Animal Logic and Digital Pictures Iloura created 115 vfx shots with a crew of 40 working six months. All images © 2004 Sony Pictures Ent. Inc. Courtesy of Animal Logic. Kirsty Millar (right) of Animal Logic served as co-vfx supervisor on HoFD. She helped to create symbolic visual devices to aid director Zhang Yimou with his storytelling.”

In his acclaimed 20-year career, director Zhang Yimou has evolved into one of the most significant and prolific voices of contemporary Chinese cinema with his lush, historical themed period films, such as Judou, Raise the Red Lantern and Shanghai Triad. While his films have achieved praise outside of his native country, primarily in art house circles, the release of his martial-arts epic, Hero, last year launched the director into a new realm of cinematic storytelling, as well as mainstream Western recognition. Hero was already an international phenomenon for more than a year when it finally reached U.S. theaters in August 2004, stunning critics and audiences with its rich, lyrical take on the classic martial arts epic — a genre the majority of American audiences finally became familiar with when Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon landed back in 2000. Zhang’s new film, House of Flying Daggers, again revisits the Chinese martial arts epic for a story that challenges tradition by meshing period history, romance and cutting edge vfx into a dynamic film that pushes visual boundaries.

Fluid camera moves and speed ramps allowed the camera to get close-ups of CG weapons, creating a strong visual signature to highlight the power of the dagger-darts. Courtesy of Digital Pictures Iloura.

With the House of Flying Daggers script calling for a more ambitious visual effects agenda than Hero, Zhang collaborated again with his vfx house, Animal Logic, along with adding the services of fellow Sydney-based house, Digital Pictures, to get all of the visual elements created for the film. Andy Brown and Kirsty Millar, both of Animal Logic, worked as the co-visual effects supervisors on the film, overseeing 115 shots, with a total crew of around 40 artists and technicians working in a very compressed schedule, taking only six months from shoot to final visual effects delivery. At the same time, Jane Maguire, the post-production supervisor on the film at Digital Pictures, worked with the Sydney and Melbourne groups on grading, wire removal and a high-end bamboo forest effects shots.

As with all his films, Zhang set about creating a very visually specific look for House that Kirsty Millar explains was key in helping create the foundation for the early effects designing. “Zhang Yimou uses symbolic visual devices, such as a color palette and seasonal changes, as his key storytelling techniques,” she details. “His films tend to contain nuances that are not evident from the script, so they must be demonstrated visually. It follows from this, that he utilizes visual effects in much the same manner — to tell his story.”

That story revolves around Mei (Ziyi Zhang), a blind dancer that is suspected of being connected to a revolutionary faction known as The Flying Daggers. The local police enact a plan to trick Mei into leading them to the group, but in their journey, one of the deputies falls for the young woman and they embark on a doomed love affair against the perilous backdrop of an impending confrontation with the authorities. The focus on the Flying Dagger faction meant that the usage of weaponry was going to be a core element in many of the visual effects featured in the many epic fight scenes staged throughout the film.