“Hero” is one of the best films ever made and truly spatial in a purely Chinese manner. It is a film that is beautiful in many aspects and will completely transform your enjoyment of the movie. The direction and photography is “artsy” without being pretentious. This film has a few elements from “Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon”, but is far, far superior in every way. Every shot is worthy of being a brush stroke on a canvas in itself. Hero is undoubtedly a most beautiful and awe inspiring film.
The colorful imagery will take your breath away with luscious, vivid and bright backgrounds as the setting for the story is laid out. It, the story, is brought to the audience in such a way that ensures your undivided attention, as there are twists in the tales and hidden plots .Even the short individual scenes are memorable due to their sheer awesome display of beauty and poetry in its skillful action.
The story of HERO starts off quite simply, as Nameless (Jet Li) begins to recount his martial triumphs to the Emperor of Qin. The tale is told in flashbacks which revisit and reconstruct the same events, elaborating on and changing the story as we get more information. It reminds us of Akira Kurosawa’s “Rashomon” and “Ran”, almost a combination of the two, and is a great way of developing a mystery thriller.
Director Zhang Yimou handles the building of the tale expertly, as one would expect from such a master film maker. The film is so visually and artistically captivating that the plot can be harder to grasp the first time around. It is undoubtedly one of the most visually beautiful movies of our time. However, not all audiences may appreciate what message comes wrapped in this beautiful package.