A Martial Arts Work of Art

Rating: Null/10 (31 August 2004)

Hero is one of the most talked about, visually stunning, action packed, and beautiful films I have seen this year. It has a great cast, amazing characters, a solid story, a great musical score, beautiful settings and art direction, and incredible fight scenes. Many people, including myself, have been looking forward for Hero's release, it was a long wait, but it was worth it. The film revolves a meeting between an assassin known as Nameless, played by the amazing Jet Li, and the King of Qin played by Chen Daoming. Nameless recounts to the king how he defeated three assassins: Sky played by the awesome Donnie Yen, Broken Sword played by Tony Leung, and Flying Snow played excellently by the beautiful Maggie Chueng. But the recollections are actually told in three different perspectives giving the film a Rashomon-like pace. Some fights, vendettas, and encounters may or may not have happened. This is an excellent way to show character development. Zhang Yimou did an Oscar-worthy excellent job directing the film. Even more impressive is the fact that it is his first time directing a martial arts film. All the perspectives are told without messing up the film's pace and the settings, costumes, and even horses look like they come from a fairy tale. The best thing about the movie is its use of color as each of them has a primary meaning: red is imagination, blue is perceived reality, green is enlightenment, white is truth, and black is sacrifice, an original way of using color in film and a way of showing the character's true emotions. The battle scenes are amazing; Ching Siu Hung did an outstanding job choreographing them. The fights have a whimsical flair, making them theater-like, each having great rhythm and execution. All the fights are memorable; like the match between Maggie Chueng and the alluring Zhang Ziyi in the forest. Maggie gathers a storm of leaves and kicks it at Zhang not just to subdue her, but to simply walk away. It reminded me of the training sequence in The Tai-Chi Master. The most breathtaking was one between Jet Li and Tony Leung, where they fight on the surface of a lake; they tip their swords to the water to propel themselves in the air again and again. The fight is actually happening in their minds, its basically psychological warfare. But the best fight is the long awaited rematch martial arts fans have been waiting for; the awe-inspiring fight between Jet Li and Donnie Yen. The scenes have such great execution, rhythm, timing, and it was flawlessly filmed. These Wushu experts are perfectly matched and it's their finest duel since Once Upon a Time in China 2. Due to the films different point of views, the matches have different outcomes and everyone is in combat including the King of Qin himself. Overall, Hero is a masterpiece, even surpassing Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. It has elevated martial arts films to the next level.
***** 5 stars (Ryojin 20 favorite!)