Um Homem Chamado Herói

Its really hard to write a review for this kind of film. On the one hand AMCH wants to be a credible story led film. OK, So what about the story. Well it is a strange affair. On the one hand, the hardship the Chinese felt, the bad guy and his ninja squad and a lot of the quest to find hero were pretty good. But on the other hand too many loose ends are left and some things seem to happen for no reason. What's with the weird gay subplot with hero's best friend? What's up with shadow? Why didn't he try and kick invincible's ass, instead of letting 'boss' get his handed to him (I know they were played by the same person, but, hey)? And what the hell happened to Hero's daughter (I accept that it sort of implies that's his latest quest, to find her, but they could have let us know. And why did he blow up the one man who knew where she might be?)?

As a martial arts film it is a strange beast. The only actual bit of traditional kung fu is when hero is showing off his talents to his prospective teacher. The rest is mostly wire work and hardcore CGI, which, for the most part, is pretty good. Shadow zips around, the Ninjas all have captain planet style powers and the face off between Pride and Invincible is awesome. But there just are not enough moments like these. I suppose ructions all the time would take away from what the director is trying to achieve (a man who hates fighting and death), but just one or two more or the existing ones eked out a bit would have been nice, if only to break up the slightly laborious pace.

On the whole, though, it is hard not to like AMCH. The sets are fantastic. The costumes and cast are all uniformly good and the cinematography is superb. The plot holes are forgivable and if you want to see non-stop kung fu action, go rent an old Shaw Brothers flick. The good far outweighs the bad, as far as I'm concerned and the two-disk set is a proud edition to my DVD collection. Its far too easy to cuss up this film, simply because the typical western audience for a martial arts movie don't seem to be ready to try something different. Shaaaame

I actually saw "A Man Called Hero" before "Storm Riders", which came first - and subsequently is compared due to the fact that the same production company, director, and cast is used this time around.

Regardless, I have to say that contrary to other reviewers, I enjoyed "A Man Called Hero" far more than Storm Riders. Don't get me wrong, Storm Riders is a great movie, but as far as pure entertainment is concerned, "Hero" does the job better. I just feel that the story, characters, and settings do a better job of drawing you in than the typical "Mystical Ancient China" backdrop that Storm Riders gives you.

Sure, there are plot holes - but these are easily overlooked seeing as these holes are filled with amazing spectacle fights. The fight scene most people mention is the duel between Master Pride and Invincible. I have to say that this is the most visually impressive battle in the movie - and one of the best I have seen in HK movies to date.

I have to say that the Ninjas in this movie look really cool. I think it's the fact that they look like chauffers makes them seem even MORE hardcore than they are to begin with. Either that or it's nice to see ninjas other than the way they're typically shown.

Another thing is that I enjoyed seeing how the characters interacted with eachother and changed throughout the story. In Storm Riders, for the most part, they were just like "I am a warrior. I will fight you now and conquer your land... for the fire monkey!" There was really little depth in them. Hero, on the other hand, is "born under the star of death" which essentially means that whoever Hero has an emotional connection to is in danger of dying. This obviously has an effect on the man, and you can tell by Ekin Cheng's solemn performance. Most of the time he is intensely emotionless. Yeah, that doesn't really make too much sense, but I think you know what I'm trying to say! He seems like he doesn't care, but you know he could make you combust with the wave of a palm.

Lots of people complain about the Statue Of Liberty duel. Why? It was far better than the Statue Of Liberty fight in, say, X-Men! Stop whining.

As it is, A Man Called Hero is a movie you should definitely see if you're into SFX Battles, Turn of the Century Dramas, Ninjas, Ekin Cheng, or HK films in general. This movie is what woke me up to HK cinema. Go for it!

If you reside in the real world, then this movie will strike you as naive, crude, and bigoted. Credit should be given for the attempt to set the movie outside of China, but the snarky Europeans hired to play Americans, a bunch of undersized frenchmen no doubt ;'), and the heavy handed evil Americans routine, departs from realism pretty quickly.

Halfway through, the plot mutates into the martial-arts as magic universe, and though a lot of work is put into CGI effects, there is nothing here for anyone who hasn't been living in a cave for the last decade to write home about.

We also get a dose of infantile romantic complications that would embarrass Aaron Spelling, some really cheesy music, and generally lame melodramatic scenes.

My favorite, an inexplicable fastcut sequence from several angles of Hero standing in a burning building holding Jade as she dies, the music tracks dramatically with the cuts, is he trapped? ...will he die? Nope he just walks out a second later. What the...?

The plot tumbles on with a Ninja vs Chinese subplot, and then for some reason climaxes with a Chinese revolt against the 'Racist men fom the Klu Klux Klan' who run a mine where Chinese workers are oppressed. Someone's been carping their history from 'The Peoples History of the US' it seems.

If I had to classify this movie I'd use Sword and Sorcery with too much dialogue and dialectic.

I liked this movie quite a bit.The styling and action is great, as well are the effects. The story is also interesting except for the fact that it was never actually finished! So many things are left up in the air by the end of the movie that one can only feel a bit frustrated by it. I enjoyed the movie throughout its running time to the point that I was disgruntled by the incomplete story. I'll still probably buy the DVD though (if I ever find it).

This film is the highly anticipated movie by the same production team that brought us the excellent "StormRiders". Again, based on a long running Hong Kong comic, I had high expectations. The story is based in the early part of the century and is basically about the title role's (played by Ekin Cheng - Wind from the Storm Riders) reconciliation with his son played by another HK canto-pop teen idol. However, it is in the story that the film is horribly let down. This is not helped by the continuous use of the flashback to fill in the gaps - the film loses it's structure. This may be due to the amount of story from the comics that has to be crammed into an hour and a half covering over 20 years. The special effects are again excellent as you would expect, although the statute of liberty finale is slightly overdone. Definitely not in the "StormRiders" class but enough loose ends to suggest a sequel. Still, enjoyable but overall it did not live up to expectations.