Hero **** (2002, Jet Li, Tony Leung, Maggie Cheung, Zhang Ziyi) – Classic Movie Review 1105

In ancient China, a defence officer called Nameless (Jet Li) sets out to best the three killers, Broken Sword (Tony Leung), Flying Snow (Maggie Cheung) and Moon (Zhang Ziyi) who are hell bent on killing the King of Qin (Daoming Chen).

There are several gasp-out-loud sequences in Zhang Yimou’s ravishing-looking, gorgeous-sounding, entirely thrilling 2002 martial arts movie artwork and style object. A real epic, even at this cinema release short running time of 96 minutes, it was the most expensive Chinese film to date, and, boy, you can see why, it’s all there on screen in huge crowd scenes and dazzling sets. Fortunately, it was the also highest-grossing Chinese film to date.

The adrenalin-charged film is more of a situation, a series of conflicts and a rush of ideas than a story, whose development and clarity are simply not the main point here. Dun Tan’s music with Itzhak Perlman’s violin solos and British director of photography Christopher Doyle’s cinematography are the real heroes here. The long extended version runs 107 minutes.

The film is based on the story of Jing Ke’s assassination attempt on the King of Qin in 227 BC.

In American blockbuster terms, it was relatively inexpensive at $31million, and it was a huge money-spinner, taking $177million back.

Miramax Films owned the American market distribution rights, but delayed the release of the film for nearly two years, a record of six times. After intervention by Disney executives and Quentin Tarantino, it was finally presented by to American cinemas on August 27 2004 with Tarantino’s name was attached to the credits as ‘Quentin Tarantino Presents’. It took $53million as the North American box office, making it the fourth highest-grossing foreign language film.

©Derek Winnert 2014 Classic Film Review 1105 derekwinnert.com