Movie Review: Hero

Summary: Wow. 4/4 Stars.

Review: I've wanted to see Hero for almost two years, aftering seeing some breath-taking footage from a duel in the film in which Zhang Ziyi and Maggie Cheung face off in an autumnal grove. The juxtaposition of golden leaves and swirling red robes left me stunned and eager to see the film.

It was a long wait. Miramax bought the American distribution rights, but for some reason took two years to release it. It finally opened in wide release yesterday, August 27^th.

Was it worth the wait? Absolutely. After walking out of the theater, I had no adequate adjectives to describe the film. Beautiful. Exquisite. Awe-inspiring. All fell woefully short in labeling this masterpeice.

The story is admittedly spare, serving merely as a frame for the stunning visuals—Hero is, after all, a martial arts flick. Nameless (Jet Li), recounts a series of stories to the King of Qin (Daoming Chen), a tyrant who seeks to unite China's warring states under his rule. We see the stories as narrated flashbacks. As the film progresses, the stories change as inconsistencies are discovered. With each retelling, the predominant color scheme of the film changes, providing visual cues to the mood and theme of each episode.

The episodes take full advantage of some of the most jaw-dropping locations ever filmed in China. The autumnal scene mentioned above was my favorite, filled with swirling reds and golds and falling leaves, but all of the flashbacks are stunning visually, and masterfully edited. Even in the most intense fight sequences, director Zhang Yimou cuts to slow-motion shots of raindrops, falling leaves, a calligrapher's brush. You're left with a keen sense of the passage of time and a world that moves on, unaware of the moment that you're watching.

Don't wait for this one to come out on DVD (oh wait…it already has), you've got to see it on the big screen. Without another Lord of the Rings film out this Christmas, Hero is 2004's cinematic visual treat.