Hero

Richard Hernandez13, can you explain what's actually good about Hero?
Personally, I thought the movie was pretty mediocre. It felt like some kind of pseudo-trash kung fu flick...
Shaolin Soccer was fun because of those "so bad they're good" effects (that was genuine trashy fun), but Hero just feels bloated, boring, and pretentious without any actual substance. The mid-air fight scenes are just painfully drawn out and exhausting.

ruggedmarlin15

What I honestly just can't wrap my head around is this: what kind of physics are they even playing by when they start flying? I mean, look, these movies are actually decent enough until they start flailing all over the screen like gravity is just a suggestion, and then I'm just sitting there clicking Stop and restarting because the whole thing becomes a total joke to me.

In The Matrix, they laid it out for you—Neo has superpowers and he can fly, so fine, whatever, I'll buy it. And Superman could fly just because he’s Superman, right? It makes sense within its own weird little world. 😁

So yeah, I'm with you on this one; just like Tiger and Dragon, this movie is absolute nonsense.

Uh... does anyone out there in New York who has this on DivX or DVD happen to be able to rip a copy or sell me one?

I would be incredibly grateful. 😁

I caught a movie on DivX the other day... the translation was an absolute train wreck. Half the sentences were incomplete or just made zero sense. It was unbelievable. Eventually, I gave up on the subtitles and just tried to follow the plot through the visuals alone 😁 ...this thread helped fill in some of the gaps, though.

All things considered, it's a solid fairy tale 👍

cosmictrucker132 said:I caught a movie on DIRECTV the other day... the subtitles were an absolute disaster. Half the sentences were cut off or just made zero sense; it was incredible. After a while, I gave up on reading and just tried to follow the plot through the visuals alone 😁 ...this thread actually helped fill in some of the gaps for me...

All things considered, it’s a pretty solid fairy tale. 👍

We were just discussing how this specific film is crafted so well that you can easily watch it without any subtitles at all. In fact, one of these days we’ll just *watch* it without them, since they really just get in the way of the cinematography! 😬 👍

electricnomad said:I honestly don't get it: what laws of physics are they even following when they fly? I can handle it until they start soaring across the screen; then I just hit stop and restart because it's frankly ridiculous.

In The Matrix, they established that Neo has superpowers and can fly, so fine, no problem there. And Superman could fly simply because he’s Superman, right? 😁

The crowd flies because we're dealing with the wuxia genre here. Look, I don't want to sound like a know-it-all since I'm no expert, but wuxia novels have been a staple of American literary influence from China for at least a century. In these stories, you constantly see characters who are such master martial artists that their incredible balance and jumping ability allow them to essentially "fly." The novels themselves usually revolve around the tension between honor and duty versus personal desire.

It's really just a deep-seated literary tradition for them, something the West is only starting to wrap its head around through movies like Tiger and Dragon. I've seen about half a dozen Hong Kong martial arts films set in these semi-mythical versions of China, and they all follow the pattern of Hero or Tiger and Dragon, even if they're a bit over the top. Unfortunately, none of them even come close to those two in terms of budget, visual beauty, or sheer quality.

As for a different direction in historical martial arts cinema, I have to mention the Korean film Mus, or rather Warrior, which played in our local theaters and came out on DVD. It's an excellent film, but it isn't wuxia; it's more of a straightforward, realistic historical war movie. It stars Zhang Ziyi, who is absolutely stunning. 😍

I haven't seen it yet.

Is it any better than Warrior?

casualotter21 said:These movies constantly focus on characters who are incredible fighters, people whose "superpowered" mastery of martial arts basically lets them "fly," when in reality, they just have an absolutely insane sense of balance and jumping ability.

True, but Hero is really more of a swordplay film. You don't see much in the way of traditional martial arts.

...
I actually caught it on the big screen once. It was such a treat. 😁

I especially loved how they tied the art of calligraphy together with the swordplay.

