Beautiful

Rating: 9/10 (25 August 2005)

After the success of "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon," 2004 saw the release of Zhang Yimou's martial arts epic "Hero." It is set during the reign of Shi Huangdi, the first emperor of China, who founded the Qin dynasty. The Emperor (Doaming Chen) built the Great Wall and unified his empire, yet he still has won lots of would-be assassins, the deadliest of which include Flying Snow (Maggie Cheung), Broken Sword (Tony Leung), and Sky (Donnie Yen). The king cannot get any sleep at night because of those assassins. Then, one day, a nameless warrior (martial arts legend Jet Li) comes to the King and presents to him the weapons of those three deadly assassins, claiming that he killed them all and seeks a reward.
The King is baffled on how the nameless hero is able to defeat those three deadly assassins, and he asks him to tell how exactly did he achieve this feat. And thus begins "Hero," told in flashbacks, showing the nameless hero's defeat of Broken Sword, Flying Snow, and Sky, all of which are told from the nameless hero's point of view. (spoilers ahead!) But is the nameless hero indeed telling the truth? Or it could be he is, in fact, an assassin himself! "Hero" is an interesting film, complete with an interesting script and complex, well-told story that's full of surprises. Like the King of Qin, the viewer, too, makes guesses on whether the nameless hero did, indeed, kill the assassins as he claimed or he is simply one of them. The viewer is made to speculate, and there are many guesses. The story makes the viewer think and make decisions.
"Hero," like "Crouching Tiger," is part of the wuxia genre, which is set in Ancient China and usually tells tales about swordsmen. The word wuxia means "swordsman," and there is a lot of swordplay in this genre. "Hero" is packed with lots of swordplay, all well-choreographed and have lots of complex, elaborate moves. It is a pleasure to watch this film's eye-candy fights. Like most films in this genre, "Hero" has supernatural elements in it, such as fighters defying gravity and flying (a trademark in this genre). The flying scenes are breathtaking and fun to look at.
Other than the fight scene, this film is beautiful. The cinematography is gorgeous, taking place in exotic places in Asia such as the forest, lakeside, and desert. Christoper Doyle has some great scenery here. The sets are realistic and accurate, not to mention to costumes. You can feel as if you're in that time. Plus, the score by Tan Dun (who previously worked in "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon") (using traditional Chinese flutes and violins, Japanese drums, and some Western classic music) captures the mood of the story.
"Hero" was made in mainland China, unlike "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon", which was made in Taiwan or most Kung Fu flicks, mostly made in Hong Kong. "Hero," released in 2003, was nominated for the Oscar for best foreign film but lost to "The Barbarian Invasions." But nevertheless, it was a success at the US box office and received generally good reviews from most critics on its 2004 US release. It was followed later by another Chinese film, "House of Flying Daggers," also by Zhang Yimou and stars Zhang Ziyi, who plays Moon in this film.
"Hero" is one of the best Asian films I've seen.