HAMSTER RATING:
DIRECTOR: Yimou Zhang
WRITERS: Feng Li, Bin Wang, Yimou Zhang
STARRING: Jet Li (Nameless), Tony Leung Chiu Wai (Broken Arrow), Maggie Cheung (Flying Snow), Ziyi Zhang (Moon), Daoming Chen (King of Qin), Donnie Yen (Sky)
SYNOPSIS: A mysterious swordsman is invited to the palace of the King of the province of Qin to be rewarded for slaying three assassins that have endangered the king's life. But as he recounts his victories, it becomes clear that there is more to this story (and the Hero) than has been revealed.
Presentation note: Hero is shown in Mandarin Chinese, with English subtitles.
"Don't worry, no zit has ever resisted the power of my swordtip!"
REVIEW: I was surprised to see "Quentin Tarantino presents" on the poster for Hero
outside the movie theatre. While I knew he was a fan of kung-fu flicks, everything I'd heard
about Hero pointed towards it being a more artsy, ethereal story along the lines of
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. But once the movie got going, I could see what must
have attracted Tarantino to this little Jet Li gem. It starts simply enough, with Nameless
telling the King about how he fought all the assassins, and we see some really fantastic
stunts and fight sequences, very much like Crouching Tiger, but when Nameless finishes
his story, there's still half of the movie left to go. And that's where things get really
interesting. Unlike Crouching Tiger, Hero has a complex, intelligent and
meaningful story that not even the presence of flying swordsmen can distract from, including a
poignant message about unity, patriotism and peace presented with such deft storytelling craft
and artistic flair that you'll be surprised to find yourself leaving the theatre deep in
thought, a side effect that the summer movie season generally avoids (except if you're like
me, and you find mental stimulation in picking apart plot holes).
Where's Jet Li? Can you find him?
Of course, Hero is also a dazzling beauty of a film, drenched in rich color (each
sequence has its own color scheme) and astounding effects (At one point, three thousand
archers in the King's army let loose on a caligraphy school. If you've ever read or heard the
phrase "raining arrows," this is what that means!). The performances by the cast are superb,
including Jet Li, who is far better when allowed to use a language he clearly understands.
This movie also scores in the "dummy" department of filmmaking. What I mean by this is
that the story only has six characters you need to worry about, each has a distinctive name
that has been handily translated into English, and during the fight scenes, the combatants are
dressed in contrasting hues so that they are much easier to tell apart during all the flying
and stabbing, so that you can concentrate on the more intellectual elements of the story,
rather than on just trying to remember who's who and what just happened.
SUGGESTED DRINKING GAME: Drink every time you see Broken Arrow get stabbed!
RATING: A Hamster-gasmic 5/5 pellets!
