Quentin Tarantino gets lots of credit for creating pop-culture purees with each of his films. He takes from countless sources of media old and new and combines them into something interesting. Tarantino has another talent though. He has an eye for knowing which films deserve a chance. Bring Hero into the equation and you realize just how good Tarantino’s eye for aesthetic brilliance really is. The rich vibrant colors, the beautiful choreography and a magnificently told story make Hero one of the most gorgeous and luscious films to ever come across the sea from China.
Before the Great Wall of China could be built, an emperor had to conquer and unite all of the kingdoms in the land. Consequently, it’s a time of great turmoil with towns being burned and many people dying in the process. For all the good such change can bring through unity, the side effects include men and women who want to overthrow those who killed their loved ones. Enter the nameless assassin (Jet Li). His family died in one of the many conflicts that ripped across China and has come to speak to the King of Qin (Daoming Chen) with a most unusual request.
Unknown in the land, Nameless boasts a story which the King must hear to believe: he has felled the three greatest assassins that ever dared attack the king. He offers proof of each victory over the assassins and in return for each story is allowed to proceed closer and closer to the King, which is a sign of honor and respect. Each story Nameless tells informs the King of a masterful fight and begins to unravel a plot that betrays the assassin’s initial claim. The defeats of the assassins Sky (Donnie Yen), Flying Snow (Maggie Cheung) and Broken Sword (Tony Leung Chiu Wai) seem too perfect and gradually the King realizes that Nameless’s quest wasn’t as simple as he made it sound. What started as a simple exhibition of three stories becomes a tightly woven revelation of revenge and intricate plotting. The King finally sees Nameless for what he is and asks the question upon which the entire film hangs: Why?
The story has an excellently plotted non-linear structure and works as an odd one man Rashomon. Instead of varying perspectives, Nameless instead shows each story with varying levels of truth, until he stops omitting facts altogether. But what really makes the structure of the film interesting is how it’s broken up into chapters by according to visual style – namely colors. Each epic battle comes strewn in a cloak of a different color and to great aesthetic effect. Each scene is stunningly filmed by prized cinematographer Christopher Doyle and choreographed by Siu-Tung Ching. The colors break the film into pieces but the narrative and the visual style running beneath the colored fault lines bring it all back together into a glorious whole.
If you’ve seen it before, you know the potential for beauty in Hero. If not, the Blu-ray experience will be equally rewarding. In hi-definition the colors and scenery become characters all their own and the clarity of the shots showing huge armies and clouds of arrows makes the film worthy of a slot on your shelf. Now, if you’ve already bought it on DVD it’s hard to say whether or not you’d be content with the upscaling a Blu-ray player already does or if you’d want that extra-extra bump to full-blown awesome. How much do you value awesome?
Blu-ray Bonus Features
The extras aren’t busting at the scenes but there is a really fun interview between Tarantino and Jet Li. You get to watch Tarantino ooze infatuation and curiosity in the way he’s known for doing. Otherwise there’re two production featurettes covering a fight scene and then all the other general aspects. The former is fun (though you find similar ones on lots of other movies) and the latter is mediocre.
"Hero" is on sale September 15, 2009 and is rated PG13. Action, Drama, Fantasy, Martial-Arts. Directed by Yimou Zhang. Written by Feng Li, Bin Wang, Yimou Zhang. Starring Donnie Yen, Jet Li, Ziyi Zhang, Maggie Cheung, Tony Leung Chiu Wai, Daoming Chen.
