Fantastic- didn't let me down

Rating: 9/10 (13 January 2004)

First, let me say that I have been dying to see this film. The combination of Jet Li, Zhang Yimou (Director) and Christopher Doyle (Cinematographer)gave it a superstar billing both in front and behind the screen. The additions of Maggie Cheung, Tony Leung, Donnie Yen and Zhang Ziyi just heightened it.
Within 20 minutes, the film had already surpassed my expectations. Yimou is never a dull director, and he reconstructed heroism. Other reviews compare this film to Kill Bil and Rush Hour. INHO- that's a disservice, those films are parodies of a genre (or classic western appropriation).
The other film it bears comparison to is Crouching Tiger, but it is better in several ways. First, to get ti out of the way, the fight scenes. Second, and much more important, the film is cerebral, with it's intellectualism supported in the fights and colors. The film explores individual action in the context of a society, and like Rashomon before it, breaks each story into an individual context. It completes the Postmodern context, resetting back into the overall repurcussions (something the Deconstructionists have yet to rectify).
Each protoganists story is told differently, in different colors. The colors are left up to us to interpret. Red- perhaps revenge. Green, innocence and youth.
Each heroe's stoy is also a different role. Jet Li starts as a character seeking personal vengeance but begins to think it terms of the greater the good. Tony Leung also makes this transition, at an earlier stage. His lover, Maggie Cheung, holds on to her motive of revenge and pays a price (I am being a little vague so as not to give it away), her emotional path effectively boomering back on her.
How far should the hero in persuing the personal cause? How far in the political? What actions are permissible in either realm? ANd what is the greater good? All of this is debated.
This film will rank with Seven Samurai in the genre of the action film.