Hero

Rating:
Summary: American producers could learn a lot from this movie!!
Review: It was amazing to me that this movie lost the oscar when nominated as best foreing film ('03). It is by far the most amazing and visualy astonishing epic I have ever seen. Zhang Yimou is being so far amazing as a director of intimist situations and in this movie we see a super-production that does not leave the story or its characters aside despite from being a tremendous visual ride.

Do not be confused this is not a superproduction in the AMERICAN way, this is a really sober movie. Photography is amazing in every step of the way because since the movie depicts various facts, from various perspectives given of course by the characters, each time a new perspective is brought in the color palette changes playingly beautifully with light and color temperature.

Everything in the movie is really carefully planned, Art Direction, Acting, Photography etc, but the fights deserve a special mention they are quite better even that Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon or any MATRIX the answer would be poetry of movement.

Finally this is a movie you should see only if you are open to other ways of thinking, and if you do, you will enjoy this movie as much as I did.

Rating:
Summary: A Visual Feast
Review: It's not fair to compare this movie to "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" directed by Ang Lee. These two movies are so far apart from one another, akin to chalk and cheese. Where "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" is a no-nonsense straight-up story telling, "Hero" is more like a "Pulp Fiction" type of story telling. The same story is told from different perspectives and then, we shall decide for ourselves what actually happened and what outcome would we expect from those happenings. Many of my Chinese peers were utterly disappointed with "Hero" because it's arguably one of the most expensive Chinese movie ever made & yet, the final touch didn't quite live up to their expectation. Naturally, it's a star-studded movie with appearances by Jet Li, Maggie Cheung, Tony Leung, Zhang Jiyi. Due to Director's involvement in theatre productions in China, I would like to believe that he applied the visual touches of theatres into this cinema spectacle that I could only describe as spectacular. This time around, the martial arts is emphasised with special effects, & in order to prevent viewers from been confused with narrations by Jet Li, the cast were given the blue, red, & white treatments. For example, from one person's point of view, it's rendered the "blue", but from another person's, it's actually "red", & the truth is to be revealed in "white". It's quite imaginative to concoct a story about these few assasins who had attempted various times to rid of Emperor Chin, the Emperor who united China from various Kingdoms, the Emperor who gave us the Great Wall of China, & also the Emperor who in his later years would sent his followers around the world looking for elixir of life to give him the gift of immortality, and as the legend goes, those followers of his ended up settling in Japan & thus, the Japanese today. In the end, the assassins were the ones who convinced him that he's on the right path and thus, the formation of modern China. Talking about mixing fact with fiction. Overall, this is definitely a beautiful movie, a movie that deserves to be enjoyed but one also has to accept that it's an ambitious movie that didn't quite pick up an Oscar this year. Still, it's still a good movie to be had. Well done.

Rating:
Summary: Sumptuous imagery but somewhat lacking in substance.
Review: Monday, February 07, 2005 / 4 of 5 / Sumptuous imagery but somewhat lacking in substance.
Hero tells the disjointed tale of a nameless warrior who is granted an audience with the future ruler of China. The warrior claims to have vanquished three assassins who have plagued the royal household for years. Through a variety of flashbacks we view the different angles of the story as told to the King until it is completely at odds with what was originally expected. Compared to Crouching Tiger this film lacks the epic scope and humanistic sweep. It tries too hard to be attractive. There are moments of sumptuous beauty as the fights are framed and CG effects are poured in. The wire work is great and the color palettes change in dramatic fashion with the combatants. The film asks the viewer to make a lot of logical jumps for the purpose of plot advancement, and to embrace fully its eventual coda. I wasn't quite ready to do that, but that didn't hinder me from enjoying the ride.

Rating:
Summary: Elegant and Powerful Communist Propaganda
Review: This movie is a visual feast. The Chinese government spared no expense in creating it; all-star director Yimou Zhang apparently had everything at his disposal: a super star (Jet Li), an excellent supporting cast, unlimited costume expenses, and the full array of Hollywood digital imagery. More than just action and elegant Chinese cultural imagery, this film is a bold statement to the world: China is once again its cultural center.

