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Hero is quite simply a beautiful movie. It's just pretty and very nice to look at. Starting a review like that might make you think I'm going to follow up with some sort of "but there's no substance blah blah" sort of statement, but I'm not. It's really a good all-around movie. The cinemetography is tight, the digital work is gorgeous, the story is clever and Rashamon-esque, the cast is superb. Jet Li (his name is Nameless! Tough!!!), Maggie Cheung (reminding the audience once again that she is actually a very good actress), Donnie Yen (former New Kid on the Block should've been in the movie more), Tony Leung (the poor bastard dies like 8 times or something),and Zhang Ziyi (she is very pretty). It's a quiet, meditative film... seriously, like maybe 80% of it is in slow motion - not recommended for someone looking for crazy-ass undercranked flying sword fight scenes. The sets are epic, the landscapes are surreal (at least to a guy from Massachusetts, I guess), and the pace is slow and steady. Lots of calligraphy references. This movie succeeds in not being about swordplay- it's about swordsmanship. It's really fucking good. - Tom, Dec 2003

www.herothemovie.com

NO-SHADOW KICK? no, but plenty of similar moves.

SUBTITLES: I've got a dub of a VCD - amazing quality given the format. Very readable.

SOUNDTRACK: Quality. I said QUALITY.

FIGHTING: When I say slowed down, I mean SLOWED DOWN. Like, person A attacks person B with a sword, and there is enough time for several facial reactions and decisions to take place. And like, the dudes fight IN THEIR MINDS.

BEST MOVE: There are alot of just really well choreographed graceful moves. Maybe my favorite is a simple shot of Sky (Donnie Yen) throwing his sword at Nameless and Nameless does a fast simple deflect and knocks it back to him. It sounds boring but in reality, it absolutely rules.

WORTH OWNING?: oh, yes. I read somewhere that Mirimax cut their version down, but I don't know how much.

SEE ALSO: Ashes Of Time