Review of Zhang Yimou's "Hero"

Just got back from seeing Hero at the Cinerama (I had to leave work early to make my 4 PM appointment with Dr. Lee - Jet Li, that is!). The movie blew me out of my socks and I'm still having a hard time putting my reaction to it into words. I love martial arts movies, Zhang Yimou is one of my favorite directors, I'm a fan grrl for Jet Li, and, um, I speak Chinese. But this movie isn't in any way a silly genre flick - it's the epic flick to shame all other so-called epic flicks, the perfect combination of story, cinematography, acting, costumes, action, and restraint, the movie I've been waiting for since I was disappointed by the Wachowskis and by Return of the King.

The two hours of Hero were a cinematographic tour-de-force. I sat with my mouth open at the visual splendor of a screen filled with white desert and a man in billowing white robes on a white horse. I gaped at the audacity of a red-clad villain fighting a rose-garbed maiden in a forest of yellow leaves - leaves that swirled and struck with a power of their own, leaves that were all the more astounding because they were clearly real. I also had the heady rush, a la Vertigo, of suddenly realizing I had no idea where this movie was taking me.

With this to recommend it, it's hard to bother going into the plot, but it's a tale set in the China of 2000 years ago, with three assassins determined to kill the emperor and one man (the "hero" of the title) determined to stop them. What reward will the emperor give him? What is his goal in eliminating the assassins? I won't ruin the fun by saying anything more, other than I had a flashback to Rashomon at one point.

With so many epics out in the last few years, why was "Hero" so much better? Simply put, the use of real people in the group battle scenes completely altered their tone. The sight of a thousand men lying on their backs, holding their bows ready with their feet while their assistants stood ready with more arrows, was electric with possibility. The hundreds of men guarding the emperor - they had weight. The entire movie was meaty and epic in a way that a film substantially created with CGI could never hope to be.

I walked out of the theater wondering why, oh why hasn't this thing been released yet? I'd go see it again tomorrow if they were showing it. I know it's out on DVD, with 15 extra minutes available that weren't on the version I saw today ... maybe I'll go rent that instead.