Following the film's failure at the Golden Globes, "House of Flying Daggers" was hoping for a little more recognition at the Oscars. Previously the film collected over 160 million yuan (or over 19.5 million US) domestically at box office, undoubtedly the biggest winner of 2004. Globally it won better graces, as it was given the title of Best Film by the Los Angeles Film Critics Association Awards. In Britain it was recognized by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts and the International Press Academy for its outstanding achievement in visual effects. It had been presumed that the film's good luck would continue at this year's Oscars. Now the final outcome has somewhat upset Zhang Yimou and the Chinese film industry.

Zhang Weiping is president of Beijing New Picture Edko Films Company and producer of House of Flying Daggers. The high-aiming producer couldn't hide his disappointment.

"Though only five films are selected for the Best Foreign-language Film, we were still confident because of the film's influence around the world."

In 2003, Zhang Yimou's last martial arts film Hero was nominated for an Oscar without much publicity before its American release. Now, despite all the efforts that House of Flying Daggers made, including a large opening ceremony and a lot of advertising, it failed to win the favor of the top film Awards of the world.

Yin Hong is a professor at Tsinghua University's Film and Television Research Center. He says it is hard to judge a film's success based on the awards it wins.

"Cultural products are different from sports. In sports competition, the athletes obey the same rules for the sport. But for culture, different countries and nationalities vary greatly. So whether a film can win an Oscar is up to many complicated factors. It is hard to say whether a film is successful under this criterion."

This year marks the 100th anniversary of the birth of Chinese film. So far the only successful attempt by Chinese film makers is Ang Lee's Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. Before this accomplishment, several of Zhang Yimou's films were nominated, but have never brought home the award.

Commenting on Zhang's latest House of Flying Daggers, Professor Yin said the film needs to pay more attention to 'human feelings'.

"I would like to say that Zhang Yimou is now seeking too many grand scenes in film shooting. This results in the fact that it is less touching. In fact, many mainstream commercial films are those that pay attention to human feelings."

Zhang Yimou is now working on a low budget film and which well be a definite challenge to the Oscars.