Kung fu fans seeking stunning, well choreographed displays of martial arts prowess are advised to look elsewhere for their fix: Flying Dagger may feature endless scenes of combat, but with bags of wire-assisted Wuxia-style leaping, terribly confusing direction and editing, and an abundance of swirling mist, 'stylish' lighting, and flapping cloth (surely fighting with such large sleeves must be a handicap!), this film ends up disappointing in the action stakes.
Those looking for a large dose of crazy Asian lunacy, however, have come to the right place: this film is totally bonkers! Tony Leung and Jimmy Lin play The Dagger Brothers, a pair of bounty hunters who team up with the beautiful Bewitchment sisters (Sharla Cheung and the VERY cute Gloria Yip) in order to try and catch wanted criminal Nine-Tails Fox (Jacky Cheung), a formidable foe, particularly when teamed in combat with his feisty wife Flying Cat (Maggie Cheung).
Battling a variety of foes on the way (all of whom have names that accurately describe their special abilities), the brothers eventually fall for the sisters. But the course of true love never runs smoothparticularly when you're confronted by ninjas, a disembodied hand, cat-women, a singing gay kung fu master, and trans-sexual Japanese warriors armed with poisonous lips.
Westerners au fait with Chinese humour will not be at all surprised to find that Flying Dagger contains a plethora of fart jokes, 'carry-on' style smut, and silly slapstick (and the odd joke requiring people to drink urine!), some of which is funny, but most of which is not.
Still, this star-packed slice of extreme silliness is worth seeing purely so that one can claim to have seen a film in which the gorgeous Maggie Cheung tears through treetops screeching like a possessed cat.
