Ma Yong Zhen

Well, I must say that this 1997 Hong Kong movie from director Corey Yuen actually turned out to be more enjoyable and entertaining that I had initially expected it to be. I mean, the setting of the movie wasn't really one that was overly appealing to me, as it is something that has been seen countless times before in Asian cinema.

But still, I was given the chance to sit down and watch this movie, so of course I did. I am, after all, a big fan of Asian cinema.

While the movie does have Takeshi Kaneshiro on the leading role, I think that the movie was actually more adequately carried by the performances of Biao Yuen and Wah Yuen.

"Hero" (aka "Ma Yong Zhen") was a nice mixture of gangster movie mixed with elements of drama and martial arts. There was a good abundance of everything throughout the movie. And the storyline was actually rather good, with an intersting story and good characters.

The movie does, however, have that archetypical late 1990s action movie from Hong Kong feel to it - in terms of action sequences and the sounds during the fight scenes. So for better or worse, keep that in mind when you watch the movie.

My rating of "Hero" is a six out of ten stars. It is an enjoyable movie, although it is not among the top of the line of Hong Kong cinema.

With a better script and thought this could have been a great film. The cinematography is good and the set designs excellent but the plot and script let it down. Yuen was getting older here but still has some good moves and can act, unlike many of the others including Kaneshiro. But Yuen Tak can fight if way over the top in his villain role. The rest of the characters are not memorable but several of the set piece fights are good.

There is a terrific fight between Kaneshiro and Yuen early in the picture, one of the best I've ever seen, and nothing that follows it can quite match up to it (not even that hilarious anachronistic snippet near the end); it also eventually overdoses on violence for no good reason, in my opinion, but the whole film still makes for an involving experience. The audience I saw it with just loved it.

Well it was kind of surprising watching heartthrob Takeshi Kaneshiro performing martial arts,which he did a decent job of.But it was still a great movie on the aspect of the rags to riches story gangster martial arts style.The movie could of been better if there were more intricate martial arts sequences,along with Yuen Biao showing sexy Takeshi Kaneshiro some new moves.Also,as charming as Takeshi Kaneshiro always is.He just wore too much clothing in this movie.This movie also comes with some little nice twists to the plot,along with a great emotional action packed climax.It was'nt a 10,but the drama,martial arts action,especially towards the end,& humor won it an 8.

Since this is Takeshi's first, maybe only, kung fu flick i'll say this: Watching him do martial arts was cool. Especially the part where he wields a sword....although he's no Yuen Biao. I like this movie but I can't say much for the H.K. dvd version. If you watch the Hong Kong dvd version released by Universe, know that it is CUT. About 30 seconds is cut from the final fight scene which is important to the story. If you want to see the UNCUT version you'll have to get the United Kingdom (U.K.) dvd version or the vcd. Get your hands on the UNCUT version and watch it again to see what happens.