Visually ravishing; philosophically suspect.

Rating: 10/10 (11 September 2004)

After two years of delay, the Chinese martial arts masterpiece "Hero" arrives in Western theaters, and audiences look for the same dazzling swordplay that made "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" such a success (for the record, though, I wasn't a big fan of that movie). While the plot isn't particularly original, or important, it involves the arrival of Nameless (Jet Li) at the court of the King of Qin [Shi Huangdi, although his name is never explicitly stated on screen](Daoming Chen). Nameless has killed Long Sky (Donnie Yen), Flying Snow (Maggie Cheung), and Broken Sword (Tony Leung Chiu Wai), three assassins who have vowed to kill the King to prevent his wars aimed at conquering all of China. Nameless recounts his story of how he defeated Long Sky, and then strategically set Flying Snow and Broken Sword against each other; also involved is Broken Sword's apprentice, Moon (Ziyi Zhang, from "Crouching Tiger"). The King of Qin, however, believes that Nameless and the three assassins are in fact engaging in an elaborate deception to kill him. The film borrows from Akira Kurosawa's "Rashomon" (or, really, any of the movies that have already borrowed from "Rashomon"), in that we see multiple accounts of what supposedly has (Nameless's account, the King's version, and what really happened), each one using a different colour scheme (Nameless's story is primarily red, the King's version is blue, and the real story is white; green is used in the present, as well as in a few other flashbacks). The fight scenes are superbly staged, balletic even; my personal favourite was the fight between Nameless and Broken Sword over the lake, with the two combatants skimming across the water. The scale of the film is awesome, with director Zhang Yimou showing us massive armies arrayed in the desert and at the Court of Qin, and thousands of arrows flying through the air, obscuring the sun. Acting is good, with Maggie Cheung being the best, but there are no performances that will win Oscars; martial arts movies aren't built on acting in the traditional sense. The only troubling thing about "Hero" is the underlying philosophy that the film seems to promote. Nameless comes to believe (as Broken Sword already did) that the King of Qin's bloody wars and tyrannical rule are justified in that they will unify China, and Nameless allows himself to be killed rather than kill the tyrant. I find that entire philosophy suspect. In the end, though, "Hero"'s philosophy scarcely matters in the long run. It's a visual film, and a great one. I give it 10/10.