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House of Flying Daggers
January 1, 2004 in Movie Analysis | Permalink
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Obviousy Leo fought Mei so that EVERYBODY in the brothel, including Jin, could see, thus giving Leo a VALID excuse to arrest her...
so that Jin could "rescue" her and lead the army into an ambush. Why did Jin have to rescue her? So that Leo could stay behind and decieve the army, coaxing them into an ambush...think about it
Posted by: doesn't matter | Aug 8, 2005 9:15:30 PM
What was invalid about the original excuse? They already had her arrested (the cause didn't matter), and had the means to search her room and find her daggers. The fight is meaningless, not to mention immediately after the fight starts, everyone else leaves, so they have no reason to keep going. (I don't remember Jin being there when the fight started, anyway)
There's no need to 'deceive' the army, either--Leo accompanies Mei, and tells Jin to have the army follow them (into the trap). What more does Leo have to do? There's no plausible reason why Leo has to stay behind and Jin has to accompany Mei to the Dagger hideout instead...
Posted by: The Baron | Aug 9, 2005 9:18:55 PM
Watch the movie again. They did not already have her arrested. The fight between her and Leo started after her dance for him, when she tried to "assassinate" him. He couldn't of just arrested her on a whim, a seemingly blind girl does not make for a good spy. People would have wondered where he, a police chief, got such priveleged information, information that even his partner did not have. Remember they were INVESTIGATING the brothel and Mei, Jin did not know, and Leo did not "officially" know if she was a suspect or not. Even considering they just arrest on whim, why would the police arrest a blind girl? Just thinking about it doesn't make sense, hence the fight, so that she would, in fact, be arrested.
You say they could have just "found" daggers in her room or something...thereby admitting that they still needed proof. Well the fight was not only VERY conclusive proof, it was much more cinematic. This is, after all, a movie.
As for the other issue...try to think outside of Jin and Mei's perspective. Jin, and the audience, is lead to believe that the imperial (not local) soldiers were out for their blood because the imperial government got wind of the escape. If Jin had stayed behind would he not have worked extremely hard, and perhaps even suceeded, in keeping the entire "escape" an in-house secret? Remember the plan originally between Jin and Leo was for the entire affair to be confined to that one police station. Also remember that Leo did the convincing. Might Jin have hesitated at such a plan if Leo originally planned for the imperial army into this? Leo, on the other hand, WANTS the imperial army to know. Does it not make more sense that he stay behind and manipulate? After all, we don't know what he did, we only know what he told Jin. Perhaps much planning went into getting the imperial soldiers to track Jin and Mei down. The point is, don't you think Leo would much rather be behind the scenes, where he could control as much of the action as possible, as opposed to being in the action? After all, Jin is completely clueless.
Beyond that, think about the psychological aspects. We know how jealous, even psychotic Leo is about Mei. After he sees how Jin treats her and subsequently their burgeoning love affair, do you not think he develops a hate for Jin? So that, form the get-go, perhaps he already was toying with the idea of killing him? I still maintain the movie makes a lot of sense.
Posted by: doesn't matter | Aug 10, 2005 10:32:47 PM
