All the tears in the oceans would't be enough to celebrate this masterpiece.

Rating: Null/10 (2 December 2004)

Please pay attention: SPOILERS all along!
I went to see this movie after a bad day, I was feeling badly. I tried to see only because of my own desperation, and I felt not great emotions, because it is a very difficult movie to follow. But after the vision, I remained sitting and thinking:"I am not sure, but it seems a masterpiece, after one watching". I know very well that emotions a movie causes are not to be considered as definitive. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon emotioned me a lot, but I didn't believe to my own tears, so I saw it soon after, then a third. So, I thought it was not sincere, lots of tricks and incoherences were in this movie, and my tears had not other motivation than illusion. I saw Hero again, and started to understand it, always looking for possible incoherences. I have not found after my sixth theater vision, and my comprehension of the movie became higher, this film seems to be simply perfect.
I regard it as an incredible screen version of Life's laws. All the fighting scenes are perfect regarding colors, but I don't consider important any symbolism. Simply, it seems to me that they directly flow by the interior feeling of any situation: I look at the first as an autumn-like situation, Flying Snow and Moon are battling in the Autumn of their lives, a premature autumn, so the battle had to be placed amongst yellow leaves, and Flying Snow got the power over autumn forces. They battle not only in the middle of leaves, but also disturbed by them. Their sorrow is an autumnal sorrow. When Moon cries I feel these cries are so powerful that they seems my own. When all leaves became red for her, with this genial music, I can't stop tears. It is right what I have red below, that the rumor of the swords is so important! Look and hear at when Flying Snow loses her sword in the sunlight, or when the Emperor sword reaches the ground ....The battle between Nameless and Broken Sword had to be placed in the water, a lake of tears: incredibly moving the scene of the tear from Flying Snow's eye, and the fact that Broken Sword cares about it and not about Nameless...When she hurts Broken Sword in order to save is life, is another moment of the highest level, especially when she turns her face toward him and then smiles. Her death turning on herself is simply impressive and to be seen on my knees. The third battles are all impressive the same: Moon is perfect in trying to defend his master, I find Zhang Ziyi perfect in her role and that her character is very important. When Broken Sword writes on the sand, and confides in his writing without trying to stop Nameless in other ways, is also perfect. He sheates his sword, and the sheat is in the foreground , then tells Moon the greatest declaration of love I have ever heard:"Give my sword to Master Nameless: Flying Snow and me will never apart, nor will our swords". The sword is the symbol for their common intentions, and he never leaves her, their swords always together! This is another point I can't stop to weep. The Chinese version has a scene in which Moon tries to kill herself in order to demonstrate Master Nameless that his Master's words are true: Nameless save her life, never seen such an intense scene, I don't know why the Italian version has not. But the culminant point is when the Emperor understands the meaning of the writing of Broken Sword: soon after my fourth vision, this time without great feelings, I repeated these three points to a friend of mine, then I suddenly stopped to avoid to weep in front of him just before saying"Swordmanship's ultimate achievement is the absence of the sword in both hand and heart, he vows not to kill: he is at peace with the rest of the world, and brings peace to mankind", I was simply unable to pronunciate these words.
The final fight between the two Masters is simply genially directed and acted: first on the desert of incomprehension, than at the top of mountains of comprehension. The veils of ignorance fall for Broken Sword during the fight with the Emperor, and the same happens for the Emperor, he understands that just a "broken sword", just what he had always considered an enemy, is in truth his best friend. He has to give permission to execute against his own feelings, because he has to obey himself to "All under heaven", and give permission with a gesture taking away a tear. After Nameless is buried "like an hero", the final shot shows the Emperor alone, in the Room of Illumination, and then a fading, everything has been told, and a new day of an illuminated era is borning...
Look at the repetition of similar gestures in every version of the story: Moon turning her head suddenly, characters who runs to arrive in time for something but always fail (Moon and Broken Sword in the second, Moon alone in the third).
I consider the last writing about "our country" not a Chinese property, but of all mankind, and after all it is secondary in respect of the greatness of this movie(do not forget that Chinese culture is such a great one that when speaking about this, it is like speaking of the entire world's).
I have red somewhere that the extraordinary Maggie Cheung(now I have my home full of her photos) declared that the director has rendered this movie less moving than the original script: maybe she is right, but what wanted, me to remain completely without tears, completely dehydrated?
This time I believe to my tears, and I am proud to weep in front of this masterpiece. All the tears in the oceans wouldn't be enough to celebrate Hero and these extraordinary director and actors.