Thousands of fans waited in a long queue to get a glimpse of the Chinese martial-arts epic House of Flying Daggers at its opening ceremony at the Toronto Film Festival.

Renowned director Zhang Yimou and the film's heroine Zhang Ziyi teamed up to promote the love story on Sunday at Roy Thompson Hall in Canada's largest city.

American Beauty hero Kevin Spacey highly praised the film as another shock after Hero, which broke US box office records.

(CRI September 14, 2004)