It would be easy for one to mistake Hero, based on the trailers, for an exciting martial arts movie. With Jet Li at its head, the mistake is even easier to make. However Hero is by no means a typical martial arts flick and should not be judged as such. The movie is the point at which the artsy movie and the martial arts movie collide.
From whichever angle one tackles it, Hero is a movie driven by art and beauty. Indeed, beauty struggles to describe the cinematography and fight choreography. The sheer breadth and depth of colour captured in the film are breathtaking. The movie is replete with colour symbolism, which often has the various members of the cast dressing in variants of colour to suit the mood of the moment.
Additionally, fluidity is almost constant. Whether it is flowing hair, clothing or bodies, the fluid movement taps into the mysticism and grace associated with the martial arts. It also adds to the beauty of the film.
ACTIONS AND CONCEPTS
It is certainly not the first time the art and martial arts have collided, the most obviously comparable moment being Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon. Though having been shelved for two years before western release, the similarities between Hero and Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon are inescapable. The two movies share a similar level of artistry and many of the actions and concepts in movement are similar. They also share Ziyi Zhang, who plays Moon.
However, Hero is by no means a copy of Crouching Tiger, as they revolve on very different premises. Hero looks at China on its way to becoming a large empire. The story explores the issues of love, patriotism, sacrifice and, of course, what it means to be a hero.
Hero has all the elements to make it a good martial arts flick, many of which are relatively typical of the plot line. However, it adds much more to the usually simplistic formula. Indeed, at the outset it almost seemed that the most popular theme for martial arts movies, vengeance, was its central point.
LOGIC-DEFYING MOMENTS
Jet Li plays Nameless, a warrior who wishes to avenge the death of his family at the hands of the King of Qin (Daoming Chen) in his mission to create an empire. To accomplish his vengeance, along with the many years of training to become a deadly swordsman (which is expected in all martial arts films), he enlists three warriors to his cause Broken Sword (Tony Leung Chui Wai), Flying Snow (Maggie Cheung) and Sky (Donnie Yen).
The wire work in the film is awesome, helping it to create the logic-defying moments that fans of the genre love. But this time the emphasis is on the art behind the motions, not the deadliness of the moves. As a result, as with Crouching Tiger, there is much airwork as the combatants fly across the screen unconcerned by trivialities such as gravity. Indeed, many of the fight scenes bear more similarity to a surreal painting than they do an action movie.
As a result, if one merely wants to see Jet Li kick gluteus maximus it is best to wait on the next film. However, if you are willing to watch a beautiful, well-crafted story which happens to contain some artistically intriguing fight choreography, then Hero is a good choice.