2002 is the year mixed with explorations, triumphs and disappointments. We saw some directors bravely entered new territories while others unwisely tested the unfamiliar water. We saw fresh blood rose as stars while others struggled to keep their shine. We saw surprise from the unexpected while others failed our expectations.

The Good 

HERO (YING XIONG) – With breathtaking images, dazzling choreography, master-level of directing, and right-on performances by so many veteran actors, HERO triumphed in both art and the box-office. As a director known for making melodramas with small scale, Zhang Yimou bravely, if not boldly, launched the project with record-breaking budget, computer-generated effects, and a cast filled with big names.

TOGETHER (HE NI ZAI YI QI) – As a very touching, well written, and skillfully performed drama, TOGETHER is a rare example of a group of ordinary people’s simple story being unusually moving and beautiful. After the great setback caused by his disappointing English language film début KILLING ME SOFTLY, Chen Kaige returns to China and rediscovered the root which brought him fame and glory.

SPRINGTIME IN A SMALL TOWN (XIAO CHENG ZHI CHUN) – As a near perfect duplication of a same name film shot in the 1940’s, director Tian Zhuangzhuang has shown us his craftsmanship of a cinematic master. Returning to the director’s seat for the first time since THE BLUE KITE, Tian Zhuangzhuang presented us a straightforward story with concealed passions.

THE INFERNAL AFFAIRS (WU WEN DAO / MOU GAN DOU) – Belongs to the genre of Hong Kong cop/gang films, INFERNAL AFFAIR is a be-seen-before story told by the outstanding cast and the skillful director (Andrew Lau, Alan Mak). Leung Chiu-Wai and Andy Lau, played convincible roles with and skillfully performances.

THE EYE (JIAN GUI) – With a well plotted story and satisfying performance, THE EYE is a really horrifying thrill ride and is the best ghost flick in recent years.

The Bad 

THE TOUCH – Even with a cast filled with multinational stars, a director knows how to mater the camera, and scenes being shot at some of the most beautiful lands on earth, THE TOUCH failed to tell a convincing story. Written with all kinds of clichés, the film is degraded further by plain performances and cheesy special effects.

BLACK MASK 2 – CITY OF MASKS (HE XIA 2) – With a recycled typical Hollywood script, below average acting, bad choreography and derailed directing, BLACK MASK 2 is the worst scenario of a foreign filmmaker trying to be the Hollywood.

THE TUXEDO – When someone from the Hollywood started to think about exploring an actor’s name rather than his talent, THE TUXEDO becomes inevitable. With a disappointing story and a wired action figure, THE TUXEDO is a perfect candidate for the worst Jackie Chan’s film.

The Ugly 

Producer Zhang Weiping told Beijing Morning Post HERO DVD and VCD will be released in China on February 20, 2003. 

Reported by an unknown source, MiramAxe is planning an IRON MONKEY sequel with Donnie Yen. According to the report, after watched HERO at the Beijing première, someone from MiramAxe's top level got "impressed" by Donnie Yen's performance during the fight scene with Jet Li and flew to Hong Kong to discuss with Donnie Yen about the sequel over the dinning table. Of cause, MiramAxe is not "impressed" enough to release HERO earlier, say last Friday.

Review: HERO  (Positive, ****, Medium Spoilers)

Chengdu Daily reports HERO VCD and DVD will be released "soon". According to the paper, the VCD and DVD will sold at about 15 and 20 yuans (US$ 1.81 and 3.02) There will be some sort of price war between the original and the pirated. The bootlegged VCDs, including one duplicated directly from the film copy, have shown up in the black market earlier this week, but the sales are not good.

Since being released on Friday, HERO has become a record-breaker all over China. During the first weekend, It has collected 50 million yuans, about US$ 6.04 million, and on the first day of release, the new record is 12 million (US$ 1.45 million) Tickets are sold at as high as 70 (US$ 8.46) and nearly 300 copies of the film has been distributed to theaters around the country. In Beijing alone, the result for the first three-days is over 7 million (US$ 0.85 million), much higher than the record set by TITANIC, which is $4.3 million (US$ 1.52 million). Currently HERO is still earning more than 10 million every day. Here is a bad news: the original copy has been destroyed due to being over-used in the process of producing copies.

Here are two articles by Reuters and Comingsoon.net: click here and here (Thnaks to Chris Vinh, Ben Lin and Masaki Kaimori)

There are two mistakes in the articles: name of the kingdom (not yet a dynasty) is Qin not Quin and Jiang Wen is not on the cast list.

HERO is director Zhang Yimou's first attempt of appealing for a wider audience range, which proves he is a master of making the best of actions while still maintaining his own touch of an artist.

