Hero

Rating: 8/10 (28 May 2008)

I can't fully appreciate the critics giving this film from director Yimou Zhang (House of Flying Daggers) five out of five, because the visuals are more impressive than the story, but it is a pretty good film. Basically a warrior known only as Nameless (Jet Li) has been called to the palace of the King of Qin (Chen Dao Ming) to recount the tale of how he accomplished an amazing mission, this of course means going to flashback. The King plans to conquer the entire land, and he is targeted by three dangerous assassins: spear-wielding Sky (Blade II's Donnie Yen), and the lovers Broken Sword (Chungking Express's Tony Leung Chiu Wai) with servant (and lover at one point) Moon (House of Flying Daggers' Ziyi Zhang), and Flying Snow (In the Mood for Love's Maggie Cheung). At the end of the story the King notices its flaws, and eventually it turns out Nameless might have something against the King as well. To be completely honest it is mainly the visuals I paid more attention, the wonderful use of vibrant colours, the stunts and over-the-top fights. It was nominated the Oscar and Golden Globe for Best Foreign Language Film. It was number 26 on Film 4's 50 Films To See Before You Die. Very good!