Simply Exquisite...

Rating: 10/10 (7 September 2004)

Having been dragged to the theatre by my wife to see 'Hero', I halfway expected it to be yet another martial arts two-hour time waster. Lord, was I wrong! This was, without any doubt, the single most stunning movie I've seen in a month of sundays. On many fronts. Jet Li plays 'Nameless' an assassin, deadly at 10 paces, sent to kill the emperor of Qin, a despot who uses whatever means available, including murder and pillage, to unite his country. 'Flying Snow' (Maggie Cheung), 'Sky' (Donnie Yen) and 'Broken Sword' (Tony Leung Chiu Wai) are the Emperor's enemies whom Nameless must kill in order to win the Emperor's trust so that he can get close to him. But things get even more complicated because while Flying Snow is sworn to the Emperor's demise, Broken Sword, her lover, must stop her.
Visually (bowing to the fact that the story always takes a back seat to the visuals with American audiences), Hero was beyond breathtaking! Zhang Yimou treads dangerously the line between narrative and art, allegory and realism with this one. How he accomplished many of the effects, so seamlessly composed that even a jaded movie goer like myself was left gasping, I'll be considering for years to come. I'd love to try to describe what I saw and experienced, but I simply couldn't do it justice. Suffice to say, if you're a Special Effects aficionado, they alone makes this movie a truly worthwhile experience. On the other hand, if you happen to enjoy a movie with an intelligent plot, fully realized characters and a wagonload full of passion, I can't think of a better movie to recommend. Hero is a visual symphony.