this point, Jin discovers Leo and the two of them fight, but their skills are too evenly matched. A raging blizzard falls upon them, while the military approaches the House.

Finally, with both men badly wounded and exhausted, Leo pulls Nia's dagger out of his back and threatens to use it on Jin. Mei reappears and threatens to pull the dagger out of her breast and throw it at Leo, which would cause her to bleed to death, but Jin begs her to save herself. After several tense moments, Leo decides to pretend to throw his dagger, intending to die by Mei's dagger while sparing Jin. However, Mei attempts to use her dagger to intercept Leo's dagger in flight. The result is that neither Leo nor Jin dies, but only Mei. In the end, Leo stumbles away in guilt while Jin cries over Mei's body, singing a song praising her as a "rare beauty", the likes of which he will never see again. Whether the House won against the military is left ambiguous.

Anita Mui was originally cast for a major role, which was to be her final film appearance. She died of cervical cancer before any of her scenes were filmed. After her death on 30 December 2003, director Zhang Yimou decided to alter the script rather than find a replacement. The film is dedicated to her memory.

To prepare for her role, Zhang Ziyi lived for two months with a blind girl who had lost her sight at the age of 12 because of a brain tumor. Takeshi Kaneshiro injured his leg when he went horseback riding. As a result, Yimou had Kaneshiro spend two scenes sitting or kneeling down to alleviate the pain, which was stated in Yimou's audio commentary.

Most of the film was shot in Ukraine's Carpathian Mountains (the Hutsul Region National Park), such as the scenes in the snow or birch forests. The cast and production team spent 70 days on location from September to October 2003, and were largely based in Kosiv.[3] The notable bamboo forest sequences were filmed in China. However, due to the early snowfall, the filmmakers opted to alter the script and certain sequences, rather than wait for the snow to thaw, as the leaves were still on the trees. Zhang Yimou later stated that despite the unpredictable weather forcing the alterations, he had achieved the desired effect in the scenery, and was happy with the final result.[4]

In the north there is a beauty; peerless and independent.

A glance from her will overthrow a city; another glance will overthrow a nation.

One would rather not know whether it will be a city or a nation that will be overthrown.

As it would be difficult to behold such a beauty again.

House of Flying Daggers debuted in May at the 2004 Cannes Film Festival[6] to an enthusiastic reception.[7][8] The film reportedly received a 20-minute standing ovation at its Cannes Film Festival premiere.[9]

At film review aggregation website Metacritic, the film received an average score of 89 out of 100, based on 37 reviews.[10] Rotten Tomatoes gives the film a score of 87%, based on reviews from 171 critics, and an average rating of 7.7/10. The website's critical consensus states: "The visual splendor of the movie makes up for the weak story".[11] Metacritic also ranked the film at the end of the year as the fifth-best reviewed film of 2004.[12]

Phil Hall of Film Threat wrote: "Quite simply, House of Flying Daggers is a film that sets several new standards for production and entertainment values. It is a wild riot of color, music, passion, action, mystery, pure old-fashioned thrills, and even dancing. With an endless supply of imagination and a kinetic force of nature in its amazing star Zhang Ziyi, House of Flying Daggers cuts all other films to shreds."[13] Desson Thomas of The Washington Post praised the director Zhang Yimou's use of color in the film as "simply the best in the world", and described the film as: "the slow-motion trajectory of a small bean, hurled from a police captain's hand, is a spectacular thing. It's a stunning, moving image, like a hummingbird caught in action."[14] While Kevin Thomas of the Los Angeles Times praised the film by stating: "House of Flying Daggers finds the great Chinese director at his most romantic in this thrilling martial arts epic that involves a conflict between love and duty carried out to its fullest expression."[15]

A. O. Scott of The New York Times described the film as: "A gorgeous entertainment, a feast of blood, passion, and silk brocade." The review also stated: "House of Flying Daggers for all its fire and beauty, may leave you a bit cold in the end."[16] Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun Times gave the film four out of four stars and states: "Forget about the plot, the characters, the intrigue, which are all splendid in House of Flying Daggers, and focus just on the visuals", and Ebert also states: "the film is so good to look at and listen to that, as with some operas, the story is almost beside the point, serving primarily to get us from one spectacular scene to another."[17] House of Flying Daggers was placed at number 93 on Slant's best films of the 2000s.[18] and ranked number 77 in Empire's "The 100 Best Films Of World Cinema" in 2010.[19]

In the United Kingdom, the film was watched by 1.7 million viewers on Channel 4 in 2007, making it the year's most-watched foreign-language film on British television.[20] It was later watched by 600,000 viewers on Channel 4 in 2009, again making it the year's most-watched foreign-language film on Channel 4.[21] Combined, the film drew a 2.3 million UK viewership on Channel 4 in 2007 and 2009.

The soundtrack was produced and created by Shigeru Umebayashi, featuring vocals by Zhang Ziyi and Kathleen Battle. It was released in Hong Kong on 15 July 2004 by the film's production company and distributor Edko Films. The US version was released by Sony Music Entertainment on 7 December 2004.

Mu Deok has two souls in her body. The first one is JBY and the second one is Naksu, the assassin. Naksu was in control of the body most of the time while JBY was in control when MD or Uk was in danger.

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