Hero!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!(now with more exclaimation points)

[N D Hill]

Check out this trailer (http://www.apple.com/trailers/miramax/hero/).

Jet li is such an awesomely tallented martial artist... It's a shame he hasn't really been in many good movies. This one definitely looks like it could change that. I'm not sure who the fight coreographer is but it looks like Yuen Wo Ping's style.

[JoshuaTheJames]

Yeah...I purposely haven't watched it yet because I wanted to see it in the theater first!

I'll definitely be buying the Cantonese version though...


-Joshua

[Denart]

Stylistic shit! aw man! <3

It was awesome when the emperor (I think) threw that sword to jet li and it stuck to the ground.

and the many barrages of arrows...

I hope the spoken language is Mandarin or Cantonese with subtitles...
I mean, they don't speak English in that part of the world! :nohope:

[softdrawer]

Check out this trailer (http://www.apple.com/trailers/miramax/hero/).

Jet li is such an awesomely tallented martial artist... It's a shame he hasn't really been in many good movies. This one definitely looks like it could change that. I'm not sure who the fight coreographer is but it looks like Yuen Wo Ping's style.

Orgy of graphics and action with a very simplisty story line... i see.

Well another movie I won't be seeing until it passes on tv at 2 am on wednesday's.

(But no worries for the fans... the action will be grrrrreat, i tell ya. Great.)

[Denart]

what part did Quentin Tarantino have in this film? I know he didn't direct it

[Dished]

Im gonna see it for sure!! Being directed by Quentin Tarantino is practically one of the main reasons also cause of Jet Li. I doubt its gonna suck. :confident

[Nineveh]

The movie isn't directed by Tarantino, from what I believe He's the one that convinced Miramax to release the movie uncut. The movie is actually about 2 years old. I was thinking about buying the dvd before i heard it was being released in the US. I can't wait!

[Denart]

Im gonna see it for sure!! Being directed by Quentin Tarantino is practically one of the main reasons

did you read the post before yours? :nohope:

thanks for the clear-up on Quentin's actual role on this film Nin'

[N D Hill]

Orgy of graphics and action with a very simplisty story line... i see.

Well another movie I won't be seeing until it passes on tv at 2 am on wednesday's.

(But no worries for the fans... the action will be grrrrreat, i tell ya. Great.)

Am I sensing a little hostility?

[Aerythes]

Hero is directed by the acclaimed chinese director Zhang Yimou. The movie is breathtakingly beautiful. A visual feast. But there are also some overly dramatic sequences in there.

[softdrawer]

Am I sensing a little hostility?

Pity perhaps. Hostility?...naahh...

:wink:

[illuminatus]

The movie brings about a very traditional Chinese idea of a hero. Almost all the main characters, regardless of what side they're on, are heroes. (The Chinese title, which translates to Hero, can also be translated into Heroes. there's no explicit plural form).

Quentin Tarantino has nothing to do the movie except going through the trouble of importing this movie from China. I dislike how the previews distribute misinformation by putting Tarantino's name in huge lettering just to attract attention. Nevertheless, the cinematography is breathtaking -- the work of Christopher Doyle. The storyline IMO is pretty good, although one can nitpick all about it. The movie's been around for 2 years, like previously said, and I have yet to see it in a real theater.

I'm fairly certain it will be in Chinese Mandarin with subtitles. Although much of the "poetic-ness" of old-Chinese speak will be literally Lost in Translation.

Everyone will recognize Jet Li and Zhang Ziyi off the actors list, but Tony Leung and Maggie Cheung are veteran actors and are well recognized. The director Zhang Yimou is also a veteran director whose work involve mostly with drama and movies that are word-heavy. This is a change for him, and personally I think he did a good job.

IMO this movie is better than CT, HD.

