Hero is not a CTHD clone; its a wonderful movie in its own right, staking its own territory as a dreamlike meditation on motivation and love.
Hero(英雄)
✭ ✭ ✭ ✭ Read critic reviews
China, Hong Kong · 2002
Rated PG-13 · 1h 39m
Director Zhang Yimou
Starring Jet Li, Tony Leung Chiu-Wai, Maggie Cheung, Donnie Yen
Genre Action, Adventure, Drama, History
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After surviving an assassination attempt, King of Qin summons a renowned warrior in hopes of uniting the Warring States of ancient China. The nameless warrior boasts of having killed three assassins who claimed they would take Qin's life, but it is up to the country's leader to decide if Nameless is trustworthy or not.
What are people saying?
What are critics saying?
If you found "Crouching Tiger" a stunning bore, you probably won't fall under Hero's spell. But the rest of us, well, we'll be more than happy to savor every moment of its strange, ravishing beauty.
A dazzlingly lensed, highly stylized meditation on heroism.
Zhang Yimou's impeccably crafted, all-star martial arts extravaganza, is the essence of shallow gravitas.
ReelViews by James Berardinelli
If there's a drawback, it's that the plot is trite. Hero is an exemplary example of visual poetry. The narrative is clearly of secondary concern.
Entertainment Weekly by Lisa Schwarzbaum
I wish 'Hero's emotional heat rose more intensely -- more recklessly. There's something grand but distant and almost fetishistic about the operatic solemnity with which Zhang approaches the Rashomonic story of assassins attempting to kill a king.
Hero is the masterpiece. It employs unparalleled visual splendor to show why men must make war to secure the peace and how warriors may find their true destiny as lovers.
Brilliant in flashes, thinned out as a whole, the film seems ideal for the DVD revolution, where the greatest hits can be compiled at the touch of a remote.
Philadelphia Inquirer by Steven Rea
Its stars - especially the photogenic Leung and Cheung, fresh from Wong Kar Wai's jazzy romance In the Mood for Love - are wonderfully charismatic. And wonderfully athletic.
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