Undoubtedly, the epic martial arts film is a hit in both China and the U.S. But It is not surprising that it has not even become one of the nominees for a best foreign film Oscar.

    Firstly, many fighting and setting scenes remind us of what we've seen in Ang Lee's Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. The dance sequences are amazingly choreographed, the fighting sequences are beautifully designed and the sound effects are spectacular, not to mention the costumes of bizarre beauty, amazing landscapes of mountain ranges and fields of snow, autumn leaves and a bamboo grove that works like a kinetic art installation. But the way of scene designing is not new.

    Although Zhang said at the U.S. premiere at the 2004 New York Film Festival that he did not want to copy the bamboo scene Lee had in Crouching Tiger, in the end it seems he duplicated all too closely.

    Secondly, only five films out of 50 can make the list of best foreign films. This romantic, martial arts film can not win if it only has beautiful visual effects. The plot is the most important part. Unfortunately, the story is poorly developed: the double, double crossing spy is getting old considering many other cop or spy movies like Internal Affairs and Hero. What's more, many Chinese think of the film as a comedy, although it has a tragic ending. The audiences often burst into laughter. The plot is just funny without anything deeper behind it. Compared to other nominations, like Spain's The Sea Inside and South Africa's Yesterday, Zhang's film is just too superficial to be good.

    I remember Zhang once said in an interview a couple of years ago that if the movie was a market-driven affair and the global market wanted it, he would make it. Now he did it. Flying Daggers topped at the Chinese box office for a few weeks. It also set a Chinese box office record in the U.S. with US$6.7 million. But I do miss Zhang's earlier works like Raise the Red Lantern, Qiu Ju Goes to Court and Not One Less.

    What's more, Zhang's Flying Daggers does not represent the essence of China's movies. To put it simply, this movie is just an action packed love triangle, nothing more than that.

    Thank goodness it did not get an Oscar nomination for best foreign film, otherwise I would be speechless.