Shi Mian Mai Fu or House of Flying Daggers (4)

Concerning moral values, I would like to approach the subject through the three central themes I have just presented: beauty, deception, and love. These themes are very central to the plot and message of the film and they also tell us something about the moral values presented in the film. First, beauty and the power of beauty was both inspiration and theme for the film. The ancient poem, “A Beauty from the North” warns against the power of beauty and it inspired Zhang to create this tragic love story. The scene in the Peony Pavilion is a crucial one to highlighting beauty’s power. It is in this scene that Mei says, “A real flower blooms in the wilderness.” In this speech about her name, she condemns the other brothel girls and seeks to set herself apart from them, not just by her looks but it would seem by her morals.