User Comments: Date: 24 February 2004
Summary: The best martial arts film ever made
Rarely have I been so astounded by such a magnificent, awe-inspiring film.
If you have not yet placed your eyes on this masterpieceof chinese film
then
I cannot recommend this highly enough. 'Hero' is by far the best chinese
film I have ever seen, and already a firm favourite of all time. The
imagery
is unparrelled, simply draw-droppingly near perfect scenes, with bold and
vibrant use of colour, symbolism and scenery. The fluent flow of the
storyline, the delicate direction of the sword slicing action, the chinese
cultural concepts and the emotionally charged scenes between characters
combine to produce a simply remarkable achievement.
This film has a few elements from Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, but is
far,
far superior in every way. The sleak direction from Yimou Zhang is so
perfectly done, just imagine two martial arts experts ensuing in battle
against each other, defying the laws of physics as we know it, and yet
following them in 360 degrees in slow motion as one deflects a droplet of
rain from one sword to the other, at the same time spinning and leaping
over
water... simply beautiful. The attack sequences are also superbly set,
with
hundreds of thousands of the King's warriors in formation, simultaniously
firing enough arrows into the city which literally cover the sky, in
addition to the viewer being able to watch the journey of a single
arrowhead
aimed during this event. The build up to the attack along with the
unnerving
tune of a chinese stringed instrument help you, as the audience, to become
firmly engrossed in your seat. The special effects are simply out of this
world and need to be witnessed as you really only know they are special
effects, not because they look slighty out of place, but because it is
just
impossible to film otherwise. This is how SFX should be done. The
individual
martial arts is also second to none, as i know you would want to see, the
distant shots of the whole battle sequence showing the true skills
involved
with fighting, such as footwork, perfect timing, aggression, counter
attacks
and defense. Jet Li shows he is truly the grand daddy of martial arts. I
cannot stress enough how much you need this film in your life. The
colourful
imagery imposed by the director will take your breath away with luscious,
vivid, bright, wind-blown, draped backgrounds as the setting for the
important progression of the story. Even the story itself is brought to
the
audience in such a way which ensures your undivided attention, as there
are
twists in the tales and hidden plots which do not develop until the end of
the film. Even short individual scenes are memorable due to their sheer
awesome display of skill and speed.
hope I have sold this film to you enough as this film even holds a
political
message which is relevent to all times, especially in today's
American-lead
world dominance. This film has absolutely everything - incuding an
extremely
sexy young Ziyi Zhang who simply is the most refreshing thing to come out
of
china since SARS. This film was released in 2002, but this is certainly
one
of my all time favourites and will probably be the best film I see all
year.
I have never been more enthusiastic to pursue films in this genre in my
life.
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