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This month I had the pleasure of seeing Hero, starring Jet Li, on opening day. I describe it as a pleasure because I am, without a doubt, a Jet Li fan. I have seen most, if not all, of his movies - including some real lousy ones like The Black Mask and the annoying ones where he has a child sidekick. Thankfully, Hero is one of Jet Li's better movies.
Let me start out by saying that if you disliked Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, you will not like Hero. The movies share a lot of similarities (not the least of which is the talented actress Zhang Ziyi). They are both set in China's past, feature an actual plot, and most importantly, have martial artists leaping and flying all over the screen. This is not the movie to go to if you want a realistic martial arts slugfest.
I will also say that you should not go see Hero just to see Jet Li. Although he is the main character in the movie, he plays a quiet, serious man quite unlike the sweet, charming characters that he's played in movies like the Once Upon a Time in China series and even Romeo Must Die. Nor does he perform as much martial arts badassery as he did in Kiss of the Dragon - yes, that was a pretty bad movie but there were so many cringe-worthy "That HAD to hurt scenes" that it was enjoyable. Hero is more about graceful sword play than kicking the crap out of your enemy.
That said, on with the reasons why you should see this movie. Hero is an absolutely beautiful film, both well-told and well-filmed. The movie starts with Jet Li's character - Nameless - being brought into the palace of the King of Qin (played by Daoming Chen) to be rewarded for killing the three assassins that have been plaguing the King. As the movie unfolds, we get several different versions of how Nameless killed the assassin, as the King and Nameless each doubt and counter each other's versions, until finally we find out what really happened.
The three assassins are Sky (Donny Yen), Broken Sword (Tony Leung Chiu Wai), and Flying Snow (Maggie Cheung). Sky gets the short end of the stick, being eliminated early on in the movie and not getting included in any of the other retellings of the central story. On the other hand, the fight scene between him and Nameless is, in my opinion, one of the best in the movie. With a minimal amount of impossible leaps and flying, their sword-vs-spear battle is just a treat to watch.
Much of the movie centers around the lovers Broken Sword and Flying Snow and how Nameless managed to defeat them. Also included in these stories is Moon (Zhang Ziyi), the young apprentice, servant, something of the two assassins who seems to have a real thing for Broken Sword. She's actually one of my favorite characters in this movie, as she fights with two large, curved knives.
In each version of the story, we're treated to an amazing fight scene. Flying Snow and Moon fighting in an Autumn forest, full of falling yellow leaves is one of the best, as is Nameless and Broken sword fighting on the surface of a lake. These scenes simply have to be seen to be understood.
One odd, artistic touch in this movie is that in each version of the story, there's a color theme... everyone's wearing the same color. This was a bit distracting, especially when everyone was wearing red. Flying Snow's fire engine red robe completely washed out her complexion making her look like... Michael Jackson. I'm not exactly sure why this was done.
Aside from the poor choice of color, the costumes were just incredible. From the texture of everyone's flowing robes, to the detail on the King's armor, there was eye candy everywhere for costuming afficionados. The weapons as well were great, especially Sky's spear and Nameless's sword. Not quite as many cool weapons as Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, but still enough to keep a weapon buff like myself happy.
My biggest gripe isn't with the movie itself, but with the damn trailer. I saw the trailer months ago and immediately wanted to see the movie. Unfortunately, the trailer of course tells you that Jet Li is out to kill the King, so in the movie you're immediately asking yourself "Ok, what's REALLY going on here?" and instead of enjoying the movie and watching the plot unfold, you use your outside information to figure it out before the King does.
Really, there was no need to give away that plot point in the trailer. All they had to do was show some scenes from the movie and say "It's Jet Li! He has a cool sword and beats people up! There are a lot of amazing fight scenes!" That certainly would have been enough for the four of us who saw it on opening day, and probably everyone else in the theater as well. And now that I've said it, it should be enough for you, too.
(Hero is rated PG-13 for lots of non-bloody fight scenes and one nudity-free love scene. It IS in Chinese with English subtitles, thank you God!)
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