Hero

Release Date: August 27, 2004
Studio: Miramax Films
Director: Zhang Yimou
Screenwriter: Zhang Yimou
Starring: Jet Li, Tong Leung Chiu-Wai, Maggie Cheung Man-Yuk, Zhang Ziyi, Chen Dao Ming, Donnie Yen, Liu Zhong Yuan, Zheng Tia Yong, Qin Yan, Chang Xiao Yang, Zhang Ya Kun, Ma Wen Hua, Jin Ming, Xu Kuang Hua, Wang Shou Xin, Hei Zi, Cao Hua, Li Lei, Xia Bin, Peng Qiang, Liu Jie, Zhang Yi
Genre: Action, Drama
MPAA Rating: PG-13 (for stylized martial arts violence and a scene of sensuality)
Official Website: Herothemovie.com

Plot Summary: At the end of China's Warring States, the Kingdom of Qin is the most ruthless and ambitious of the seven states. It's King is the target of assassins from all over China. Of all the would-be assassins, Broken Sword, Flying Snow and Sky are the most dangerous. When Nameless kills all three, he is offered a chance to meet the King. Namesless explains to the King that how he used their personal relationships to expose and attack their weaknesses, but the King tells a different version of the same story.

            The plot instead resembles the circulatory narratives of Argentinean writer Manuel Puig, following a man known simply as Nameless (Jet Li), who arrives to tell his King (Chen Daoming) the tales of how he has killed the provinces three most deadly assassins; Broken Sword (Tony Leung), Sky (Donnie Yen), and Flying Snow (Maggie Cheung). Each of these tales is told in recycling flashback, with Nameless and his King imparting different perspectives on the assassin’s deaths. In this respect the film’s structure draws comparison with Rashomon, but the visual potency of Zang Yimou’s film is unparalleled in Western cinema and surpasses Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, like a Bentley streaming past a Skoda.

            A large part of this optical extravagance can be attributed to cinematographer Christopher Doyle, who jumped ship from Wong Kai-War’s 2046 to work on Hero, and should be worshipped for some truly ravishing compositions that profit from the beautiful Mongolian landscape. Equally, plaudits must go to art-director Tingxiao Huo and costume designer Emi Wada, for the wonderful primal colour scheme that provides a contrast for the characters to standout from the stark mise-en-scene. The settings become integral to the story, much as they do in Jackie Chan’s particular brand of slapstick combat, but implemented in Hero for a more spiritual purpose.

            In particular, the fight in the oak grove between Snow and Moon (Zhang Ziyi) adopts a particularly metaphysical reality; not just in the gravity defying physics that this floral fight of fantasy uses, but as one of the warriors dies the falling leaves turn from an autumnal yellow to blood-red in an almost biblical fashion.

The fight sequences are of course, the films main attraction and certainly highlight the flaws in Hollywood’s roguish attempts at martial arts combat. The ‘wire-work’ is present and correct, but the nature of combat is less confrontational and more concerned with the chivalry of the characters relationships, rather than the gratuitous violence that is found in The Matrix or Charlie’s Angels films.

            However, the acting in this film is as wooden as a stack of chopsticks, but you get the feeling that director Yimou asked for these theatrical performances. Still, Jet Li gives his best performance since making the transition to Western screens and Tony Leung draws upon the powerful emotions that established him as an international acting prowess in John Woo’s The Killer.

            Beyond the understated performances and operatic action Hero just falls short of the benchmark set by Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and by the time the credits role, viewers may exclaim kung-phew instead of kung-fu.