Spent the day with T. He's fine. Didn’t get any Halo in, but watched Apollo 13 and did some cooking so that was fun. Good just to hang out with family. Honestly, I don’t do that enough. Then in the early evening I hung out with Erica and we went to see House of Flying Daggers at the Tivoli. Reviews were mixed – she preferred Hero and I thought Hero was a pale shadow of House of Flying Daggers.

Let me make that more concrete. Hero seemed to be a disconnected series of disparate scenes whereas HOFD held together which much more of a continuous flow. Hero seemed detached from the brilliance of Crouching Tiger, it had a stitched together quality, but tonight’s film seemed to share a rhythm with Crouching Tiger and yet go beyond that film – progress a “new” aesthetic.

In particular, the romance and betrayal in HOFD was far more erotic than either of the other two films. This is going to sound silly, but I have never seen a film with so much smelling – the protagonists inhale each other at every embrace – very hot. I really wilt in a good way over an attractive smell so perhaps that accounts for much of my identification with the flick, but there is no denying that the visuals on a big screen are gasp worthy – don’t wait for video on this one – get thee to a theater.

On a strictly Freudian read the bamboo is thicker and the pointy sticks are sharper, so if you like Crouching Tiger – You’ll love HOFD.