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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'm getting my girlfriend to buy me this in return for building her a wardrobe. True story.

Come to my house - I'll stick the kettle on.

i really want to see this :(

Just saw it, truly stunning a beautiful film. At first I wasn't too sure about it, but as it progresses it develops into some truly astounding. The fight scenes are sublime, better than anything the Matrix has done, and doesn't need CGI to achieve it, the arrow battle is especially impressive.

I really loved it.

Bah, I tried that when it first started but it didn't work, then just this second I tried when the film actually started and it's working. :-D Cheers.

Rickoss wrote:
> Bah, I can't seem to get the English subtitles working, any idea on
> where you have to go? My Mandarin isn't exactly top-notch.

Hmm, I simply pressed my handset "subtitles" button. First is simple chinese, second is advanced chinee, third was english.

Perfectly translated too. Which was suprising (and if I'm honest, a little dissapointing. I was hoping for some dodgy phrases ;) )

Bah, I can't seem to get the English subtitles working, any idea on where you have to go? My Mandarin isn't exactly top-notch.

Got my copy today, so I should be seeing it later tonight. Hope it's as good as people have said.

Not much chat about Hero in this Hero thread. But he does smash someone on the head with motorbike in The One, if that helps.

Grix Thraves wrote:
> Whenever there's a silence that needs to be disrupted, I'll be there... *bangbangbangbang*

:¬D. I wish I had the money for such a demonic device.