Hero

The Chinese film Hero is, simply put, great cinema. An epic featuring tons of drama, intrigue, martial arts that clocks in at an incredibly short 96 minutes. The film was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Foriegn Language Film of the Year, but unfortunately it lost to Nowhere in Africa.

In Hero a man called Nameless is given an audience to the King of Qin, a powerful warlord in a pre-unified China. Nameless has killed three assassins who were targeting the King, and the King asks him to describe in detail how he defeated the assassins. The film then gives a series of flashbacks in a Rashomonesque style. This description may not sound so sweeping, but this film is full of surprises and revelations.

Set to a thunderous score and featuring exquisite cinematography this movie offers a very unique experience. It may be reminiscent of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon in some respects, but it has a tone all its own. It's both meditative and enthralling, heartpounding and graceful. Hero has an amazing combination of all things cinematic: beautiful sets, a giant production, exciting action, dramatic and involving relationships, great music, magical sequences, and themes of love, hatred, art, unity, power, peace, and more.

A fantastic film.

Hero is set to be released in U.S. theaters this Novemeber, but the import DVD is already available and those of you with good video stores in your area may be able to rent it already.

**** of ****

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Kong's Reviews:
Stuck On You
Bad Santa

This hasnt arrived in sunny Oz yet but I am dying to get my grubby little hands on it...

Im a huge fan of STORMRIDERS and A MAN CALLED HERO both of which delivered a CROUCHING TIGER style vision with beautiful cinemtography, great story and ofcourse excellent martial arts entertainment.

If KONG thinks good, me thinks will enjoy a lot.

Youve just upped my anticipation for this one..

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******"The Majority Is Always Wrong" Steve Mcqueen in Enemy Of The People******

Kong is almost sure that you'll dig it. Kong liked it so much that after seeing it (a rental) he immediately ordered the DVD off Ebay for $10 (that's including the shipping cost)! So, if you are really eager to check it out, there are plenty of legit Region 0 DVD's you can get off of Ebay for pretty good prices.

Kong is not joking here, folks. HERO is amazing. I was able to pick up a copy of it recently at a trade show, and it's terrific. The fight scenes are artistically done(the showdown in the orchard being tops). Along the lines of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, but with a pulpy twist. Worth seeing if you can get your hands on a copy.

You should also mention Jet Li is the star in it.

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Boards don't hit back

and Zhang Ziyi (from Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon and *cringe* Rush Hour 2)

I can get a hold of the original mandarin version on DVD for around Ł4.99 GBP and I'm seriously considering the purchase

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http://free.eh-solutions.net/spheric...0Signature.jpg

Thought I'd track down and revive this one, seeing as it's suddenly relevant again, and starts with such a pretty review and picture.


So...
I uhh... bought the DVD a little over a year ago from an importer after it was nominated for Best Foreign Language Film at the Academy Awards. I like it quite a lot.
It's.... It's good.

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"We are all worms, but I do believe I am a glow-worm."
--Winston Churchill

What DVD are you guys buying..it was just released in the theatres wasn't it????

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Why are you wearing that silly mansuit??

Hero was released in the theaters in most of Asia and Europe throughout 2003. It was nominated for Best Foreign Film by the Academy Awards in 2003. It's only now being released in the U.S.

It was released on DVD in 2003 with English subtitles, however, it was only available through the internet (amazon.com) or markets outside the U.S. If you belong to a DVD mail-rental club like Netflix or Greencine, it's been available for rent for quite a while.

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NEW (as of 1/24/05): Quick Reviews #10

Hero is the best movie I have ever seen and probably the best martial arts film ever made.Jet Li put up an awesome performance

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If You Kill Me, I Will Come Back From The Dead And Dropkick You In The Head!

Wow.....

I almost never have anything bad to say about movies like these. But this time- im going to have to disagree with everyone here.

'Hero' felt insanley rushed- i thought they could have put a lot more time into it. (More specifically- more time needed to be spent on digital post-production. I mean, i know digital effects arent the essence of Kung Fu movies- but if your gonna do it, do it right, dammit.)
I also thought the story was a bit lacking. It was an excellent concept- but a lot of it was unbelievable to me. (and thats saying a lot- i still clap for tinkerbell, folks.)
'Hero' was also a bit of a cinematic overload. The movie had some of the most breathtaking shots, but it felt like 'Gandalf and the Rohirrim at Helm's Deep'' from "The Two Towers" in EVRY SHOT. Perhaps if the filmmakers were a bit more secure with their storyline and their characters, they wouldnt have to divert us with such fluff.
I dont know if it was intentional, but the editing felt choppy and a little.....inconsistent. To the best of my knowledge, most martial arts draw their essence from a constant, flowing, fluidity. Ya know? You would think the filmmakers would have used the correlation.
And one last thing- i thought the love story was seriously in the middle of an identity chrisis. At times- i felt like it was underdeveloped, but other times i thought the whole thing was just lame. Im just a sucker for the real lovey stuff, so i actually cant complain, since this is, in fact, a kung fu movie.
I did love the music, the choreography, and most of the acting. And i really liked that old guy who was playing that cool string instrument during the Sky/Unnamed duel.
Oh- and that reminds me. a warrior without an identity? Fighting to regain that identity? Its been done. Many Many times.

Seeing as how he started this thread and all does anyone know what happened to Kong?

Oh, and Hero was amazing.

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I think Kong got over-Django'ed and called it quits....which is unfortunate, now that Django really appears to be gone...

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I need to see this.
I've seen a lot of mixed reviews, but I'm definitely interested in giving it a shot.

Going to see "Hero" in three hours... the trailers look decent enough. Hope it's good.

I actually went into this film hoping to like it with all the positive reviews.

I hated it. Sure it had a poetic sense to it with the colors and all but I just can't get by the unnatural martial arts duels. It is just silly to see two fighters hovering in mid-air amongst the treetops dukeing it out. If it had a more realistic nature to it, I would have loved it.
That to me was it's downfall.

The movie was overly winded and dragged for a while.. some seens wwere highly silly too... Like the king running around with his sword making car noises!

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It has got lots of more negative reviews than positive since it's released in China.

Wondered how it could get such a good box-office in the states.

It's Zhang Yi Mou's first martial art movie. I don't like this film, the martial arts are worse than some other Hong Kong martial art movies, and Jet Li had done quite better in action in his previous movies than this one.

Elaborate!

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