Operatic, visually impressive, politically naive propaganda

Rating: Null/10 (5 September 2004)

The operatic style of this movie will appeal to some and not to others, while the color symbolism, while unmistakably important, will be opaque to most westerners. The martial arts scenes have the physics-defying moves of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. The multiple-flashback/multiple-viewpoint structure is greatly inferior to Kurosawa's _Rashomon_, by reason of being applied to events of a more objective nature than in _Rashomon_.
_Hero's_ greatest problem, however, is its political discussusion (the central theme of the film) of cartoon simplicity. Unification is good (there is no consideration of HOW the unified countries should be ruled), regardless of the bloodshed required; continued separation must inherently mean ceaseless warfare. In the context of mainland China's ongoing push to re-take Taiwan, this clearly renders the film propaganda.
All the characters who learn anything are rendered incapable of taking advantage of what they learn.