Wait, I actually watched that 🙂
It’s a gorgeous film—stunning colors, incredible ambient sound design... I seriously need to catch this on a massive screen sometime. 🙂

Richard Hernandez13 said:Sure, but Hero is basically just a sword fighting movie. There isn't any real martial arts involved.

Potejto - potato 😁

Richard Hernandez13 said:Well, if you ask me... Superman It’s really just a swordplay movie... there aren't any actual martial arts skills involved...

Fencing is an art form, really... almost like woodcarving, if you think about it...

BoLa said:The thing I just can't wrap my head around is... by what laws of physics are they actually flying?

If you're actually asking a question like that with a straight face, then there isn't really an answer to be given...

Listen up, folks, Hero is hitting theaters at the end of August 😁
I actually caught it in the theater, and man, the cinematography was gorgeous. The colors, the story... everything about it. Even if that gravity-defying flying stuff isn't really my thing, the movie itself was killer 🙂
And look, regarding that Samsara movie I mentioned earlier—that one’s heading straight to DVD. You can just imagine how many people would actually bother going to the cinema for a flick like that 😁
It would definitely crush Passion too 😲

neonfalcon6 said:My dear Lipi, Hero is hitting theaters at the end of August... 😁

We Can Only Hope...

And even before that mentioned Samsara, it’s going straight to DVD... you can only imagine how people would have flocked to theaters to catch a film like that... 😁
To be exact, it would probably trample over Passion too... 😲

Is that it... This...It sounds interesting, though that single review over on IMDb isn't exactly flattering... specifically, it just says, "This movie is absolute crap"...

Samsara: According to IMDb, this is basically a movie about Buddhism that doesn't actually have much to do with Buddhism, but it does feature plenty of explicit nudity. It’s not bad, though; I'll definitely have to catch it when it airs on TV, probably late Sunday night. 😛

Matthew Doyle73 said:Samsara: According to IMDb, it's a film about Buddhism that doesn't actually have much to do with Buddhism, but it does feature explicit nudity. It's not bad; I'll probably catch it when it airs on TV, likely late Sunday night. 😛

Mmmm, naked Buddhists! Sounds absolutely thrilling! 👍

Look, this is a dead giveaway that some of you aren't just watching movies filled with endless ninjas and even more bodies.😬

Yesterday, Miramax finally released it into distribution in "theaters everywhere." However, I find it’s much more impactful when you experience it in a cinema on that massive screen, rather than just watching it on a DVD or VCD.
The film itself, especially the combat sequences, is absolutely superb. The color palette reminds me so much of Kurosawa's "Dreams"... there's this quality to it. It's quite fascinating how every version of the story is told through a different color scheme. The choreography is truly top-tier, featuring those standout moments from Zhang Ziyi—like when she says, "I've been with my master since I was 8. My master was never wrong. Please listen to my master, I beg you!"—mmm, it sounded so incredibly poignant coming from her 😁. It is definitely worth a watch. They seem to fly, almost "dancing on water," seemingly suspending time itself while they fight. Honestly, it all looks wonderful. As someone else mentioned, this falls squarely into the wuxia genre. That explains why the names are so stylized, like Flying Snow, Broken Sword, Moon, or Long Sky (all of these characters are fictional, of course). Now, the assassin is a real historical figure, though certainly not quite the way he's portrayed in this movie.
Personally, I found "Warrior" ("Musa") to be a bit more compelling or easier to sit through, but this is such a different kind of film altogether...

I caught this at the theater this Wednesday. Having seen it for the third time now, those two and a half hours absolutely flew by. I have no desire to get dragged into any heavy artistic debates; I’ll just say that, visually speaking, this is easily the most beautiful film I've ever had the pleasure of watching. It might be a case of style over substance, but even so, it serves as a perfect blueprint for how movies in this genre ought to look. Unfortunately, Hollywood could stand to learn quite a lot from the Chinese region. 🙂

Since I've watched pretty much everything involving I will be the one - Jet Li that ever made its way to the States, I don't think I'll be skipping this one either. 😎