Hero Movie Review by Luke

The movie begins with Jet Lis character coming to Emperor Zhengs palace to kill him. In order to get within 10 paces of the Emperor he had to prove himself worthy and kill three assassins. As he arrives he tells the story of his duels with the assassins to the Emperor. The Emperor suspects something odd about his story and begins to break down his story.

I will leave the run down of the film at that. For to tell you anymore would be a injustice to you. The story telling in the film is amazing. You will never see a film with such masterful story telling such as this. Zhang Yimou did a wonderful job conveying the story and putting it together piece by piece. The movie is much like a puzzle it unfolds in different ways and at the end you have the full story.

The one thing that stands out more than anything in this movie are the vibrant colors and amazing scenery. Every scene within the film follows a certain color scheme which usually matches the garb that they wear as well. You can't help but notice the colors also set the tone of the film.

Not only are the colors spectacular but so are the performances. Everyone in this film gives their best performance I have ever seen from them. Maggie Cheung, Jet Li, and Tony Leung all gave the best perfomances of their careers. Especially Tony Leung, he really shined as peaceful, honorable, and vailiant warrior. Zhang Ziyi also did an amazing job as Leungs student.

That said there are two scenes in this movie that really sent chills up my spine and were quite simply the most beatiful scenes I have ever seen on celluloid. Note they are both in the same movie. The first scene that really put the whole movie in motion and was very well choreographed is the fight between Nameless (Jet Li) and Sky (Donnie Yen). This scene is so amazing combining the smooth oriental soundtrack with the wonderful ballet of martial arts was a match made in heaven.

The second scene that blew me away is the fight between Flying Snow (Maggie Cheung) and Zhang Ziyis character. This fight takes place in a forest of yellow leaves and is one of the most breathtaking moments in the film. It transcends all beauty as they float among the trees and fight as though their life depends on it. As I said before the colors in this scene add so much to the action. It almost appears as though Zhang Yimou simply painted this scene right on the celluloid.

To top the whole movie is the wonderful and tranquil score for this film. It is filled with old chinese folk music. String instruments abound this really puts you on another level for a film that transcends every film before it. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon can't hold a candle to this movie.

To be honest I really was not comfortable reviewing this movie. It is a movie that only comes along every couple years and renders you speechless.Quite frankly I was in awe after I came out of the theatre and couldn't believe that some people have claimed that the orginal version is even better. In the end though I knew I had to do a review to get the word out to people about how beatuful this film really is. This review does not do this movie justice. It is one of those movies that you just can't explain with words, you really have to experience it....  10/10

Review by: Luke aka Goon