knuman

This movie is doing well on hype alone, but don't go into it with unrealistic expectations. It is a very well done Taiwanese film which is particularly impressive given its relatively small budget. It's not mind-blowing but it is reasonably well executed, certainly better than a lot of the crap that is out there. It has a good dose of (often local) humour and an interesting storyline and several subplots that unfold at a smooth pace. Performances are more than adequate. Cinematography is top notch. On the down side, there are a few aspects which lacked attention to detail despite the 2 hour+ running time, some loose ends which weren't tied up, and a romance that feels a little more forced than natural. Also some scenes didn't really "work". However, the Japanese letters which link the film together are beautifully written, and definitely add an extra dimension to the overall feel of the experience. Locals should definitely go and support a job well done.

Man, this was just terrible...Asian movie makers these days think they can just throw together a cast of famous Asian actors, create some nice costumes and film some pretty scenery and people (especially Westerners) will call it "art" and flock to see it.

Honestly, it was plain awful. The special effects were pretty poor by today's standards (eg buffaloes and architecture). Characters did and said things that would have made little sense in any culture, language or time period in the history of mankind. When everyone in the cinema starts laughing out loud at the scenes that are supposed to be the most moving and touching, you know it must be crap! Asian films don't have to be like this to sell in Western markets. I did think the Japanese actor did a good job of speaking Mandarin. But overall, this was crap in anyone's language.

I saw Hero for the sake of it, and it was very disappointing to say the least. I never thought Crouching Tiger was particularly good, but after watching this film, I'm starting to like it a lot more.

Hero undoubtedly has a much grander scale, whereas Crouching Tiger told a more personal tale. Unfortunately, director Zhang Yimou, who has made such excellent drama films, failed miserably in this attempt to reach out to the 'global market' the way Crouching Tiger did. The cinematography was good- a lot of the scenery was extremely beautiful, the score was adequate, Chen Daoming was great as the Emperor, and the first fight scene between Jet Li and Donnie Yen (the only two with real martial arts backgrounds) was finely staged- but these were only few positives that I could find with the film.

I think the main problem may have been the film's intentions- to steal the things that made Crouching Tiger successful and try to place it on a much wider canvas with lots of special effects. In the end the film was uninspiring- the script was poorly written, with thin characters and some very very bad dialogue; the special effects, while effective in some parts, was largely over the top (especially the scene with the leaves); with the exception of the first, the fight scenes were very standard and not particularly exciting; and the artistic attempts (with all the colours) felt somewhat pretentious.

No doubt a lot of people will still like this film, but it certainly didn't move me one bit. 2.5 stars out of 5.