MOVIES: Hero

Yesterday I saw Jet Li's Hero (and now a brief digression on that link: why does IMDb insist on listing movies under original language titles? The site is in English; use the English titles, would you? I didn't see a film called Ying Xiong, I saw a film called Hero. Much like I've never seen Det Sjunde inseglet or Kakushi toride no san akunin... but I've seen The Seventh Seal and The Hidden Fortress).

Hero is being compared to Rashomon and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, which is just plain unfair, since it can't possibly meet those standards. It has plot elements retold from different points of view, like Rashomon, and it's a breathtaking martial arts extravaganza/romantic epic, like Crouching Tiger, but that's where the comparisons should end. Because Hero is a great film in its own right, and to judge it in contrast with those two films is to do it a disservice.

Jet Li -- who, by the way, should do more films like this, despite having to take a paycut, and less films co-starring rappers with delusions of acting grandeur -- plays "Nameless," a small-town prefect who claims to have slain the Emperor's three most dangerous enemies -- Sky (Donnie Yen, whom I know as the bad guy in Shanghai Knights), and lovers Broken Sword (Tony Leung Chiu Wai, probably best known from John Woo's Hard-Boiled) and Flying Snow (the wonderful Maggie Cheung, of the Heroic Trio movies). (The insanely beautiful Zhang Ziyi of Crouching Tiger also stars as Moon, Broken Sword's... apprentice? Is that the right term? Student? Disciple? Whatever, you get what I mean.) The Emperor doubts Nameless' story, and from there we go into a series of differing accounts, which make up the majority of the film, and which I don't want to reveal.

The plot is clever and intriguing in its interweaving strands of truth, lies, and guesses, but what makes this film a marvel is its gorgeous visuals, and thrilling, intricately choreographed fight scenes. It was one stunning sequence after another -- a battle in the rain, in which the fighters move faster than the raindrops; a battle in a swirling windstorm of fallen leaves; a hail of arrows thicker than the blades of grass in a lawn; a battle amongst the billowing draperies in the Emperor's throne room; a battle skipping across the surface of a beautiful placid pond. And every sequence is dominated by one particular and vibrant color scheme -- in one story, the characters and backgrounds are in blood red, in another, sky blue, in another, forest green. It's just a wonder to behold, a feast for the eyes.

Jet Li is a fine, solid presence as the anchor of the film, but it's Tony Leung and Maggie Cheung as the sometimes happy, sometimes tragic, sometimes both (depending on which story is being told) lovers who really held my interest. Really, everything held my interest here. I went to see this movie with a friend who a) hates subtitles (we didn't know it was subtitled until the movie started) and b) is a nicotine fiend who often takes one or even two cigarette breaks during a movie -- just gets up and disappears, and five minutes later sits down again, reeking of smoke. But he didn't leave his seat during this film -- which to me is a true sign of its success.

I said I wasn't going to compare them, but -- if you liked Crouching Tiger, you really must see this film. And on the big screen.