[Tiina]

I'm afraid I have to agree with softdrawer. I mean, the movie looks GREAT action-wise. And I'm sure it'll be really good but I'm just getting tired of these martial arts movies that are nothing but CG special effects, eye candy. It's going the way of the Matrix in my oppinion. Overload people with enough visual effects and they might just forget the story part.

The only excuse would be if the story was just to deep and complex for mortal comprehension and they had to make it up to us somehow. :^^:

(Also, no hostility. Just unpopular oppinions.)

[tyboogie]

this movie is has really beautiful cinematography,

but im gonna have to disagree with illuminatus, its not nearly on the same level of classic status as crouching tiger imo (the story and compelling characters are not up to par)

ty

[Snookums]

I rented this movie a few months back and I gotta say this was cool. A lot of symbolistic and stylistic colors and stuff. My dad didn't really like it though, because he said that it was propaganda for the qin dynasty... the one that weakened china, killed chinese scholars, stuff like that. My chinese history isn't that great. But I still liked it, if only for the action (Spoiler: and the zhang ziyi sex scene. hot).

This is also a classic classic classic form of chinese kung fu stories. They have all these books about kung fu and stuff. I've read some with my mom, and they're really interesting to read. A lot of chinese kung fu flicks usually originate from these stories.

Oh about the language, it's in mandarin w/ subtitles. I got pissed off enough when I rented cthd and it was dubbed. I'm only renting dvd's from now on. I'll be seeing this in theatres again though. If only for the Spoiler: zhang ziyi sex scene and the action.

[Floris Didden]

I almost liked it better then Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon. Great movie imo, the story isn't that shallow as the trailer might suggest. I went in and saw the movie without and info known beforehand about the story, really enjoyed it.

[Groover McNab]

Damn, that's at least 15 more exclamation points! :P

[N D Hill]

Damn, that's at least 15 more exclamation points! :P

Lol. And believe me! there's more where that came from!

[Blind]

I have a friend who's seen the original, I guess it was in Mandarin? And he had nothing but good things to say about it, and he's usually pretty critical of films. Visually, story-wise... all got the thumbs up. I'm going to try and catch this as soon as it hits DVD.

[MrSmith]

it kind of feels like a musical in parts. irritating the way people seem to be dancing more than fighting.

but definately pretty.

[Groover McNab]

Yay! I'm gonna go see it again. Beautiful cinematography! The story wasn't great, but was good enough. Only complaint is not enough Donnie Yen.

[SeraphSword]

Overall I liked this movie, but I was a little disappointed. The story was a little deeper than I had thought it was going to be (trailers made it look more like a traditional action flick), but I personally can't stand that kind of kung fu. Same as CT,HD in that respect. I always feel that martial arts are powerful enough in reality, and the flying around, walking on water stuff inspires laughs more than thrills. It just really breaks me out of the movie, and since the film is so heavily reliant on that sort of action, it tends to spoil the whole thing. However, there are some very good parts to the movie and story is interesting, so I would say it's worth the price of a matinee ticket.

I think someone else mentioned this elsewhere, but, toward the end, I did get the feeling like this was almost a propaganda film. Oh, and it was mentioned before but, yes, Zhang Ziyi is pretty hot (just in general, sex scene or no):wink:

[HugeHarHar]

This movie was visual poetry. It oozed of beauty. And though some people think the plot is simple or weak, I think it works with the look of the movie completlty. It's definitly a movie worth watching multiple times. And is definitly one of Jet Li's best movies.

[PaulGanguly]

I fully second HugeHarHar's reply.

I found the plot to be rich enough to support the film even without all of the visuals, however the imagery certainly makes this film worth seeing at least twice.

I'm working in a Broken Sword fanart now. I wish he was the main character. Let's be honest here...He was so much more badass than nameless.

[Chris J. Anderson!]

