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"Hero"

Last night, courtesy of a mate, I obtained a copy of a film I've been trying to see for almost 2 years since I heard about it over the net.
It's been released in pretty much every country but here, mate bought me the DVD in Belgrade whilst visiting her family.

Directed by Yimou Zhang, Hero (aka Nameless/Ying xiong) tells the story of an man called "Nameless" (Jet Li), who arrives at the palace of the King of Qin to tell him how he has killed the King's three main enemies that have sought to slaughter him. The enemies, Broken Sword, Flying Snow & Silver Spear are the greatest assassins known in the land, and the king is intrigued as to how Nameless managed to defeat them.
So begins the film.

Nameless' stories are told in flashback form as to how he bested them.
And each flashback is colour co-ordinated, to seperate from each other.
Visually it is absolutely incredible, one of the most beautiful films I've ever seen.
One of the stories concerning Broken Sword & Flying Snow is red. All characters wear red, the decor is red, the sky is red...stunning and absolutely, incredibly beautiful.
A showdown in a forest, a fight amongst falling leaves and petals and, at the finale, the entire forest turns blood red.

Imagine Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon - but with a visual imagination I've never, ever seen before, even in Chinese cinema.
The first encounter is between Nameless and Sky in a chess-house.
The fight is conducted "in the mind", and it puts any supposed cutting-edge CGI effects to shame.
Nameless running through frozen-in-time droplets of water, Sky upside down fighting.
It has the traditional wire-work, but it's done with style and panache with a showdown on a lake, swords breaking the water's surface only slightly etc.

Don't dismiss wire-work simply because The Matrix has introduced it to Westerners. To see Chinese cinema using it to show traditional character's movements through air and water, to demonstrate their harmony with the environment is a work of art.
The closest comparison I can think of, and it is ugly and clumsy and does not do Hero justice, is Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.

The end of the film, with them fighting in the tree-tops, rivers and clearings. Think that for 90 mins, a genius/amazing/beautiful/unbelievable work of cinema.
The assualt on Zhao Calligraphy school ranks as one of my personal favourite scenes of the last I-don't-know.
Thousands upon thousands (no CGI here, this is an epic) of archers (using their feet) launch hundreds of thousands of arrows towards the school.
A swarm, a black cloud of arrows flying, and Nameless and Flying Snow fighting them away.

Of course it's unbelievable, of course these people shouldn't be able to fight on a lake etc but that's the traditional Chinese folklore of these warriors. That's why the wire-work is amazing, because it's not just to make them flip really cool through the room, it's to enable them to run across mountains, skip over water and climb walls in mid-combat.

Hero/Nameless/Ying Xiong - if you are even slightly a fan of Chinese cinema or just incredible works of visual poetry, then try and find this film and get it.
If you think "Kung fu, wot like The Matrix? Wire work? Seen it", then stick with Kill Bill et al.
This isn't a kung-fu movie, I can't think of one instance of chop-socky.
This is swordsmanship, magic and beauty.

Here's some stills to try and show you what I mean by visual poetry:
http://outnow.ch/Media/Img/2002/Hero/

I'll probably get around to getting this eventually, especially as I've been in a foreign dvd buying mood in recent times. A big budget Korean animated film (Wonderful Days), Korean sci-fi Bladerunner rip-off (Natural City), Japanese anime about tramps (Tokyo Godfathers), and Japanese spoof zombie baseball type thingy (Battlefield Baseball), so this may be the next foreign language dvd on the list, especially as it's gained quite a cult status in recent times.

Goatboy wrote:
> Blow it out of your ass kid, I'm trying to help somebody.

With that critical one-liner, you should be an action hero. Very Die Hard-Esque

> The day I need to preen for acceptance before a bunch of chimpanzees
> like you lot is the day I surrender my "I'm best" card.

So I was right about you being better than everyone.

Yeah sure, you totally figured me out.
Boy isn't my face red etc.

Nope you expected some teen angst fight back from me, so you could easily promote yourself and be cool.

Wrong.

That makes no sense at all.

You made some dullard comment about me trying to be cool by saying I was there first etc etc, to which I pointed out the error in your sneer.

Try harder pee-wee.

Will you go out with me?

chuckles

Ok, I laughed.
Seriously though, are you hitting refresh just waiting for a response to this or something? 3 mins or so?

Why, are you avoiding instant replys just to proove you have a life and can belittle others?

Wow, snappy comeback.

Avoiding would impy that I feel the need to "compete" with a name on a screen. Nope, it's called going out and not been in that long, checking emails etc before I head out again.

Still doesn't explain why I post a reply and within 4 mins you've gone all red-faced trying to witty.

**edit**
And how am I "belittling" by pointing out that you replied with 4 mins of me replying?
Not feeling a tad defensive then....
I'm off, feel free to add plenty of cutting remarks etc, I'll check back on Sunday evening-ish.

Toodle Pip

I'm not trying to do anything.

No I don't get red-faced with people on computers either

unless i'm watching porn....

Try not to judge then, that name on the screen. Especially if it's the first time you've even spoke to them.