Great Film: Ying xiong
The best martial arts film ever made
Rarely have I been so astounded by such a magnificent, awe-inspiring
film. If you have not yet placed your eyes on this masterpiece of
Chinese cinema then I cannot recommend this film highly enough. 'Hero'
is by far the best Chinese film I have ever seen, and already a firm
favourite of all time.
The imagery is unparallelled, simply draw-droppingly near perfect
scenes, with bold and vibrant use of colour, symbolism and scenery. The
fluent flow of the storyline, the delicate direction of the sword
slicing action, the Chinese cultural concepts and the emotionally
charged scenes between characters combine to produce a simply
remarkable achievement.
This film has a few elements from Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, but is
far, far superior in every way. The sleek direction from Yimou Zhang is
so perfectly done, just imagine two martial arts experts ensuing in
battle against each other, defying the laws of physics as we know it,
and yet following them in 360 degrees in slow motion as one deflects a
droplet of rain from one sword to the other, at the same time spinning
and leaping over water... simply beautiful. The attack sequences are
also superbly set, with hundreds of thousands of the King's warriors in
formation, simultaneously firing enough arrows into the city which
literally cover the sky, in addition to the viewer being able to watch
the journey of a single arrowhead aimed during this event. The build up
to the attack along with the unnerving tune of a Chinese stringed
instrument help you, as the audience, to become firmly engrossed in
your seat.
The individual martial arts is also second to none, for myself
particularly to see the distant shots of the whole battle sequence
showing the true skills involved with fighting, such as footwork,
perfect timing,aggression, counter attacks and defence. Jet Li shows he
is truly the grand daddy of martial arts. I cannot stress enough how
much you need this film in your life.
The colourful imagery imposed by the director will take your breath
away with luscious, vivid, bright, wind-blown,draped backgrounds as the
setting for the important progression of the story. Even the story
itself is brought to the audience in such a way which ensures your
undivided attention, as there are twists in the tales and hidden plots
which do not develop until the end of the film.Even short individual
scenes are memorable due to their sheer awesome display of skill and
speed.
This film even holds a political message which is relevant to all
times, especially in today's American-lead world dominance. This film
has absolutely everything - including an extremely sexy young Ziyi
Zhang who simply is the biggest hype to come out of china since SARS.
This film was released in 2002, but this is certainly one of my all
time favourites and will probably be the best film I see all year. I
have never been more enthusiastic to pursue films in this genre in my
life. For more action type enthusiasts who like more gore and violence
check out 'Ong Bak', but for people who appreciate a fuller, visionary
piece of martial arts filming, this will leave you speechless.
Cast
- Sky played by Donnie Yen
- Moon played by Ziyi Zhang
- Nameless played by Jet Li
- Broken Sword played by Tony Leung Chiu Wai
- Flying Snow played by Maggie Cheung
- King Of Qin played by Daoming Chen
- Scholar played by Liu Zhong Yuan
