After its debut in China last weekend, Zhang Yimou's House of Flying Daggers has opened in Taipei. Zhang was on hand with members of the cast.

Promoters chose Taipei's Palace Museum for the much-anticipated premiere. Before the show, a dazzling performance got the audience in the mood. On hand were director Zhang Yimou, and the stars -- Hong Kong's Andy Lau, Zhang Ziyi from the mainland and Taiwanese-Japanese actor Takeshi Kaneshiro. Zhang became famous for his colorful love stories, but said he wanted to continue on his current path of making action-packed pictures.

Zhang Yimou said, "I like the martial arts genre. It captures my imagination. I like the creativity of it. If I shoot ten more films in the rest of my life, I promise several of them will be action movies."

The film is about a romantic love triangle involving a ninth-century woman rebel and two men's affection for her. House of Flying Daggers is Zhang's second venture into the realm of martial arts, and follows last year's mythical epic, Hero.

(CCTV.com July 16, 2004)