mad about movies' blog

hero - tidbit's movie review

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Hero (Ying Xiong)

This is one of the foreign movies I own in my collection. I watch this movie several times over the course of a year.

Some background on the film:

This is a Chinese film that was released in 2002 but was not released in the US till 2004 (and was also the first foreign language film to open #1 in the US box office - backed by and pushed by Quinton Taratino). It is subtitled (I really don’t pick these out on purpose). However, there is a “dubbed” option on the DVD, I just do not recommend it, having tried it.

The film is set in ancient China, prior to the reign of the first emperor. Six of the seven kingdoms were plotting to assassinate the ruler, Qin.  Qin’s largest fears come from three warriors.  When all man called “Nameless”  (Jet Li)  defeats all three assassins, he is summoned to the ruler’s kingdom to speak with the ruler Qin.

The entire film is Nameless and Qin discussing the events that transpired up to Nameless being summoned. Nameless tell his story of how he defeated the 3 assassins, but Qin starts to find flaws in his story and starts poking holes in them and re-telling it in the manner that he thinks might have really happened.  A match of wits as it were.

The three assassins were Broken Sword (Tony Leung Chiu Wai), Flying Snow (Maggie Cheung) <-- absolutely gorgeous,  and Sky (Donnie Yen).

The story line is interesting, though that is not what brought out the WOW with me in this film.

The cinematography is beyond amazing to me. The director, Yimou Zhang, went to great lengths to film this movie. There is a scene closer toward the end, a fight scene that takes place over a lake. These scenes took over 3 weeks to film because Zhang insisted that the lake’s surface be perfectly still and reflect like a mirror.  This only occurred for approx 2 hours each day.  So the filmmakers had to get up around 5am to get set up because the lake became perfectly still around 10am.

Each part of the story, where Nameless talks about the different assassins is filmed with different colors.  Some scenes are dominant red, to include the leaves of the trees like fall in the mountains and the attire the actors wear all shades of red. There were scenes that were all primary blue, some primarily white, some green.  It was breathtakingly perfect.

The fight between Flying Snow and Sky’s apprentice – Moon was considered “The Red Fight” or “Dual in the Yellow Forest”. Both actresses wore all red – for rage. Zhang filmed this scene in Mongolia during the fall specifically because of the color of the trees’ yellow leaves during this time. He even hired local nomads to gather more leaves to be able to cover the ground completely for the color contrast.

The imagery created via these colors and visuals is just unparalleled. The perfectly fluent flow of the storyline, the fight scenes and even the cultural concepts used in the film just keeps me coming back to re-watch the film over and over.

The martial arts used in this film is so beautifully done, it is like watching a graceful dance, far superior to Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon martial arts displays (though this movie was definitely a leader).

My personal favorite fight, is the very first one between Nameless, a local magistrate, and Broken Sword.  It takes place in a chess court where all the other locals are ushered out for the fight. All that is left is a blind man playing a “Guqin” which is one of the most beautiful instruments to me.  There is absolutely no sound other than the instrument and the occasional yells from the two warriors. 

The message that I got from the movie seems to be a rather unpopular one, but important. A degree of human casualties and suffering may be the optimal path to a better world, especially when the alternative is equally brutal chaos. Very interesting and provocative message if you ask me.

On a scale of 1 to 10, I give this movie a 9.5

This is definitely an eloquent must see movie .