Utterly Disappointing

Rating: 4/10 (4 May 2005)

It seems every Chinese action movie I've seen since Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon is favorably compared to the Ang Lee classic. The problem is, the writing in movies like Hero and House of Flying Daggers is standard pap, there's nothing deeper, no overtones of things like honor, freedom and loyalty, things that made Crouching Tiger soulful.
Hero is certainly visually stunning. But, it is without a soul, the Chinese equivalent of a Bruckheimer movie. Basically, I thought the story condoned any form of tyranny or suppression, to the betterment of the country. With this, I figured the neocons must love it, but that's off topic. And if the director was pressured by the nationalists to make it this way, fine - Howard Hawks and Billy Wilder were forced to conform under national pressure back in the 30s, but they still snuck in subversiveness, little hints that drove the story further. I saw no such trickery in Hero, but maybe I wasn't looking hard enough.