So let's jump right in. I got the official Mainland China DVD version of this last night. This is the theatrical version that we will see should Miramax ever decide to release it. There is a director's cut coming soon (this month or next) that is about 20 minutes longer.
First off, this film is good. No doubt about it. The cinematography is some of the finest I have ever seen in any film ever. It's that good. It has a ton of Chinese heavyweights in it. Zhang Ziyi, Maggie Cheung, Tony Leung Chiu Wai, Jet Li, and Donnie Yen, among others.
What about the martial arts? Well let's just say this film IS going to be compared to Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon—there's no escaping it. The fights are very remnicent of that style. Very little ground-based fighting and much more fluid flying fighting. Is the fighting any good? Yes, better than Crouching Tiger in some scenes, not as good in others. There is an early fight between Jet Li and Donnie Yen, the sword versus the spear, that is amazing. There are some absolutely jaw dropping scenes in this film. And simply for visuals the film is worth seeing.
On to the story (which I can't really get into because of spoilers). Jet Li is the focus and the others mentioned are all part of a plot that focuses around killing the king of the Qin Dynasty. There are many plot twists and moments where you will be taken one direction, only for it to be false...you'll understand more once you see it. But ultimately the ending is pretty effective, though afterwards you feel like you stumbled into the movie rather than experienced it. Does that make sense?
Basically, you never get sucked in because the movie is all about the surface of things. It's just a glimpse. Like if you were looking through a closed window at this other world--you never really get inside the characters. Ultimately, I think the film works equally as well as a solely visual film—the words sometimes get in the way of its beauty.
So how was the film? As I said before it is very good. Just not great. Not Crouching Tiger. I just couldn't feel it the way I did that film. Part of the problem is the way the story is set up, which doesn't allow you to ever really know anything about the characters. You just see glimpses of them in different, almost always emotional moments, but there is so much non-truth to so many of the elements that by the time you get to the "real" emotional parts, you've had enough.
I recommend Hero and don't regret getting the film this early, though I would recommend waiting for the HK DVD release which should contain the extended version and be a lot cheaper than what I paid.
Ssbomberman, You got to post the review before I did I just watched my vcd last night, and was planning on posting the impressions this morning.
Well, I agree with you that the film is beautiful. Great cinematography, camera work, use of colors and scenery. Lots of artistic touches, and philosophy.
But I didnt like it. I wanted to like it, but there were just too many things that put me off the film.
First, as I said many times before, I'm not a big fan of flying swordsmawn wuxia style films. More characters fly, and movie rely on extensive wire-work, less I tend to enjoy the film. CTHD was somewhat an exception for me, since I did like the story, and wire-works werent used as often and repeatedly as in Hero. Plus I liked CTHD story better, but I'll talk about it later. Some of the fights in Hero are amazing, like Jet Li vs Donnie Yuen confrontation that takes place in their minds, while old blind musician playing a sad tune. Its greatly choreographed and staged fight, and definately best in the film. The raw energy and speed of these 2 actors really shown on screen. Plus use of bleak/brown colors, and falling rain and ground puddles really adds to the atmosphere of the scene. But later fights were a major let down. Characters started to fly more and more, and while some scenes looked good, other like Nameless and Broken Sword duel on the lake was just plain silly, in the way it was portraited. I'm usually not the one who would laugh on asian kung fu films, but I had hard time holding my laughing, since it supposed to be quite a sad scene, but somewhat ridiculous choreography spoiled the mood. Same can be said about Arrow Deflecting scene, again, it was supposed to be tragic/heroic moment but it went on for too long, and over usage of CGI arrow during the film is very apparent.
Actor performances were good. While you can expect known martial art stars as Jet Li or Donnie Yuen to do great in action scenes, the rest of the cast did exceptionally well too, but had few problems usually because of inept choreography, as I mentioned in above paragraph.
The story was confusing, especially with use of different takes on the truth, and multiple versions of what actually happened. One moment you can see the character die, and then its actually wasnt like it, and then it was actually truth, and so on. While sometimes this scheme can work good, in Hero it sadly wasnt, and made the film more confusing that it was necessary. I pretty much new the end for Jet Li character, and the end for other 2 came off more like a cliche in execution. Again very dissapointing.
