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Hero (2004): 8/10

Poster (c) Miramax Films

Oftentimes, when a movie's released, there's another movie to which it can be compared. Hero (Ying xiong) is being compared to Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, simply because of the fact that they're both commercially successful foreign language martial arts films. Although I don't remember much about Crouching Tiger, I know that Hero is definitely a better movie. It has a simple yet coherent storyline that leads the audience onto a visual journey through a story told kind of like Rashomon, except this time, it's, well, interesting.

Orphaned too early to be named, Nameless (Jet Li) approaches the Emperor of the Chinese province of Qin, saying that he defeated three assassins known to having desires of assassinating the Emperor. Nameless tells his story of how he pitted two against each other and killed the third. But is it the whole truth?

The trailers made Hero out to be this take-names-and-kick-ass movie. While it had its share of those moments, the movie is more about telling a story with beautiful visuals and sweeping cinematography. The story's simple yet fascinating, and the way it's told is in a very unique style. It seems like you know what's going to happen, but then the plot completely changes halfway through, which doesn't disjoint you at all, which is surprising. The use of color in the film is both breathtaking and symbolic, and it's a very bright movie, which keeps interest up. The whole "plan" (that's all I'll say about it) is interesting too, making a very interesting movie all around.

Of course, the fight scenes were great, too. A lot of it (especially in the first) was done with slow-motion, which wasn't grating all, and in fact, it worked to great effect. By the way, does anyone know the name of the instrument the blind man was playing during that scene? The colors really helped with each fight scene, and the fights were fun and entertaining. Thankfully, there was no Jackie Chan-like tomfoolery with the fight scenes-almost all swordplay, and although the clacking of the swords got old, the fighting didn't. The action scenes aren't the entire movie, thankfully, so that means more of the very cool plot can take place. Li is where he belongs-the bastardized "action" movies he's been in in America have used him under his potential. He's a good actor, not to mention a good martial arts star. Somewhat recognizable stars Maggie Cheung and Donnie Yen also were very good. Overall, Hero is an excellent martial arts movie with a good plot thrown in for an above average movie.

Rated PG-13 for stylized martial arts violence and a scene of sensuality.

Review Date: August 31, 2004