| Hero |
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| By Todd Karella August 27, 2004 |
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| ~To kill or not to kill, that is the question~ |
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| same vein as such films such as Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, the two films are quite dissimilar. Hero is about the kingdom of Qin and a man with no name. The King of Qin (Daoming Chen) is amassing a mighty army and is about to conquer the surrounding kingdoms in order to unify them under one flag. Unfortunately, power breeds a lot of enemies and the King has more than his fair share. There are three legendary assassins that have vowed to kill him and have tried on several occasions. Knowing that defeating these three are near impossible, he sleeps in his armor and has decreed that no one may approach within 200 paces. |
| With the help of some misleading trailers and an enthusiastic hand from Quentin Tarantino, the 2002 foreign film Ying xiong was released to the American public as Hero. While in the |
| Nameless-Jet Li |
| Flying Snow-Maggie Cheung |
| Broken Sword-Tony Leung Chiu Wai |
| Long Sky-Donnie Yen |
| Moon-Ziyi Zhang |
| Every film has to have a little girl on girl action |
| He flys through the air with the greatest of eaze... |
| name is Nameless (Jet Li). Claiming to be a simple constable from a nearby town, he bears the weapons of the three assassins that he has defeated and has brought the weapons to prove that they have indeed been vanquished. The King is amazed and asks the stranger to explain how he managed to defeat each assassin. As the stories unfold, the King allows the man to move closer and grants upon him huge amounts of land and gold. |
| By the time Nameless recounts his last tale and is within 10 paces of the King, the ruler has a revelation. Maybe something more is going on than what he is really being told. After having seen the story progress from the perspective of Nameless we now see the King’s opinion of how the events really transpired. In this version not only are the assassins still alive, but Nameless finds himself being accused of devising a plot in order to get within 10 paces so he can kill the King. It seems that the King is onto something, but doesn’t quite get the story right. The unknown man then reveals |
| Rated PG-13 |
| a third and final version of what really happened to his three opponents. After seeing the story once again for a third and final time Nameless has a choice to make. He can kill the King or let him go for the good of the people. The overall story is good and the cinematography has some beautiful moments. If you enjoy this genre of film, then you will find this an excellent movie worth seeing. However, most Americans will not find this particularly pleasing as the |
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| One day a man arrives at the palace to see the King. He is a man without an identity since we was found abandooned as a small child. His |
| film uses subtitles, and has many unrealistic action scenes. The story is also repeated three different times with three different versions and can become distracting as the same battles are shown over and over. While some people may not care for the fact that the warriors can fly around, it is part of the Chinese myth. The real problem isn’t that they can fly, but the way they are bounced around on obvious strings is the biggest issue with the movie. |