A traditional Chinese epic. Sword fights and martial arts combined with beautiful imagery, and a twisty plot. The cast is a Hong Kong film addict's dream with Tony Yeung, Jet Li, Maggie Cheung, and others.
Large budget film with great CGI (computer graphic imagery). The traditional Chinese martial arts genre has been made more accessible to Western audience with screenplay - the relationships between the characters, which can easily be related to that of Jane Austen's work.
PLOT
===(Minimal spoilers - you really must watch it for yourself!)
In brief, this is a film about the Emperor and an assassin, or a group of would-be assassins.
Nameless (Jet Li) is a well known warrior who arrives at the palace, with a harrowing account of how he has come to defeat the Emperor’s most notorious enemies. The Emperor (Chen Daoming) warms to Nameless as he offers him rewards of eliminating the assassins who have rendered him many a sleepless night. The Emperor then asks Nameless to recount to him how he came to defeat these assassins, as to defeat all of them sounds too good to be true.
The plot consists of four character accounts of how Nameless came to be in this situation. The four accounts are represented by four colours:- blood red, sky blue, grass green, and virginal white.
As each account is laid out before me, I became more and more confused as the plot seems to thicken beyond imagination. As each account is told, the truth did not add up, meaning someone somewhere has told porkies - the Emperor, being wise and intelligent, sussed this out and became rather dubious as to the account that Nameless had told him.
The focus of the plot is on each of the accounts, with the ending that ties up the reality that really occurred. Plus the Emperor finally understands the motive behind the would-be assassination.
The issues dealt with in the film can be interpreted as an allegory to a number of political issues of the past and present. I don't really know that much about the history of China, or in-depth current affairs of the Far East, so I can't really comment on the allegories.
The combination of breath-taking cinematography, art direction, martial arts, dignity, and love makes 'Hero' one of my favourites. I am no stranger to Hong Kong cinema, and I can say that films like ‘Hero’ have been done before, the art direction and imagery is definitely captivating.
Hero will inevitably be compared with Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon. Personally, I feel that Hero is a better film in terms of the plot(s!), cinematography and arty implications, and cast performance.
Whether you are completely new to Far Eastern cinema, or a well-learned fan, Hero is definitely one to watch.
Please don't let the martial arts or the subtitles deter you from watching this film. Although the film is set in the context of martial artists, the fight scenes are more poetic and 'dance' than your usual blood-and-guts scenes. I'm not a fan of dubbed films, but the subtitles do not take away the experience at all.
MY FAVOURITE FIGHT SCENES *****************************=======================
= Flying Snow vs Jen Dressed in crimson traditional wear, Flying Snow and Jen muster tornadoes of fallen leaves of yellows and oranges.
= Nameless vs Sky Courtyard battle in the rain. You can really feel and smell the raindrops in this scene, as the warriors move in swift slow-motioned-Matrix style.
= Nameless vs Broken Sword (I think?) Upon a serene mountain lake. The scene is amazing in its silence and stillness as they battle in sword-fight on the water.
MAIN CHARACTERS ===================== Emperor Qin = Chen Daoming Nameless = Jet Li Sky = Donnie Yen Broken Sword = Tony Yeung Flying Snow = Maggie Cheung Jen = Zhang Ziyi
Language: Mandarin Chinese. Subtitled.
CREDITS ==========
Distributor: Edko Film / Miramax Films
Producer: Zhang Yimou, William Kong Director: Zhang Yimou
Martial Arts - Director: Prachya Pinkaew - Original Language: English\Vietnamese\Thai\Mandarin - Classification: 18 years and over - Starring: Tony Jaa, Bongkoj Khongmalai, Petchtai Wongkamlao
Production Year: 1981 - Martial Arts - Director: Kenji Misumi, Robert Houston - Original Language: English - Classification: 18 years and over - Starring: Kayo Matsuo, Minoru Ohki, Akiji Kobayashi, Shin Kishida, Masahiro Tomikawa, Tomisaburo Wakayama
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