Naturally,
Hero is being compared to Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.
There are several similarities between the 2 films. They
both utilize the Yuen Woo Ping string team, they both co-star
Xiang Xiyi & the scenery in both films is amazing. But
where Crouching Tiger is a martial arts love story, Hero
is a quasi-martial arts Usual Suspects using brilliant colors
to convey certain ideas, red for imagination, blue for perceived
reality, green for enlightenment & white for truth.
We
find Nameless, played by Jet Li has slain the King of Qin's
3 enemies, Sky (Donnie Yen), Flying Snow (Maggie Cheung)
& Broken Sword (Tony Leung). Nameless possesses each
of their weapons as proof of his victory. Each victory is
to be rewarded & he is allowed to bypass the edict that
no 1 is allowed within 100 paces of the King. Nameless closes
the distance to 10 paces. But is he actually there to drink
7 celebrate with the King or does he plan to assassinate
him?
Parts
of the film may be a bit confusing. Without an understanding
of the Chinese language, there's no way of knowing what
the subtitles have left out of the translation. So this
film may require repeated viewing. But the sights &
sounds, especially the music by Tan Dun, will make you eager
to
watch it again & again. The spectacular fight scene
Jet Li has with Donni Yen will seem like it can't be outdone,
only to be upstaged by a later scene with Tony Leung above
a serene lake.
For
those among us who like the naughty aspects of women kicking
ass, Maggie Cheung & Xiang Xiyi clash their steel in
a field full of falling leaves. The segment is so breathtaking
that words hardly do it justice.
The
tale of events that led to the first Chinese Dynasty &
the eventual construction of the Great Wall is visually
astounding with armies the size of those in Braveheart.
It's view on warfare can be applied to modern conflicts
while director Yimou Zhang paints a fabulous tableau of
color & sharp edges that will mesmerize each viewer.
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