Shi Mian Mai Fu or House of Flying Daggers (3)

The movie does not have very much to say about religious practices or ethnic relations in China. First, I will discuss the portrayal of religion in the film. Religious practice is entirely absent from the script. I believe that religious practice is important to Chinese culture and the absence of religious practice in the film is a misrepresentation of Chinese culture. However, the director does say that through sacrifice for love and the power of it, we discover the spiritual power of human beings. So if this is true, then religion is present in the movie through the sacrifice of love, but religious practice is still not portrayed. Secondly, the only ethnic group portrayed in the film is the Han. No others are addressed or presented. Ethnic diversity is not addressed at all in the film. The only time it is hinted at is in the allusions to “the North.” This may be to present a unified China to Zhang’s audience. The more probable conclusion for the absence of religious practices and ethnic relations is that Zhang was not interested in a correctly portraying Chinese culture but in producing a film that, while being distinctly Chinese, still presented universal themes of beauty, deception, and love to an international audience.