The movie starts with Nameless (Jet Li) presents the weapons of the three assassins wanted by the king of Qin (Chen Daoming), Broken Sword (Leung Chiu-Wai), Flying Snow (Maggie Cheung) and Long Sky (Donnie Yen). At the king's grand hall, Nameless told the king how he single-handedly eliminated the three assassins. But, the king did not buy Nameless' story and had his own version of the story. Then in the rest of the movie, more stories were told and we are getting closer and closer to the truth.

Zhang Yimou is not the only director who knows how to master colors but he is the only one I know who actually cast colors as actors to play in his film and the human actors only take supporting roles. Each color is playing one chapter and five colors are telling one story through different eyes. Red is the story Nameless told the king. It is simple, it is straight and it makes sense. But it is not real and it failed to convince the king. Blue is the story the king came up. It is closer to the truth but not close enough. White is the real story, or maybe not. Because after the red and the blue being labeled not real, you would start to doubt about the white as well. The green is the story within the white and it was only told by Broken Sword. Black is the story with only two characters and is also the narrator links other colors together.

With a director who used to be a cameraman before got his director's chair, you could bet for a film visually astonishing for sue. Zhang Yimou's labor of creating each shot is not in vein. A still lake with two warriors dancing, rather than fighting, on the lake surface, two red dress girls flying amongst tress and fallen leaves, and two opponents battling in rain with water dripping on their weapons - these are just a few highlights. Clearly, some of them were achieved by computer but most were done through the traditional way. Some of the CG works might look fake to you, but those are want the director wanted - eye candy does not have to something only exist in the real world.

Ching Siu-Tung is responsible for the actions and scenes shot in the desert were supervised by Tung Wai. They have done their jobs well. Surprisingly, wire-fu was not used as heavily as we expected, except the still lake fight. However, there is a perfect explanation for this exception. You will understand it when you see the movie.

In HERO, you do not see one star but rather a group of stars, even though each one of them alone is capable of handle a film as big as HERO. Nameless is probably the most challenging role Jet has ever played and he has proved he was more than just an action figure. Leung Chiu-Wai is the right man for Broken Sword, a warrior with a tortured sole and Maggie Cheung is perfect for Flying Snow, a strong woman with a fragile heart. Chen Daoming played the king as an ambitious ruler and conquer. Zhang Ziyi only had a supporting role just like in all her previews works except the first one THE ROAD HOME. Someone might be disappointed to see her getting such small share in the film but she has done her part well. No, her role did not remind me other character she played in another martial-art film (you know what I am referring to). Donnie Yen is a bit underused here. Even though his scene ended at very early of the film, the showdown between him and Jet Li and the fight in which he is opposing the seven top fighters from Qin are the only two pieces of action played by real martial artists.

Like what many people have said, the music of HERO does sound somewhat similar to what Tan Dun has composed for another film. But I like it anyway. The violin solo by Itzhak Perlman is a shining point of the film, which should not be overlooked.

The costumes were made to consist with the color of each chapter. But you will not see any two actors wearing exactly the same color. A little bit contradictive to RAN, in which the costumes are lavishing and colorful, HERO has actors in simple, clean and single-color clothing. Once again, Emi Wada has showed her talent with colors.

Loaded with actions, HERO is absolutely violence-free. There are people being killed, lots of them actually, but you will never see anyone being chopped or stabbed. There are only three scenes involving blood and only one of them contains a little bit of bleeding. Violence would spoiler the beauty of the film and with little blood, HERO has achieved what violence movies could never do.

My major complain of this film is – it is too short. With five colored stories, six main characters and so many breathtaking scenes, 98 minutes are a bit overcrowded. We know the original cut is about two hour long but in the end it settled as less than 100 minutes. Despite director Zhang Yimou’s explanation, I still suspect this was the result of MiramAxezation. Some shots we saw in the trailers and the documentary CAUSE failed to survive the final cut. Fortunately, a DVD with extended HERO has been promised.

With big help from Joey Li, Jet Li has answered questions by MonkeyPeaches during a fan gathering in Shanghai last Tuesday. Here is what Joey Li sent to me:

HERO action figures (Jet Li, Leung Chiu-Wai, Maggie Cheung, Zhang Ziyi and Donnie Yen, but no the king of Qin) will be sold here.

Thanks to Al Young

Review: HERO by Kenneth Leung (Positive, Medium Spoilers)

While being released in China, HERO film has been nominated for The Best Foreign Language Film of The Golden Globe Awards, along with BALZAC AND THE LITTLE CHINESE SEAMSTRESS (FRANCE), CITY OF GOD (BRAZIL),  THE CRIME OF FATHER AMARO (El Crimen del Padre Amaro) (MEXICO), NOWHERE IN AFRICA (GERMANY) and TALK TO HER (SPAIN). However, HERO is not so luck at other categories.

