| Show I Her o I Impresses I style r r Allen Johnson Movie MOllie Editor Out of China comes a fanciful portrayal portrayal por por- of the story behind the country's country's coun coun- try's unification If you liked Crouching Tiger Tier Hidden Dragon you'll like Hero This film weaves a good balance of character and visual spectacle so that the film is still about the story and not special effects and fight scenes The most notable name on the list is Jet Li Li who is no stranger to Asian martial arts films He stars as Nameless an orphaned warrior who has defeated three legendary assassins in defense of Chinas China's most powerful leader Qin The film opens as Nameless approaches Qin to receive his reward for defeating the three assassins Long Sky Flying Snow and Broken Sword Nameless narrates the story to Qin as the film shows his story in sequential back Very similar to Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon the warriors fly and perform larger than life feats during the beautifully choreographed fight scenes When one questioned my praise u. u for this given my dislike for non combat see the last issue for my review of King Arthur I supplied that they had established from the beginning that it was fantasy fanta fanta- sy sy so so they can get away with pretty much anything One of the most striking things about the film is its use of color The sets and colors within them almost become a characters unto themselves as they lend a great deal to the ular mood or character in it To watch it just for this would be well worth the ticket price In addition to Jet Li Li the other cast mates were splendid Sharing nearly equal screen time if not more than Li Li are several talented individuals Broken Sword is played by Tony Leung Chiu Wai Wait who is virtually unknown to most American audiences audiences audiences audiences' audi audi- but has over 60 Chinese films under his belt With an even more impressive resume is the films film's main female warrior Maggie Cheung who plays the whimsical Flying Snow Perhaps better known in the US is is Donnie Yen who appeared in Highlander Endgame Blade II and Shanghai Knights He makes his appearance here as the spear- spear wielding assassin Long Sky Also familiar to some US viewers is is Yang who we know as Jen Yu from Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon and Hu Li from Rush Hour 2 She is slated to appear in a 2005 production of Memoirs of a Geisha as Sayuri These actors all contributed greatly to the film and brought the right amount of spirit to this fanciful legend Now for the drawbacks I know that in the US we are saturated with L L n Ul or images where our brain is barely able to process one picture before another one flashes in its place This music video style of visual saturation carries over into our filmmaking so that if a movie is not pumping out five cuts a second it becomes slow and boring That being said director Zhang's heavy heavy use of slow motion shots slowed the film down a little more than necessary It happens C Co o II o 2 Ii l C C 1 ft 1 fi f 0 o 0 oy o c Q iT co o c r 01 y 1 c a o s II 1 2 o o o 0 o of f a Maggie Cheung in Miramax's Hero 2004 so often that it loses its impact and becomes tiresome Much of the dialogue suffers from the cliche of every phrase that pops out of an Asians mouth becomes some philosophical adage However given the nature of the film being a larger than life depiction of a larger than life event not historical and not meant to be taken literally I can forgive this somewhat but I cringe to know that this will only prolong the stereotype I can recommend this film knowing knowing know know- ing that it is certainly not for everyone and that its beauty will be lost on those who merely seek the cool 7 10 |