Unfortunately, money does not always buy happiness. Despite the beautiful imagery, the story is brazenly unoriginal, taking its principle technique from Kurasawa's 1950 breakout film Rashomon, and much of its wuxia energy from Ang Lee's Taiwanese sensation of 2000, Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon. To the simple-minded, I think it fails as an action picture, and to the sophisticated, its moral push is far from certainly digestible. Neither do any of the actors succeed in endearing themselves to us. Its greatest strength is its beautiful imagery.

I recently watched Alexander Nevsky, the famous Soviet propaganda film. Viewed today, its intent is obvious and clumsily applied. I watched Ying Xiong, or "Hero", well into the second hour before I realized that I was watching a modern version of that same old communist template. What are the messages here?
A) Look Out: China is bigger than life and is ready to take its rightful place as the center of the world.
B) All under Heaven: union is not bad, it is in fact noble and unselfish, supporting the common good (Cantonese Hong Kong and Mandarin Taiwan take note).
C) The National Government is working for the common good: "They call me a tyrant", the emperor says scornfully, as he laments the fact they ignore the burdens he must bear for their own good.
The film tries to appeal to the values of common decency in order to support these latter two points: killing is wrong, selfish grudges are wrong, excessive resentment is wrong, etc. It seems to accept and mildly promote individualism, although not allowing it to trump collectivism.

I admit that even as an American, I cannot quickly digest these complex moral questions and make an immediate assessment as to their worthiness. For a Chinese person, I assume this film has been even more powerful. The pride evoked from its bold nationalist statement may further push them towards accord. Hence its value as propaganda has probably been quite strong. I think that ultimately the value of this film as a classic will be decided by the prevalent answer to these moral questions, and my suspicion is that history will not look favorably on the direction in which it pushes viewers to think.

Rating:
Summary: rebuttal to JUSTAREADER & Other Naysayers
Review: Western movie studios like to spoonfeed the story to the audience and have an ending that provides closure. Asian movies tend to be more ambigious & leave the conclusion more open-ended to allow the audience to walk away "thinking" about the consequences of the actions of the movie characters.

The wire kung fu is meant to be an expression of the inner turmoils that play within the character's heart and mind. Suspending your belief in reality would have to take place to accept the incredibly artistic fight scenes in this movie or just about every other action movie ever made like Spiderman or ID4. At least enjoy the beautiful camera work and use of colors in this movie instead of thinking about "too many pretentious but self-indulgent thought-to-be poetically beautified scenes".

The "peking opera styled slow talking dialogue" is used effectively in my opinion. JUSTAREADER may not be a fan of this type of dialog but everybody has their own opinion.

Zhang Yimou used the story of the Qin Emperor only as an outlet much like Passions of the Christ. Many will not agree with the portrayal of the Qin Emperor in Hero or the portrayal of Christ in Passions but it made its point.

I agree that the Qin Emperor is not as "benevolent" as Hero suggests but this is a fictional story meant to convey the conflicts of the characters - the sacrifices made for self and country and the eternal question "does the ends justify the means"?

Boring movies don't move the audience and just passes 2 hours of their lives. It's the reaction I get after attempting to watch Dreamcatcher, Road Trip, or Day After Tommorrow.

Great movies provoke a reaction from the audience. This is a great movie with great visuals and cinematography. It got a reaction out of the "love it" and "hate it" camp! It wasn't a simple "love it" or "hate it" review.

Some of the best movies and music are derivatives of others. Example: Led Zeppelin and Aerosmith just borrowed from the blues and garage rock; Hero borrows from Rashomon; the list can go on and on forever. So to call Hero an unoriginal movie is an oxymoron because every movie copies from earlier movies.

Not all westerners are "simple-minded". People who just want simple Kung Fu movie or action movie with no plot will be bored to death and will find the movie "too complicated for westerners." For those of us who want something more than movies like Garfield or Starsky & Hutch will more than likely enjoy Hero.