Click here for the complete list of nominations

Thanks to Ceoin Sorrowpalm, Ravi Gandhi, Han Yik, Alexandre Dubois, Nathan Layman, Thomas, Patrick, Mei Yu, chris vinh and Andy Schlachtenhaufen.

Last night, Jet Li, Leung Chiu-Wai, Maggie Cheung, Donnie Yen, the theme song singer Faye Wong as well as Hong Kong's Chief Executive Tung Chee-Hwa attended HERO's Hong Kong première. However, for some unknown reason, director Zhang Yimou, Zhang Ziyi and Chen Daoming did not attend the première. (Click here for more pictures)

Rottentomatoes.com, the only site with a large online collection of movie reviews, has set up a HERO page (click here) and listed HERO as one of the 20 movies at the "Upcoming Highlights" section (click here).

MiramAxe co-chairman Harvey Weinstein told New Yorker, "I'm not cutting for fun. I'm cutting for the s*** to work. All my life I served one master: the film. I love movies."

Click here for the full article

Thanks to "Mister Gil"

Review:  HERO by Richard Corliss (Positive, No Spoilers) (TIME Asia)

Article Playing Safe by Susan Jakes (TIME Asia)

Thanks to Ben Lin and Chris Lee

Guangzhou première: A B

The bad links of "Hero Defined" have been fixed:

Videos: Hero Defined (Windows Media)

The Start: (1:39) Stream (4.27 MB)  Download (Zip / 2.7 MB)

The Back Story: (5:33) Stream (22.3 MB)  Download (Zip / 10.1 MB)

The Action: (8:39) Stream (22.3 MB)  Download (Zip / 15.8 MB)

The Challenges: (4:20) Stream (11.1 MB)  Download (Zip / 7.2 MB)

The Magic: (3:30) Stream (9.04 MB)  Download (Zip / 5.9 MB)

Video HERO Shanghai Première (51:37 / Windows Media)

Videos: Hero Defined (Windows Media)

The Start: (1:39) Stream (4.27 MB)  Download (Zip / 2.7 MB)

The Back Story: (5:33) Stream (22.3 MB)  Download (Zip / 10.1 MB)

The Action: (8:39) Stream (22.3 MB)  Download (Zip / 15.8 MB)

The Challenges: (4:20) Stream (11.1 MB)  Download (Zip / 7.2 MB)

The Magic: (3:30) Stream (9.04 MB)  Download (Zip / 5.9 MB)

During the press conference held yesterday, director Zhang Yimou has said an extended version of HERO with deleted scenes would be included in the DVD. According to an early report, the DVD will be released in China in February 2003.

Video HERO Première - Part One (11:24 / 8 MB / Windows Media)

Video HERO Première - Part Two (55:07 / 40 MB / Windows Media)

Related Reports:

Old emperor, new epic: Zhang Yimou's ancient China martial-arts movie debuts (AP)
Zhang Yimou's ancient China martial arts epic dbuts in style (AP)
Ancient China Martial-Arts Movie Debuts (AP)
Beijing Goes Hollywood at 'Hero' Premiere (Reuters)

Video HERO Première - Part One (11:24 / 8 MB / Windows Media)

Video HERO Première - Part Two (55:07 / 40 MB / Windows Media)

Don't forget to check out Sina's HERO page. It got lots of pictures taken at the première / press conference.

Trailer Cradle 2 the Grave (Various)

Thanks to "WDF" and Khurram Farooq

According to Zhang Weiping, this was what really happened: When they were looking for the international distributor approximately a year ago, MiramAxe has promised them US$ 20 million with one phone call for every two or three days. Seeing the fact that MiramAxe had generated so many Oscar winners in the past ten years and with the temptation of the 20 mill, HERO's production companies finally gave in. However, MiramAxe has only paid an undisclosed amount of deposit rather than the full payment. Now, MramAxe has refused to do anything to promote HERO despite being repeatedly urged by the production companies.

For fans in North America, there is an unconfirmed (that's right! Unconfirmed!) release date - January 13th (It's a Monday!). However, there is a very big chance that the date being pushed back again and again, or being sent direct to video. For fans whose countries being controlled by MiramAxe, the news could only be worse. Will HERO be cut, dubbed and trashed even further? Don't be surprised!

