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House of Flying Daggers is a Shakespearean tragedy set on an existentialist stage. Three lives meet and are then torn apart, ricocheting against each other, while around them momentous events move to a climax. In a time of rebellion, a Robin Hood-like organisation is upsetting the status quo. Two policemen connive in a scheme to trap its leader, a scheme involving a mysterious blind girl with links to the rebels. But no one is as they seem...

The film gives us all we expect from a lush drama: wonderful photography, superb music, and enthralling wire-fu. But the story comes down to this: three lives in the autumn. As winter falls, so does doom.

And then, suddenly, dramatically, we are left, the three lives complete as a tableau in the snow. Still the larger picture is incomplete. Our tragedies may end, but the world goes on.

A strangely moving film that belies its action heritage with a deeper message.