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Hero Movie Review - DVD - Buy Movies - Rent Movies

Ying Xiong (Hero)

Boy, how Chinese martial arts film have changed over the last 30 years. Gone are the old skool Shaw Brothers: Shaw Scope movies. Rare are the old Golden Harvest Production flicks that have entertained us over the past 3 decades.

Rarer still are the old tried and tested formula of family/best friend getting murdered/left for dead and vengeance being bestowed upon the young family member who has been trained in the deadly art of praying mantis style by an old man who, in his heyday was the deadliest fighter the east has ever seen thus enabling his student to exact revenge on the people who wronged him and his family.

Also gone are the awful dubbing that seemed to be part of the Kung-Fu culture for western audiences. Now what we have are intelligent, beautifully crafted movies formulated around a decent story and wonderful choreographed action scenes. The genesis of all this… Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. However, this is where the similarity ends.

Set over 2000 years ago when China was divided into seven kingdoms, the uncompromising King of Qin was obsessed with being China's first Emperor. The other warring states sent many assassins to eliminate the King of Qin. There were so many attempts on his life that the King resorted to barricading himself in his palace wearing amour at all times. To throw in extra caution and to guard against assassins the King does not allow anyone to come within 100 paces of him or else they will be executed. So when an unknown minor official; Nameless (Jet Li), declares he has claimed the lives of the King’s three most dangerous and feared freedom fighters/assassins in China; Sky (Donnie Yen), Flying Snow (Maggie Cheung) and Broken Sword (Tony Leung), the King beckons him to substantiate the story that he has killed his most feared enemies. Part of his reward for this major achievement is that he is allowed to drink in the King’s company within a distance of 10 paces while he gives the King a detailed account of how he located them, trapped them, turned them against one another and how he defeated them. Things, however are not what they seem…

Yimou Zhang has delivered one of the most visually stunning films ever seen. The cinematography is incredible and some of the best ever seen on the silver screen. The use of eye-catching colours by Zhang is superb as well as multi-purposeful. He uses it to narrate and signify various parts of the story as well as to utilise its aesthetic properties. The wonderful melodies and harmonies of the soundtrack adds to the beauty of this film as well as the setting for the tale.

The performances of Li, Yen, Cheung, Leung and Daoming Chen who plays the King of Qin are superb but disappointingly there is a lack of depth to these main central characters. Sometimes you want to feel emotion such as passion and/or love for these characters but unfortunately for us, these feelings are absent. The fight choreography is like watching ballet. Who cares if these scenes consist of gravity defying feats that are unrealistic? No-one should because they are superb as well as visually beautiful.

Apart from this small niggle, Hero does have one more problem… the comparison to Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. With the appearance of the gorgeous Zhang Ziyi, this does not help matters. Hero is a completely different film. The fact that it has amazing swordplay, has Zhang Ziyi, and is Chinese does not mean they should be compared. Hero is a story based around war, death and the choices people make told in flashback whereas Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon had more issues varying from love, honour, principles etc.

Hero is a breathtaking display of awe-inspiring action, wondrous music and dazzling colour.

How swift thy sword!

Leon Nicholson

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Hero [2005]

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