Hero

Finally saw Hero tonight...and I loved it. It reminded me a lot of Basic except the twists in this plot were meaningful. It really seemed like Basic kept twisting just for the sake of it. This movie was similar to Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon in the style of fighting were it's fanciful/dreamlike and they fly around. I know some people don't like it, but I enjoy it. There was also a lot of philosophy involved which I love trying to understand. I know I don't grasp everything but it's always refreshing to see a movie where people fight each other yet there are very strong elements of honor and respect present. I'd have to say I'm also a sucker for martial arts. Besides Jet Li, I also got to see Tony Leung Chiu Wai, Maggie Cheung, Ziyi Zhang and Donnie Yen. Great performances by all. You would probably recognize Ziyi Zhang from Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon if you've seen that movie. We also watched the movie subtitled. This is another thing I enjoy doing - just hearing other languages. I think you can get more out of the movie just by hearing the original language spoken. You usually lose some of the acting when listening to voice overs. If you don't believe me, pop in one of your movies at home and switch the spoken language to french or spanish and you'll see what I mean. There were also some very cool things going on with colors throughout the movie. There were great contrasts and very vivid colors. At one point two of the actors are fighting in a wooded area where it is obviously 'fall' because all the leaves have turned yellow and are falling from the trees. Then at the end of the fight when one of the actors defeats their foe, everything turns a deep red. There are also other scenes in the movie where predominant colors are blue, green, yellow, white, etc. I wasn't exactly sure if all the colors are supposed to mean some deep meaning or not, but they were obviously supposed to mean something. I'd have to say my favorite part about this film is when it is revealed that the King isn't just a tyrannical psychopath, but a man with a noble mission in mind. He wants to unite all of China and defend its borders from those who would wish to conquer it. Only a few people even realize this and they are the ones you would least expect. I don't think you would say this move has a "traditional western" happy ending, but I was happy with the ending. Neville, it sounded like you weren't too impressed with this. Maybe I'm just weird or maybe this was one of those movies where it's better viewed at home than on the big screen or something. What exactly did you think of it?