This film is far more than martial arts, visual treat, etc

Rating: 10/10 (21 January 2005)

In fact I think the fighting/dancing is a bit too much. That said I will move on.
It is the first film I see that is at the same time built on the symbol - the idea that you should give only a sign of the happening and leave the audience feel the remaining content and charge by its own merits - but the symbols themselves are so expanded and living that one might even not notice there is something else behind.
I also enjoyed that this film managed to promote in the western countries the ideas of holism which are quite distant to our individualistic philosophy. The thread that we are parts of the whole, and at the same time we are the whole itself, is pervading Hero on every scale - from the allusions on the fundamental link between martial art, calligraphy, music, go...; through the marvellous half-word dialogue between King and Nameless; to the final scene of insight, and then sacrifice. I am glad this different view on the world is expressed in a film watchable for the wider audience. I hope it will help make us more tolerant to other cultures in todays times of civilisational conflict.