Better than the hype would have you believe.

Rating: 10/10 (13 January 2005)

There are times when movies are released amidst enormous publicity and excitement and turn out to be average or even below average movies, and there are times when movies are released almost completely unnoticed and turn out to be milestones, and most rarely, there are movies that are released surrounded by great expectations and huge amounts of hype, and turn out to be even better than they were built up to be. Hero is, you might say, a close encounter of that third kind. Jet Li, whose startling martial arts capabilities have wowed audiences since Lethal Weapon 4 (and for years previous to that, before he achieved international stardom) has officially passed Jackie Chan, I should think, in American favor, which only a year or two ago may have seemed impossible for anyone to accomplish. Both men have released countless martial arts movies over the last decade or so, but it seems to be Jet Li who has been taking his craft more seriously.
Of course, both men are incredibly skilled martial artists, but Jet Li has taken his craft in a completely different direction than Jackie Chan. While Jackie Chan's comedies are not less skillful than Jet Li's, they are certainly less dramatically moving. Jackie Chan's fighting style is much more conducive to comedy than Jet Li's, who fights with such captivating style and skill that he is much better used in hardcore action films where he's a closed off weapon, a genuine force to be reckoned with. Jackie Chan uses his skills to entertain people, and despite such flops as Romeo Must Die, Jet Li seems to want to do more with his craft. Hero, for example, is told through a series of flashbacks, as Jet Li in the present tense spends the vast majority of the movie on his knees before the king.
The photography in the film is some of the most impressive I've ever seen in a movie, and embodies all of the things that I love about Japanese film-making. The lengthy shots and slow action during the scenes between Li and the king remind me of some of the best works of Kurosawa, while the stunning artistry of some of the fight scenes, many of which are given a color and display it with incredible prevalence and beauty, are so amazing that even someone who simply cannot accept zero-gravity in kung-fu movies (I have a bit of a hard time with that myself) can appreciate them. They take martial arts to a whole new level even beyond that seen in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.
Posing as a messenger who has brought news to the king of an intricate plot to kill him, which he himself has stopped by dealing with the assassins personally, Li is granted unprecedented access to the throne, which no one has been able to approach closer than something like 100 paces for years. But the king is so impressed with Li's story that he rewards him by granting him permission to approach to within mere feet of the king. Gradually, it becomes apparent that Li, whose character in the movie is nameless, is one of the assassins himself, and has created this story with the help of the other assassins in it in order to win that very access to the throne. The king's realization that he has granted extraordinary royal access to an assassin is impressive indeed.
But here is where the movie really gets powerful. Beyond the fight scenes, which are staggeringly remarkable both in their size, the way they are photographed and edited, and the way they are fought, the story thus far is impressive but fairly simple. But the movie has something to say about revolution, because Li has come within paces of the king, and both know that he could easily kill him, but he doesn't. He stands up and walks away, leaving a message immeasurably more powerful than if he had killed the king. Another king would have been brought in, Li would have been ultimately killed by the guards, who would arrive too late to save the king and may suffer some casualties themselves, but in the end he would be killed.
The important thing is that another king would be brought in to carry on the legacy of the fallen king, this time maybe with tighter security. But because Li came close enough to kill the king but stood and walked away (to his death, as it were), that king will go on ruling with Li's accomplishment in the back of his mind for the rest of his life.
I could kill you right now, but I'm not going to because I've beaten you already. My job is done here.
THAT is a message to an infallible dictator that is far more powerful than any measure of violence could ever be.