HERO - opens tomorrow (or today)

Hero

Trailer
Reviews


[Broken External Image]:http://www.miramax.com/hero/images/hero_trailer_13.jpg[Broken External Image]:http://www.miramax.com/hero/images/hero_trailer_14.jpg

SYNOPSIS

Using the assasination attempt of the historical figure, Chin Shi Huang Di (The first emperor of China) as a backdrop, this film attempts to explore and develop a better understanding of the Chinese concept of a hero. In a Chinese cultural context, it hopes to explore the preconceptions and misinterpretations of heroism and heroes.

At the height of China's Warring States period, the country was divided into seven kingdoms: Qin, Zhao, Han Wei, Yan, Chu and Qi. For years, the separate kingdoms fought ruthlessly for supremacy. As a result, the populace endured decades of death and suffering.

The Kingdom of Qin was the most determined of all. The Qin King was obsessed with conquering all of China and becoming her first Emperor. He had long been the target of assassins throughout the other six states. Of all the would-be killers, none inspired as much fear as the three legendary assassins, Broken Sword, Flying Snow and Sky.

To anyone who defeated the three assassins, the King of Qin promised great power, mountains of gold and a private audience with the King himself. But defeating the killers is a near impossible task. For ten years no one came close to claiming the prize. So when the enigmatic county sheriff, Nameless, came to the palace bearing the legendary weapons of the slain assassins, the King was impatient to hear his story. Sitting in the palace, only ten paces from the King, Nameless told his extraordinary tale:

For ten years, Nameless studied the way of the sword and resolved to challenge the three assassins. Using the secrets of swordsmanship; Nameless defeated the mighty Sky in a furious showdown. Following this initial victory, he destroyed the famed duo of Flying Snow and Broken Sword. This time using a weapon far more devastating than his sword - their extraordinary love for each other.

The King hung on every detail of this curious story. But then something most unexpected happened - the King has a different story to tell of how Nameless really came to sit there, face to face with the King!

It appears that everything was not so simple. In the centre of the intrigue sits Nameless -a solitary ranger and the King of Qin - the ruler of the Kingdom, with only ten steps between them. Within those ten steps holds an earth-shattering tale of love, honour and duty, a story that moves beyond the reaches of history. A story about what it means to be a HERO. -- © Miramax Films


It's opening in Toronto today (a day early) at the Paramount downtown.

I've already seen it though. By the length of the movie it looks to be the director's cut which was the initial DVD release (or very similar), and not the subsequent extended version. The movie came out 2 years ago and has already been released on DVD in Asia, but Miramax decided to sit on it until Quentin Tarantino complained.

It stars Jet Li, and although it has lots of martial arts in it, strangely enough it works best as an epic drama, with gorgeous cinematography. It's not an extremely deep movie per se, but it's just so beautifully shot. The acting from most of the cast is excellent too. (Jet Li ain't so great, but in this movie he's basically supposed to be wooden, and does a good job of it. )

I do wonder how it will fare here though, since it is being marketed as an action movie, which it really isn't. Plus, some of the style, both of the martial arts and of the performances, has more of a Chinese feel to it.

 

I saw it on VCD and on DVD. The VCD version was better, with an extra mock Michael Jackson Thriller music video right in the middle of the movie. It was bloody hilarious.

I didn't even know it was finally released here. I saw posters for it, but never saw a listing for it. If it was dubbed in English, that's really awful. I could see them cutting a few scenes reasonably though, since a few of them kind of wore on me.

Yeah, the message might make some people unhappy, but then again, I believe it was the highest grossing movie of all time in China. I have seen more than one review here that brings it up though, including one negative review based solely on this.

 

Yup. "Only" US$30 million though.

It's seeing moderately wide release tomorrow. More theatres than I expected actually (at least in Toronto). I'll see it on the big screen tomorrow night.

By the way, a few colleagues today said their kids are going to see this movie, after seeing the trailer on TV etc. Somehow I think some of them are really gonna be disappointed, because it's not really a Jet Li beat-em-up movie. If anything, I think their parents would enjoy it more.

Oh and I can understand why Miramax would want to cut parts of it out. While I liked the whole movie, it's slower paced than some of us North Americans are used to, and there a few parts of scenes which really didn't add all that much to the overall movie IMO. eg. There is a lake scene which is absolutely beautiful to look at, but many will just think much of it is kind of stupid. A 20 minute cut is far too extreme though. I'm thinking more like 5 minutes.

I'm waiting for the extended version (118 minutes) on DVD myself.