Saturday, January 27, 2007

HERO (2002)


An extraordinary story telling with the arrival of a nameless warrior (Jet Li) at the palace of King Qin (Chen Daoming). The warrior (or Nameless, as he is referred to in the film) is brought before the king to gift his extraordinary killing of (or as told to the king) the three King's would-be assassins, Sky (Donnie Yen), Broken Sword (Tony Leung), and Flying Snow (Maggie Cheung). Because of such heroic service, Nameless is allowed to sit within ten paces of the King and asked to provide the details of his victories. However, as Nameless begins to tell how he overcame the three assassins, Qin begins to smell something fishy in the narration, and senses that Nameless is not what he appears to be. (the story telling is done as we have seen in Akiro Kurosowa's Roshamon)


You can actually get the directors touch when the King identifies that nameless is one of the assassins and the others have helped him to reach 10 paces near the king (reason being Nameless can hit with surgical precision within 10 paces). The King gets to know this details due to the bad energy waving the candle lights apart (what a way to identify!!! i was wondering why 100s of candles have to be near the kings throne)


Broken sword educates nameless that the Kings step in uniting China with hard rules is very much required to form a nation and better not to assassin him, in the event broken sword and flying snow ends their life. Nameless finally understands the King and refuses to assassin the king even when the King volunteers to his death.


Nameless admits that the King has to live for a nation to form and volunteers to die as a martyr. The last scene with 1000s of arrows coming straight to the brave Nameless leaving just the mark of the HERO behind the fort doors is a remarkable directorial example.


The initial stunt scene with Nameless and Sky (Donnie Yen) is my favourite with visually stunning movements and cinematography. Donnie yen though comes for a brief time but leaves an everlasting mark in the film.


Its a spectacular Chinese movie released 2002 and came to hit the Hollywood around 2004 only, but still won all our hearts with its compassion and emotional story line.


Don't miss it.

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