Overall, I'm glad that I picked up vcd over dvd, since it did saved me some money, and while I'm huge Jet Li fan, I dont think I will be getting this one for my dvd collection. It makes me sad to say, that I actually liked Cradle 2 the Grave Jet US made movie over China/HK made Hero. While Hero story is more dramatic(and smarter and shot better and so on) then of C2TG, the execution and action of later was more entertaining to me than of former.
It's an amazing movie on several levels--even if you're not too keen on wire fu. I mean Maggie Cheung and Tony Leung still have that amazing chemistry that can be seen in several films especially in "In the Mood For Love". Cinematography is top notch--It is a beautiful film--the contrasting colors and the seamless CG effects. The style is through the roof. The acting is faultless as well. Sorta Rashomon-esque story. I also enjoy some of Zhang Yimou's other work (Blue Kite). All in all it is an impressive feat that boasts on the box that the movie cosy 212 million HK dollars (I think around 50 mil US). That's like super high budget over there. I'm sure Miramax is releasing it here and I hope it does well so more of this calibur of cinema come over.
Despair, I kinda guessed you would not like it based on our previous posts on Jet Li. Well, to each his own I guess.
Well, WHile the cinematography was top notch, most of CGI fx were less than perfect. Take for example the swarms of arrows, or some visual enhancment during the fights. When it was used first during Jet Vs Donnie scene it looked great, but later one during the falling leaves battle, it looked rather bad.
Its not that only like Jet Li's US made films, I like his HK films, like Fist of Legend or Tai Chi Master(which also had a fair amount of wire-work, but it was more believable and better executed than in Hero), but his other period films like Fong-sai-yuk and Swordsman 2 dont work for me. As you said above, to each their own.
I'm not saying that Hero is bad movie, its just not movie for me. Its good to know that it made some decent money when playing in theaters back home, and hopefully it will become a small hit here in US.
as far as releases go, i am imagining since its a Miramax release that we will get a Region 1 version here sometime in the future, since i have the VCD now, perhaps i should wait?
anyway, i was mightyly impressed by Hero, i havent really seen many movies with Maggie Cheung in them (my experience is limited) but she was very moving in this movie. and i mean hell, she was deflecting arrows with her sleeves.
Well, Who knowns when Miramax gets to actually release the dvd, or what they will do to it. Plus, dont expect them release Director Cut version, that suppose to come out soon in HK.
Maggie Cheung looked nice, and some of her scenes with Tony Leung were good, but aforementioned Arrow Deflecting scene was somewhat badly done(bunch of CGI arrows, plus few more real ones thrown on her and Jet Li), and went on for too long.
The Palace Assault sequence was nice, and see 2 people fighting against whole King's army was indeed a grand sight. But again, some of the props looked pretty bad. As they cut through the hordes of soldiers clearly armed with plastic swords and shields, it looked rather bland.
I guess what I didn't like is that I expected so much from Zhang Yimou because he is such a good director and brought us absolutely brilliant films like Raise the Red Lantern and the Road Home (with Zhang Ziyi).
I expected it to feel more like a Wong Kar Wai martial arts film (Ashes of Time), but instead while it was beautiful (Wai's cinematographer, Christopher Doyle, did the cinematography), it felt more like an uncomfortable attempt at an emotional martial arts film--I think maybe Zimou just tried too hard. Now that's not to say that isn't far above and beyond many, many other films I have scene in a long time, it just wasn't great...
Some of the fight choreography was top-notch because it was done by Ching Siu Tung (who did Chinese Ghost Story, Duel to the Death, My Schoolmate the Barbarian, etc.) and fights like the Donnie Yen, Jet Li fight were very good, but the flying fights seemed very uncharacteristic for him--he does do wire fu, but this was even more extreme and I agree that I didn't like the water fight, but I absolutely loved the deflecting arrows scene and actually thought that was one of the most powerful ones in the film (though I didn't really catch the flaws the first time around). I just loved the way Tony Leung was painting the word "sword" while the other two fended off the arrows.
I did wish Zhang Ziyi had more screen time, as she is very pleasant to watch...
If like Tony Leung in this (heck he's good in almost every film)--you need to see Infernal Affairs -- it is hands down one of the best HK crime dramas ever made...I'll do a review later on...
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I just watched my vcd last night, and was planning on posting the impressions this morning.
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