Rent Hero (2002)

Swords, Silk and Second Thoughts - Hero review by griggs

Zhang Yimou throws colour at this like restraint went out of fashion, and somehow it never tips into overkill.

First time watching Hero, and I'd clearly been missing something ridiculous.

Christopher Doyle's cinematography is stacked with reds, blues, whites, a whole autumn's worth of yellow leaves, and each colour-coded retelling has its own internal logic. So the repeats keep revealing new angles on Nameless, Broken Sword and Flying Snow instead of just replaying the same story with a different filter on top.

Jet Li plays Nameless like someone perpetually doing sums in his head, weighing what he's willing to give up. But it's Tony Leung and Maggie Cheung who quietly steal the film — yet again cast as people who love each other at entirely the wrong moment in history. At this point I assume they've got a standing arrangement to be tragic together once a decade, and I'm not complaining.

The politics are where I start pushing back, though. Broken Sword's big speech about sacrificing yourself for unity plays beautifully in the moment, then gets less comfortable the more you think about who benefits from everyone falling in line. The film is gorgeous enough to make that argument look almost noble, which is exactly the problem.

Gorgeous, thrilling and politically queasy — which is a more interesting combination than simple admiration.

Okay - Hero review by CP Customer

Not a bad movie, expected more subtlety. First 45 mins seem to drag out and are overly worked with cool and atmospheric shots and direction. I believe to the point that it's too many atmospheric shots bolted together. It picks up in the last 45 mins, when the story seems to pull out it's twists and meaning. Ok martial arts, nice visuals, some terrible acting in a manga style from the female leeds (snarling and shouting Ho! whilst flying through the air - not good, especially as the female Leeds are so much better than that), though some of the visuals of characters in a manga style are superb. To see the comic books come to life with make-up and subtle eye movements - fantastic. Watch and see the difference bewteen translating the manga understated and the manga overstated.

I've bought this film pior to hiring it, I will watch it again, but only for some of the movie, unlike "Crouching Tiger and Hidden Dragon" which is just a beautiful and complete movie, period.