Mr. Zhang Weiping and the rest of who made the decision of selling HERO to MiramAxe: we, the fans, knows MiramAxe the best. We have been yelling and screaming about MiramAxe's notorious bad behaviors for years. Why didn't you consult us before you sealed that deal? Just go online and look for our messages!

Now MiramAxe has left HERO to die. Many fans may never have the chance to see it on the big screen; and many people may never have a chance to decide whether they like it or hate it because they simple will never know the existence of the film.

Photo: Oriental Daily

The second trailer, same as the one Sina.com, is up at the official site. The narration is in Cantonese and it got subtitles in both traditional Chinese and English.

Trailer HERO (5 MB / Real Video/Windows Media)

Sina.com reports a Shanghai based game developer has acquired the exclusive game rights of HERO. Characters, weapons and storylines will be adapted to an online game series called Forgotten Saga 2.  An existing server "Chariot" will be permanently renamed after the film at the film's Shanghai première (December 16th).

Zhang YImou has once again spoken about his HERO in an interview with Beijing Youth. He said there was little hope for HERO to grab anything from the Oscar and he was not expecting anything, not even a nomination. He explained why the film is less than 100 minute long. He also mentioned an alternative ending specifically made for "the Americans". Fortunately, it remains as an alternative.

Is "Tian Xia" ("land under the heaven", means "the world"), Leung Chiu-Wai wrote in the desert with his sword, the theme of HERO?

I think, first of all, HERO is a kind of genre movie and is a kind of action movie or wuxia movie, nothing particular about it. My real intension is to explore the market, to test my capability from another angle, and to open more room for Chinese movies from another angle. The room is the domestic market and the international market. Because I found out - I made so many artistic films, were only shown at a few overseas artistic film theaters, and had very little impact among the general audiences. Therefore I wanted to use this mainstream market (the market of non-artistic films) to let more people see my movies and just wanted to make an attempt on this. I don't have any wild ambition of showing some profound meaning in such kind of movies. So, it becomes simpler - I am not attempting to show a profound subject, because it looks like that "tian xia" is about everything and how could a movie bearing such subject? Also, HERO's winning point is not at its subject, but more importantly, whether the film is entertaining, exciting, overwhelming and attracting; and whether it will evoke repercussions among the audiences. Achieving these, I will be pleased and feel satisfied. But, why (I) still talk about some meaning? This is a long-time tradition of mine which makes us, so called artistic directors, to look for a starting point while making a movie.

I hope people not to dig any deeper on this but to ask "did I completely intoxicated by the movie during the 90 minutes?", "without prejudice, do I think this movie is good, and whether it achieved the level of 'carefully made and perfectly beautiful'?" Because HERO is just a mainstream movie, the profoundness of its message, humanity as well as richness of the characters cannot be compared to those of an artistic film. When you recall a movie you saw several years ago, there were probably only a few seconds of it still remains in your brain. Its story and subject might be forgotten, and all you can remember is just the a few seconds of a scene or what a character looks like. Therefore we had set a goal - in HERO, (making) more than three moments of such a few seconds is enough.

Your next project is still a wuxia film?

It's possible. Right now, I am preparing for several projects and I prefer to make (another) wuxia film, (because) I still feel excited about that. I like wuxia films and like this kind of films with room of imagination. "Wuxia" does not equal to "wugong" (martial art). The latter is more about techniques and "xia" is a kind of ideal state. "Xia" is filled with the spread of humanity and the original content of humanity. What is "xia"? Nobody knows. When I was overseas making subtitles for HERO, they didn't know how to translate "xia". I can't do it either, but I think "xia" exits in the ancient Chinese culture. My understand is - "xia" is a special kind of persons. A "xia" is not restricted by anyone but oneself. "Xia" is eager to challenge everything but with one's own way of doing things. It's very exiting to make a movie about "xia". It can fulfill my dream which cannot be fulfilled in the real life.

With US$30 million, HERO does not have the length of two or  three hours. Why?

Being honest, we spent more time on the colors, the visual, the styles and attractiveness of the story, the effects, how to make it better, and so on. Why we make the film 90 minute long, (even) shorter than THE RED SORGHUM (Zhang Yimou's directorial début)? With such big budget, nobody would believe I made it so short. I want to make it concentrating, short, running it through at one stretch, without dragging, drawing audiences' attention from the beginning to the end, and not allowing the audiences to think for even one moment until the end.

Also, the style of making a movie in segments is not my invention. Some have been saying whose style it looks like. It doesn't matter. Filmmaking always involves borrowing. However, I used this kind of structure in order to break the structure of the traditional wuxia films. Such kind of structure might be very common among artistic films and might not be something extraordinary, but wuxia films, including those made by King Hu, Chang Cheh, Bruce Lee, and Hark Tsui, all have one single plotline and rarely or never involves segments. I think by using this kind of structure and this way, maybe I can give the audiences some new feeling. That's all. Very simple. Nothing special about it. It's just a little contribution for the genre of wuxia films.

