How swift thy sword.

Yimou, director of RAISE THE RED LANTERN and TO LIVE, delves into new territory in the form of a good old period sword flick. But ordinary this one ain’t. Equal parts CROUCHING TIGER, HIDDEN DRAGON (click HERE to see Val’s review of that movie), ASHES OF TIME, and SWORDSMAN 2 (click HERE to see Val’s review of this flick), with just the tiniest dash of THE MATRIX (click HERE to see Silman’s review of THE MATRIX RELOADED) thrown in, HERO tells the story of three assassins (Cheung, Leung and Yen) out to kill the king of the Qin Dynasty and the man (Li) who wants to either kill them or help them, depending on whose story you are listening too.

Summoned by the King, Nameless (Li) recounts the story of how he first killed Sky (Yen) and later on how he defeated Broken Sword (Leung) and Flying Snow (Cheung). The King has his doubts and tells Nameless what he thinks happened, and the stories continue, each version told in flashbacks and bathed in exquisitely beautiful symbolic colors. Intense reds, deep blues, stark whites and calm greens bring the stories to life and caused this viewer to gasp at the stunning beauty of the cinematography, costumes and sets.

But this is also a martial arts film and wowie wow wow it has some excellent sword-fighting going on here. Yen and Li have the most spectacular fight and lets face it, Yen is a god, period. The fights are shot well too – clear and not too close up and without a whole lot of edits. Yen and Li can fight so there is no need to shoot them up close and personal with five million edits in a two-minute scene. Other fights are shown from a distance and this works too due to the composition of shots and events in the story. The wirework here is interesting in that it typically displays impossible feats but is also rather slow. There is no doubt that we are watching wirework – with extreme leaps, jumps and twists – and it makes for incredibly surreal fights. CGI is also incorporated but in such a way that one is drawn in more by the events, scenery and characters than the actually technology. The computer effects add (not distract!) to the fights and chorography – and this is how it should be of course, though rarely is.

Though Li is the main focus here, I found the performance by Leung and Cheung to be the most heartfelt. Li’s character is appropriately stoic and proud while Leung’s soulful sad eyes speak volumes about his character’s life and desires. Dark and brooding Broken Sword is constantly at odds with Flying Snow regardless of what version is being related.

Cheung is dazzling in her beauty and in the fierceness of Flying Snow’s motivation. At one point she asks “why” of another character repeatedly. Her tough façade crumbles before the viewer’s eyes as tears stream down her face. We know as she does that there is no acceptable answer.

For his role, Dao Ming gives a subtle and stirring performance as the King, conveying both arrogance and humanity in a part that could so easily have fallen flat in the hands of a lesser actor.

My only complaint here is that Tan Dun’s soundtrack is at times a little too similar to CROUCHING TIGER, which he of course also scored, so while similarities are understandable, I found them somewhat annoying.

Ah, but such a trivial grievance for a film as fascinating and haunting as HERO is. Sure to become a classic for its dreamlike story of vengeance, love, regret, honor and redemption. Not to be missed.

To see Silman’s review of this movie click HERE.