Rating:
Summary: FANTASTIC in all aspects
Review: WHAT A BEAUTIFUL MOVIE. I normally don't like fight movies and fast forward through battle scenes but this movie had me mesmorized...the use of color and light...Great! Eventhough I enjoyed watching the movie in the original language a neat option is you can watch the movie in english. Definitly a must buy and this is coming from someone who normally only watchs movies once!

Rating:
Summary: Stunning
Review: Wow. This movie blew me away. The acting is wonderful. The costumes, sets, music and directing are powerful and compelling. Color, light, sound and silence have meaning and this movie conveys that with soul. The battle/fight sequences will have the most casual observer entranced. The story itself is deep and thoughtful, of a king who seeks peace through strength and those who oppose him. It teases with a potential sermon on peace, then steps back to make you think and wonder exactly what the message is. I highly recommend this emotional masterpiece.

Rating:
Summary: A true Classic
Review: You have to see this movie. It is utterly fantastic. it works on many levels, not just as a kung fu movie. There is plenty of action , enough for the most die hard action fan. But the movie is incredibly well acted and the story is perfect as it is. if there was no action, it still would be an incredible movie. if you like "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon", then you will love this film. It is every bit as good as "Crouching Tiger". The scenery is beautiful and is shot on location in China. Yimou Zhang has done a remarkable job with both the colors and the choreography for the fight scenes. The film is just plain beautiful to look at not to mention the action. The action is actually better than "Crouching Tiger". This is just a remarkable film.

The story is about a Hero called "nameless" protecting the Emperor of China from a band of assasins. Jet Li plays the Hero and he tells the story of the duels with the assasins. To tell any more that this will ruin the movie for you. Just let it be said that there is much more than just what I told you here. There is also the usual extras with the DVD and it is a mini documentary on the film and what the crew tried to do. That is whorth the price alone.

Rating:
Summary: The Best Movie Of 2003!
Review: Zhang Yimou's films are like the "perfect woman". They're beautiful to look at and intelligent.

I've been reading that people have been comparing this film to Ang Lee's "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon". People who compare this film to Lee's film, are not very educated in foreign films. And I don't say this to sound like a snob. "Hero" is similar to Chen Kaige's "The Emperor & the Assassin". The story-line follows the same time in history. And to be honest both film are masterpieces. But, I admit as I watched this film in it's opening moments I thought to myself that "Hero" seems to lack something "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" and "The Emperor & the Assassin" had. This film doesn't seem as majestic as either. Also the fight scenes don't seem as amazing as those in Lee's film. But, Zhang Yimou's film possess other qualities that make this film just as impressive. Yimou's film's are always heartfelt and emotional. There is such passion in his films. "Hero" is such an impressive movie. It's just as touching as Yimou's other masterpieces like "Raise the Red Lantern", "To Live" & "The Road Home".

The story revolves around a warrior named "nameless" (played by Jet Li). He has managed to kill three of the King's most feared assassins. And now has been rewarded by meeting the king. King, intrigued to discover how one man could have achieved such a feat, ask him to tell him the story of how he accomplished this. "Nameless" tells his story of how he was able to deceit the three of them. But, soon something unexpected happens in this movie, and this is when the movie had me hooked. And soon we are asked to question ourselves as to what is true. And soon we are thinking of another classic foreign film. Kurosawa's "Rashomon".

"Hero" has so many hearfelt moments in it that we gladly give our emotions to the characters. The movie's ultimate message, without spoiling the film for you, is about peace. Here once again Zhang Yimou has made a bold, beautiful, tender film that all should be able to enjoy. I haven't seen many movies so far this year, but, I doubt I'll be able to see a better film than this one.

Bottom-line: Might not have the gradeur of films like "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" and "The Emperor & the Assassin", but, it makes up for it with it's emotional impact and Yimou's strong directing. So far, the year's best film!