hero

so yesterday gretchen and i went to see 'hero' after class. oh what a film!
i rather knew what to expect, effects and action-wise, because back when i taught at UCR, one of my students gave me a copy of the film on VCD, but it has no subtitles. so i've watched it many times without knowing anything about the plot.

but seeing it on the big screen just blew me away. oh the cinematography is brilliant! even better, maybe (not quite sure yet!) than that of 'crouching tiger...' (and if you've been keeping up with my blog, you know i love that film and have a chapter in a book about it)...

actually, the film is very similar, martial-arts wise, to 'crouching...'. once again we see the characters with the ability to fly, something my brother (and many others) just couldn't tolerate. and yet, according to chinese thought (remember, i am learning chinese theory right now) and Ang Lee (director of 'crouching...'), this ability is called “vulge” kung fu, enabled by an “enlightened body” which “weighs less” than that of fighters with unenlightened souls. so it's not a fantastical device, but rather one based on taoism. still, i admit, you have to suspend your disbelief for that if you aren't as enlightened as the fighters are.

and once again we see plethoras of arrows coming at people, reminiscent of the great 'ran' by akria kurosawa (this is one of the best films of all times. if you've never seen it, DO!). but this one takes it a little further, putting viewers into the flight of the arrows and making us feel that flight. also we see water droplets as slo-mo comes in and we see the arrows split the water... well, ok, this gets a little cheesy. way too over the top. but it's still impressive to see. a lot of slo mo takes place, sometimes i think a little too much. but that to me seems to be its only flaw.

the scenery... god, 'tis breathtaking. the colours of sunsets are even more bold and have an even more impressive 'painted' feelings than the sunsets i see here in abq (which has amazing sunsets). the settings are so important, that as with 'crounching,' they almost become a character themselves.

the plot contains twists and turns i don't want to give away, but i will tell you that the main gist is that nameless, played by jet li, wants to kill the evil emperor of the qin province of what will become china one day. the emperor is apparently a warmongering tyrant who will stop at nothing in his quest to acquire all of the surrounding states. other critics have claimed that the plot is akin to that of kurosawa's 'roshomon' (another must see!) but i don't get that, as 'roshomon' gives 4 versions of one story while this film builds off each telling... and it is clear which version is correct...

maggie cheung as flying snow is simply exquisite in this film, as is zhang ziyi, who shows up as moon, servant to broken arrow (coma brain. i forget the actor's name right now!). broken arrow, meanwhile, plays his character with perfection. and jet li puts in the performance of his life as nameless. forget the drek you might have seen him in in american productions. here he is back in his element, and he proves why he is such an international star.

in all, i would say that if you liked 'crouching tiger' or never saw it, you should check out 'hero' because, while it wasn't, to me, as solid as the former, it was intriguing and intense and immaculate. if you hated 'crouching,' well... this is more of the same stuff so stay away....

happily, now i can watch my VCD knowing what's going on! it won't be as intense as the theatrical showing is, but hey... at least i own a copy.