Wonderful set of postcards from China

Rating: 1/10 (26 May 2003)

To make it clear - i'm a regular moviegoer. I'm not a fan of the genre (martial arts). I didn't study Chinese philosophy. Sorry. I just like to watch movies. Of all kinds.
I saw CTHD (well, everyone mentioned it already) long before it's USA release. I was wowed in some parts, bored to death in others, but overall entertained. I laughed upon hearing it was declared to be a masterpiece, but... whatever floats your boat, folks, really ;).
Now back to Hero. I saw the cutted version and honestly, i have no idea what was missing in it. I'm glad i saw only hour and a half - quite frankly, i was bored to death after 20 minutes. Each frame frozen still is a visual masterpiece indeed - the wind is blowing the wonderful (and undoubtly too expensive, too clean, too ironed and ALWAYS bloodless for people on hide, but i digress)clothes of striking colors of every hero. Did i mention it ALWAYS matches the color scheme of the surrounding landscape and cinematography lense? And there's ALWAYS the wind? And the heroes ALWAYS stand in the most photogenic pose? And if they are on the lone sand rock (or whatever it is)it's VERY lone and VERY distant and extremely convenient for the helicopter shoot? And ALL the actors have the strictly-limited range of facial expressions? Except for Jet Li - he has exactly one.I saw these actors in other movies and i know they are far more capable than this.

Another thing - slow-motion. My first impression was that 3/4 of the movie reel consists of slow-mos. It might be exciting for some. For me it was a bit too much. I wanted to be carried away by the fantasy (though this one is based on the historical facts - see the earlier version The Emperor and the Assassin) - instead i've got the set of fascinating soulless stills. I wanted to be entertained - and, very simply put, i wasn't.
I know that the critics will go ga-ga over this movie (i think it's 100% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes)and there're more than enough ardent supporters which to every remark i've made will scream with laughter - "you just don't understand this masterpiece and the philosophy that stands behind it - it's supposed to be that way".
Well, my uneducated mind was sufficient enough for absorbing Rashomon, which Hero resembles, though only in style but not in substance. Maybe Kurosawa pandered too much to us, lower tastes. Or maybe the Oscar glory potential didn't cloud his creative judgement...
And by the way... Good movie doesn't change it's cinematic value according to the screen size. My humble opinion, of course.