Warning: Spoilers Ahead! Highlight to read!

We once had an alternative ending, made for the Americans. In the beginning, the investor told me the characters should not all die otherwise the Americans would not like it. Therefore we made such (alternative) ending: Moon and the old servant (of Broken Sword) is using wine to commemorate Nameless, Broken Sword and Flying Snow. The old servant said "three of them were all heroes and were all intimates". Moon asked him, "what is intimate?". The old servant answered, "having one intimate during the lifetime is enough, and having three intimate, one can have the tian xia (world)." Moon suddenly realized, "so, three of them are tian xia." Later the American boss (MiramAxe) accepted the (original) one and there is no need to change the ending.

During the fight scene with Flying Snow and Moon, when Moon dies, color of the screen changes from gold to red. What is the purple of doing so?

First, I like red; second, I feel (it is) romantic. The moment of the death of the little girl Moon should be very romantic. Color of all leaves changes from gold to red. It has been written in the screenplay and (we) used computer to achieve it. This is a kind of sur-romantic. It does have its physiologic basis: it is through Moon's shaky eyes and it might happy in real life. Just like telling the story in segments, it not only is a new attempt but also has basis of real life.

Spoilers End here!

How do you foresee HERO's quest for the Oscar?

Honestly, I am not hoping anything. Because CROUCHING TIGER, HIDDEN DRAGON winning so many awards is already a miracle. Such miracle has been solidly imprinted in the mind of the Americans. It will influence the voters of the Oscar. Whoever trying to imitate is foolish. The Oscar usually does not give another chance to a film with the same genre. Although I am not expecting anything from the Oscar, but our government has recommended us (HERO is representing China to compete for the Best Foreign Language Film Award), then we will go. We will be happy if we won because an Oscar can bring in huge commercial income. But I cannot expect anything. I have said this: there is not much hope. Also, I am not optimistic about HERO being nominated. The standard of the Americans is different from ours. From this point, Ang Lee is really good. His movie (CROUCHING TIGER, HIDDEN DRAGON) did not do well in China, but the Americans really like it. I cannot do it.

Many people have asked me when I will feel I have enough awards and way I always compete for awards. Well, Not really. It is the need for distributing films, and the need of the distributors and the producers. We haven't reach the level of refusing an award. For an genre movie, big award will be a big boost to the distribution. You won an award, there are probably eighting distributors coming to you and if you didn't win, probably only one of them will come. Also, an award can increase the fame by 20%, and an Oscar can increase the fame by 80%.

In HERO, you did not cast newcomers like what you have been doing in the past. Why?

It is the need of this kind of movies - you must use stars. High star density can make it look hot in the market. I feel very thankful to these stars. Thanks to their trust and appreciation. I know, each one of them alone can make a movie work and take an absolute leading role. But HERO is a movie made by a team and a story told in segments. Except some group scenes, each actor only got 30 minutes. Quite short for a big star. Many actors don't want to play group scenes. Therefore I think they came for me. I feel deeply appreciated.

How do you judge the actors in HERO?

It is rude to rank actors. I can only say it in general. First, they all worked with me with a real heart and overcame many difficulties of their own. They really came for me. I know that. I am a man don't know how to talk and don't know how to build relationship with words. We worked very well. I wrote a letter to each one of them, inviting them to join (the project). They worked with real heart and did their best. Those are the result of the professionalism and more are from the appreciation and trust. Therefore, the film would not be made without them.

Second, just like what I have said about having intimate in your life. I always believe "having one intimate during the lifetime is enough". With my age and my experience, I no long need to ass-kiss (any star), but I see each one of them as my intimate, intimate of my whole life. Intimates may never meet, or my not be able to see each other for ten or twenty years, but they will always remember each other. This is how I feel. Whether I will work with them depends on the (whether there will be a) right script. I can't make the promise now.

Photo: Oriental Daily

Yesterday during a HERO promotion event, Zhang Ziyi received a portrait of her character (Like) Moon drawn by comic artist Ma Wing-Sing. (more pictures: A B C D E)

Meanwhile several videos have been added to the official site, including the seminar "Heroes behind HERO" with cinematographer Christopher Doyle, composer Tan Dun, action director Ching Siu-Tong, actor Leung Chiu-Wai and Maggie Cheung (click here); and three behind-the-scene short films (click here). (Thanks to Al Young)

Photo: Oriental Daily