Hero (12)

After watching 'Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon' on TV I bought 'Hero' and 'House of Flying Daggers' from amazon and was amazed at the spectacle that is Zhang Yimou's tale of assassins and war; 'Hero' is definately the best of the western released chinese films that I have seen.

The plot follows a nameless warrior (played by Jet Li) in a pre-united China who, upon returning to the King of Qin's fortress, retells a story of how he slayed 3 assassins who had planned to kill the King. With each reported death he is rewarded and is allowed a set amount of steps closer to the King. Each character is said to die in a different beautiful location, ranging from a gambling house in the falling rain to a tranquil lake in the mountains, but the truly brilliant part of the story is when you realise that Jet Li's story isn't as truthful as it seems. The flashbacks are retold a number of times, each reincarnation focusing on slightly different aspects, recreating the tale in a subtle yet significant way, creating a unique intricate plot.

The nature of China at the time sees the different factions warring with one another, the actions of the main characters becoming the cause of China's unity and if their plans do not come into fruition the wars will surely continue, causing more death. As such it emmerges that the hero's assassination tales may not have occured at all, and his plans to move nearer to the King's throne allow him to do something that may change the nature of China forever.

The trademark choreographed fight scenes and beautiful action sequences of this genre are a sight to see, but coupled with the gorgeous visuals, ancient Chinese politics and amazing plot 'Hero' creates a dazzling experience for its audience. If you enjoyed 'Crouching Tiger...' but found its plot to be lacking something I'd truly recommend this film, it's the best I've seen of this style and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Hero - If you liked Crouching Tiger, you'll probably like this. Well-choreographed but uninspiring. A few people left half way through...

Hero - Story set two thousand years ago when China was a chaotic region of many feuding countries. Apparently based on history, it tells the story of an assassination attempt on the emperor.

Dialogue is in Chinese (Mandarin) so many of you will have to read the subtitles. The start of the film is similar to a whodunnit mystery (or more accurately a howhedidit) using a sequence of storytelling scenes. Each scene is filmed in beautiful locations and choreographed very well. Action scenes are very much fantasy (as in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon) which means if you were a fan of that, you will like this.

There is quite a lot of CGI action, which does enhance the film, and various colours are used througout the film to a postitive extent.

The storyline is quite simple to follow, even though Jonathan Ross' comments were that he 'didn't know what was going on, just that it was a great film'.

I recommend the film, suitable for a group of friends, your family (no real violence, one implied sex scene) or your partner to go with.

PS. I saw this on DVD home cinema as it was released in China quite a while ago.