Hero a different kind of Wu Xia

Rating: 10/10 (26 January 2003)

Everyone that is familiar with Zang Yi Mou's work will know that he is not a communist idealist. All of his previous films have been about criticizing the chinese government and the communist idealism. Everyone knows that the emporer of the chin dynasty was a important figure in chinese history. I don't agree to everything that he did, but atleast he unified china and gave the people a short period of peace time until his death. Otherwise who knows how many more lives will be lost and how many more wars there will be. China was fighting a civil war during that time and the other warring states was killing one another also. It's not like the Chin emperor was the only one that was doing the killing. The united states also went through war to become what they are today. First killing off the indians then killing each other in the civil war. Now there is democracy through all this blood that was spilled. I dont think its fair to say that this film is a communist film.
Zang yi mou was definitely trying something new in this film. It's more of an art film than a commercial film. So if you go in the theater and expect something like the matrix or crouching tiger u will be disappointed. One thing that I was amazed was the set design and the colors that was used in this film. Zang yi mou used to be a cinematographer before he became a director, so this is something he is good at. The fighting on the lake really amazed me. I wonder how they set up those wires for the actors to fly on the lakes. I have to say the fight scenes in this film is nothing like I've ever seen in Hong Kong martial arts film. It is not as difficult as some other films but the artistic quality ot it is just incredible. How every little detail was shown.