One of the slowest (I'm talking "motion" here) films ever made

Rating: 3/10 (1 February 2005)

In Zhang Yimou's newest film, "Hero," bodies exquisitely fall in slow motion. They get up in slow motion too. They talk in slower motion. They run the physical gamut in slow motion while the audience yawns in real time. There are so many maudlin dramatic climaxes here to give Mel Gibson a run for his money.
Yimou is no stranger to piling on heavy drama. His most restrained and distant film, "Raise the Red Lantern," is consequently his best chiefly for those named reasons. It's when he gets up and close to his characters that we realize he actually doesn't have as much to say as when he's the ironical observer full of snobby, critic-like commentary. One doesn't need to be familiar with Yimou's other pictures to feel that "Hero" isn't "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon." That second one, directed by Ang Lee, actually had something to say about the martial arts film, and its expertly staged fight scenes are also totally varied: each one does not duplicate or repeat a single time through the entire picture. "Crouching Tiger" also wove together two very distinct, parallel love stories that, though ideal, nevertheless realized both the passion and maturity that can come about in love regardless of age. Lee had a lot on his mind in that small masterpiece, and what made that film remarkable wasn't the marvelous acrobatics but the artistic and subtle meaning behind it (HK martial arts snobs will tell you that "Crouching Tiger" sucks because they've seen the flying before, obviously missing the point that Lee weaves floating through the air INTO THE PLOT, and doesn't just take it at face value). Sure, its weepy at points, but not without exquisite merits.
But before I forget, this isn't a critique about a movie that gets it right, but how something actually very beautiful manages to get it quite wrong. Jet Li is an assassin supposedly hired to off some warriors, and as he reports to the emperor his stories, the audience realizes that (gasp!) not all is at it seems. Like a mystery, one plot twist is replaced by another until we finally come to the ultimate conclusion. Before I forget, the performances deserve some praise, specifically Zhang Ziyi and Maggie Cheung. To see Ziyi's manic teeter-totter between cold calculation and obsessive passion is why we watch movies. And the late Maggie Cheung's face is, quite simply, a face that is meant for the screen. Yimou understands this; he gets right up and close with his beautiful heroines and lets their anguish communicate everything in chilling screams and furious temper (maybe a bit too much though; the whole thing seems like one big Gregorian chant with every female moaning 'Yaaaa, ayaaaa, yaaaa!').
More of them would have been welcome, but what we get instead is Jet Li fighting one guy in a traditional fight scene in normal, ho-hum everyday sword-fighting and flying speed, then the scene starts to move VERY SLOWLY. It's a novel idea at first; you know, what's emphasized is the natural elements surrounding the actors rather than the fight itself (because to do the latter would've been unbearably boring in slow motion). But Yimou doesn't relent; everything is dramatic in this movie so that nothing is left ordinary. Li fights EVERYONE slowly. One could imagine the cutting of a fingernail was inexorably dropped from the final print much to Yimou's objections, but it'll probably be included on the American DVD release.
Since every fight scene is reduced to a crawl, they all seem executed similarly, with just a different setting and color scheme. It's all a lot of elaborate dance, an idea that sounds great, but really just looks silly. Watch the extended lake scene and you'll know what I mean. Some have said the last two crappy "Matrix" films did this; I guess I just find pirouetting CG incredibly boring. Did I mention that half the film is in slow motion? Fast forward the DVD to watch the film in its normal speed glory.
Perhaps I've been too hard on the film. It is indeed gorgeous when it's not putting you to sleep, and the creators desire to create all costumes and set pieces from scratch rather than resorting to fake-looking CG should be admired. The backdrops have a genuinely natural, lush feel to them that is some of the prettiest moving color to ever grace the screen. Yimou color codes every story that Jet Li tells, so the audience is truly getting a variety in storytelling here, in narrative and striking visuals. It's no stretch to call "Hero" aesthetically more striking than "Crouching Tiger," though far less subtle. For all the emphasis on color coding and repetition in cryptic motifs, though, we are supposed to forget about the soap-opera story and presentation. And beyond telling each story in a new beatific arrangement, there is little other point to the exorbitant display. Yimou might have learned something cheap from melodramatists Douglas Sirk, or maybe even his inferior tributaries like Todd Haynes. In other words, this is the perfect study for film school students.
On a final note, and spoiler alert, I don't think the film really has a "fascist" message at all, and those that have described the film as such are playing loosely with the word, much like Roger Ebert does. It's a little insulting to respectable fascists everywhere. On the other hand, what IS there is a truly disgusting celebration of authoritarianism. Why should Jet Li lay down and sacrifice his life for an emperor who has shown no sacrifice of his own? If Jet Li is indeed the titular character, why should his act of sacrifice for the ambitions of an imperialistic state be considered heroic? This attitude is reflective of a tyranny that would like its citizens to obey and work for the good of the state, and it's a particularly dangerous mantra to adapt in the climate of today's world. Watch at your risk.