This movie was great. Very well done. The story was not as straight forward as many movies, in the beginning, but towards the end, it came together very well. It may sound like a simple story line to many, because it's not a extrememly compelling mystery or anything like that, but I think the things that seemed simple made it more real, in terms of hard decisions characters had to make, that changed future events. Great cinematography. Favorite scene, was the battle in the fallen leaves. Favorite part of the story, was when the Emperor by the candles felt compelled to do as his people asked, to Nameless.

[Groover McNab]

I actually saw it again for a third time (yeah, yeah) last weekend and it's some pretty clever storytelling. I guess I picked up a couple more subtle things when I viewed it knowing what was going to happen.

[illuminatus]

I saw this in the theaters for the first time. (saw it numerous times on DVD and DivX)

A couple of things:

1. Still an absolute visual treat

2. Translations are quite a bit different from the version of the movie I saw. The translations are fairly accurate, although many parts became too wordy in order to convey the entire idea across -- the old Chinese spoken in the film is terse and poetic, something that the translations could not carry over.

***************************SPOILER WARNING*****************
note. The two characters written by Broken Sword is: Tian Xia 天下, which translates literally to "everything below the sky." So Broken Sword wishes Nameless not to assassinate the king for the sake of "everything below the sky." In the theater version that got changed to "Our Land," presumably to match the two characters with two words, but the original version is more poetic.
************************************************** *******

3. Regarding comparisons with CT:HD, i believe CT:HD's story is more focused on the personal level -- how men and women who are able to gallantly fight with power and grace yet fail miserably at the simple act of expressing one's feelings (i know that's just one of the themes, but that's the one that struck me the most) while Hero's more focused on the grand scheme of things.. the idea of seeing beyond vengeance, death, and "trivial" things, and be able to sacrifice yourself for the future. I enjoyed the theme from the latter more, but it's really a matter of personal preference. Sure, both are martial arts/visual movies, but in terms of storyline it's like comparing Lost in Translation with, say, Patton.

4. Broken Sword is a hero, because he was able to see the grand scheme of things. Nameless is a hero, because he saw what Broken Sword saw. **spoiler** The King of Qin is a hero, because he, in knowing that Broken Sword has understood him, literally offered his life. He also was able to understand Broken Sword's intentions and derive greater meanings from the calligraphy ** end spoiler ** Compared to them, Flying Snow's seek for vengeance isn't so heroic. In that sense, even though Nameless is the narrator and main focus, Broken Sword is the true hero. After the first exchange with the king, the king told Nameless that Namless has underestimated him. After the 2nd exchange, Nameless told the King that the King has underestimated Broken Sword.

5. Some of you mentioned that the movie is a propaganda. The idea hasn't even crossed my mind until it was mentioned. the emperor of Qin was the first one to unite China after centuries of chaos. He decreed to standardized the character set (hinted in the movie), put the country under 1 currency, and standardized the width of roads so that horse carriages may trade freely. He also began the project that eventually beacme the great wall. To say that the Qin dynasty was oppressive is like saying a dictatorship is oppressive or any 1-party government is oppressive. I've also read that the movie is to justify the communist government in china's ruthless methods -- that it's for a "greater good." Okay, I guess you can see it that way, but to me that's a little paranoid. Zhang Yimou didn't intend this movie to be propaganda (he has made plenty of other movies that didn't get approved for release from the Chinese Government for a long time), but it might be a reason that the government saw it fit to release to the public. Who knows. I'm born and raised in that environment, immigrating to the US, and honestly I did not even catch the supposed propaganda.

I think i typed too much ><

[Sok N. Wett]

I've seen this movie maybe about 10 times before it was release here in the states. Absoultely beautiful. Some of you may remember Donnie Yen from Blade 2, there's also an old chinese series called "Fist of Fury" (He plays the Bruce Lee's character) where I first seen him act, it was old I can't remember when. Tony Leung's best movie gots to be "Hard Boiled" with Chow Yun Fat, absoulte best directing by John Woo, they sure don't make movies like Hard Boiled anymore.

[cotron]

I just saw this movie tonight... <3 <3 <3

so goooood