The proverbial visual feast

Rating: Null/10 (23 March 2010)

"Hero" is simply magnificent to behold. It'd be amazing on the big screen, but it's beautiful enough even on my more modest TV. The use of color and landscape, along with close-ups and judicious slow-motion, is masterful. I've seen it twice now and twice it's held me spellbound. Its deliberate (okay...slow!) pacing is fine, because it's not like I wanted the sight and feel of the film to leave me any time soon. Talk about an epic.
I'm a Sinophile from way back and a traditional martial artist (Chinese arts...various styles of 'kung fu' as they're colloquially known) so films like this are something of a dichotomy to me. On the one hand, I can really appreciate the fight sequences and the techniques involved, even if some of the actors are not and have never been martial artists but are carefully choreographed in the action. For that matter, Jet Li and many others in such films are certainly legitimate martial artists but their background is typically less traditional martial arts than the showy new-era performance wushu along with training in Peking Opera and thorough grounding in 'film-fu' (no big surprise: Jackie Chan, Sammo Hung and others had such backgrounds). Regardless, the kungfoolery on display in such movies can be inspiring and, yes, people like Jet Li and Donnie Yen are not only in incredibly good physical condition but are phenomenally fast (and accurate). On the other hand, as a disciple of real martial arts who is often amazed by the capabilities of many within that world, the whole idea of having actors fly about on wires can often subvert the enjoyment of action scenes. I know it's done all the time, in Hong Kong and Hollywood and elsewhere, but I'd generally rather see a real display of martial arts, even if it's unrealistic in comparison to a real street fight (in length and clarity of execution, if nothing else), than someone obviously bouncing around on wires. Really, though, the only times this REALLY gets to me is in films that purport to be to at least some degree realistic; when I saw "Romeo Must Die," for example, I was totally turned off by the too-obvious wire work and puzzlement over why they had to resort to having a very competent and flashy martial films star like Jet Li flying around like some marionette. In films like "Hero" and "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" -- and the many older Shaw and Golden Harvest films that came before them -- the wire work may cause a slight wince or two from me at first but, really, such stories are Chinese fairy tales and when you see them in that context all is well...two men skipping about on a lake is obviously not, no matter how entrenched the old fables of the capabilities of the ancient Shaolin warriors and the like, cinema verité. It's highly, highly unlikely that any human, ever, unassisted by various aircraft, rocket packs, or wires, danced atop a forest canopy. At some point, laws of physics do operate. So, yeah, this is a lyrical fairytale and if they really need to invoke flight as a human power then that's their prerogative. Either way, scenes like the lake chase/dance in this film are pure cinematic magic; that was a particularly beautifully presented scene.
The use of color in this film is incredible. It's also very obviously intentionally designed to delineate certain narratives. I'm not entirely sure what the significance of each color is, though I have my ideas, but that's not really the point. It works. And it looks GREAT.
The acting...just right. Mostly very solemn and somber, on the verge of being overdone, but it works in the context of this film and its meaning. All of the principals have great screen presence. Donnie Yen and Jet Li are obviously the martial standouts, but the other three warriors also manage to convince that they're near-immortal fighters.
The kick in the tale (pun intended) here is the film's final outcome. Kind of surprised me but, really, if you consider that the film was enthusiastically supported by the People's Republic of China -- you know, the outfit who for so long dedicated themselves to destroying pretty much every aspect of Chinese culture depicted and celebrated in the film (to the extent that, since the Cultural Revolution, the best proponents of traditional culture, from cooking to martial arts, have been located OUTSIDE China) -- it makes sense. Yep, the commies-in-charge (who are really nowadays just ruthless-capitalist-DRESSED-as-commies, though mostly now without the little Mao suits) would be happy with the ending, I think. They might miss a couple of veiled jabs along the way, though. Besides, there's always been a part of Chinese culture and society that responds strongly to autocratic rule or to authority in general, whether the dictates of feudal lords, Confucianism, Qin Dynasty legalism, Maoism, or whatever. Anyway, the eventual outcome of the film WAS the eventual outcome for China, united in 221 BC by Emperor Qin Shi Huang (who did, indeed, weather assassination attempts). He was a great man. Which is to say that he was a visionary and a tyrant in equal measure. But he sure as hell got the job done.
The ancient and violent growing pains of a great empire aside, and the current political message none too subtly on display in parts, this film is a beautiful thing to behold and it translates well in any language, in any culture.