Like many moviegoers this summer, I was very disappointed with the second movie in “The Matrix” trilogy. I didn’t even have expectations for it, since I am not one of the chief advocates of the original. While an excellent film, its greatness was blown completely out of proportion.
One thing it did achieve was an excellent tribute to Hong Kong cinema, which is where the second failed with its overabundant use of computer graphics (CG) in fighting scenes. No one can honestly tell me that the Neo vs. 100 Agent Smith fight looked better than anything you could find on your X-Box or PS2.
But Hong Kong fans have nothing to fear, as a much better film lies on the horizon. Sometime in the next year, the United States will see the release of “Hero,” a Chinese film directed by Zhang Yimou. You won’t find any lame CG fights in this movie, my friends.
“Hero” takes place roughly 2000 years ago, during the Warring States period of Chinese history, shortly before the Qin dynasty united the country. The movie opens with a warrior known as Nameless (Jet Li, “Cradle 2 the Grave”) delivering the weapons of the assassins Broken Sword (Tony Leung Chiu Wai, “Internal Affairs”), Flying Snow (Maggie Cheung, “In the Mood for Love”) and Long Sky (Donnie Yen, “Shanghai Knights”) to the Emperor of Qin (newcomer Chen Dao Ming).
As a reward, Nameless is to be given gold, land and the honor of drinking within 20 paces of the Emperor. As they have their drinks, the Emperor asks Nameless to recount how he defeated these great assassins. What flows is a series of flashbacks to tell the story, and the Emperor quickly begins to realize something is amiss.
The film is clearly China’s answer to “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon,” with the intent that they can do better. It doesn’t quite make it that far, however. The story, unless you’re familiar with Chinese history, isn’t as interesting.
But for fighting fans that didn’t think “Crouching Tiger” had enough, “Hero” comes through. The unique use of flashbacks to tell the story is no doubt a tribute to Akira Kurosawa’s “Rashomon.”
As far as acting, Jet Li represents the weakest link. He’s basically just there for the fights, and there isn’t a great deal of depth to his character. What can you really expect from a character with no name?
Tony Leung and Maggie Cheung do their usual excellent jobs, and Zhang Ziyi (“Rush Hour 2”) makes an appearance as well. Daoming Chen appears to be channeling Toshiro Mifune’s performance in “Shogun,” bringing an air of dignity and intelligence to the screen as the Emperor. One could easily imagine following such a man.
The fight scenes are beautifully shot. There is enough distance between the actors and the camera that one can see exactly what is going on, unlike in 95 percent of American action films.
Through use of color, the cinematography enhances the beauty of the fights as well. The colors vary from flashback to flashback to separate the information in each, because, like in “Rashomon,” the facts in each flashback are altered to show different points of view.
Actually getting to view this movie, however, could be a problem, as it is not officially released in the United States yet. Miramax Films will supposedly release it sometime at the beginning of next year, but who knows what kind of editing they will do to it.
However, Four Star Video does have rental copies of the Chinese DVD. They are region 0 DVDs, so they should play in all DVD players. The other option is to go to e-Bay or other import sites.
With the beautifully choreographed fight sequences and lavishly colorful cinematography, those Hong Kong film fans as disappointed with American efforts as myself would do themselves a favor to check out “Hero”
Grade: A/B
