HERO Review

Rating: Five Critic's Chairs

by Orvar Säfström, Filmkrönikan, Sveriges Television

"Wuxia is a Chinese storytelling tradition, which is the basis of many action and adventure movies out of Hong Kong. “Wu” means “fight” or “battle” and “Xia” is something like a noble warrior or knight if you will. Internationally acclaimed director Zhang Yimou have now followed in Crouching Tiger director Ang Lee's footsteps and made a tribute to this genre. It is called HERO and it takes place right before the formation of China's first dynasty, a few hundred years BC. The evil emperor (note: a king, not yet an emperor) of Qin have for years lived under the threat from three assassins but one day a mystic man, played by Jet Li, shows up with a good news. (Movie clips plays)

There are plenty of Asian megastars in HERO. Besides Jet Li, we see great ones like Maggie Cheung, Tony Leung and Donnie Yen. You out there who have seen Zhang Yimou’s previous films have probably been fascinated by his use of colors, but in HERO, he has really outdone himself. The story is told from several different angles, just like that of Akira Kurosawa's old masterpiece DEMONERNAS PORT (RASHOMON), and Yimou separates them by letting the colors show the emotions in the scene. For example, here is a fiery and passionate fight between Maggie Cheung and Zhang Ziyi. (Movie clip plays)

There are those that have complained about the movie featuring too many fight scenes but those people have missed the whole point. This is more than just people beating each other up, it is the entire emotion spectrum expressed in the art of fighting. Poetry in motion. A jump kick says more than a thousand words. It is easy to compare this to CROUCHING TIGER, HIDDEN DRAGON, but in reality they are really two different films. The story (of HERO) is much more intrigue and political and if you see it as a political stand, then you might feel a bit of unease. It could be interpreted as a tribute to fatalism (?), nationalism and dictatorship. That is, of course, not the case. This is a historical epic about a lost era, not a commercial for the (People’s) Republic of China. (Movie clip plays)

There has been quite a stir regarding the length of HERO. It's only 99 minutes long and then an extended version will be released on DVD. However now it turns out that the American movie studio Miramax have forced Zhang Yimou to remove 18 minutes from the movie so it would better suit the American moviegoing public. Well, if I had the address of Harvey Weinstein, the company mogul, I would go to his home and give him a headbutt! But I have only seen the shorter version so I can't really say if the longer one is any better or not. Cut it or not, HERO is an incredible movie. Beautiful and spectacular and it looks so good that I want to blow up every film frame and put them on my walls. With great acting in combination with fight scenes that stand above everything else, Zhang Yimou have shown before what a fantastic filmmaker he is but now he has shown that he is capable of doing wonders in the action/adventure genre as well. (Clip of grading plays)

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