Hero

[elfs]

Sunday night, since tygereclipse was about, Omaha and I chose on the spur of the moment to go see a movie. After pulling up Rotten Tomatoes to get movie times (and I recommend Rotten Tomatoes over Movielink or Fandango) and reviews, and based on fallenpegasus's praise, we decided to go see Hero.

The previews and commercials for Hero suck. There's no other way to put it. The promoters want you to go based on it being a Jet Li film "like Black Mask" or "a wire-work marital arts film "like Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon". Yes, it's a wuxia film, but it's not either of those. Hero is a heavy movie. It is essentially a dialogue between two people, only one of whom we really know at the beginning of the film, and each tells the other "what happened" (very Rashomon), or what he thinks happened, leading up to the final crisis, which is between the two. But the four characters involved go through emotional upheavals and contortions that leave the watcher feeling battered; it's such a movingly effective film. And the martial arts sequences are pretty damn good. I'm completely sure that I missed the point of the filmmaker's use of color; each battle is backgrounded with a different color-- desert grey, autumn leaf gold, aboreal green, battle red. There's a little CGI silliness that can safely be ignored. Jet Li's not very interesting as an actor, but that's okay; he's completely overshadowed by Tony Leung Chiu Wai, who really takes this film where it should go.

All in all, a very satisfying movie. Visually stunning, and much better written than the previews hint.

Comments

[hastings1066.livejournal.com]

I *loved* this film. The use of color, I saw, seemed to be a purity or truth colors. Black for his progression into the palace as a bringer of death, Yellow to red as a turning of the truth as a season and the perceived death, Green for Earth and reality of history as grounded, Blue as the original story, which moved like water in its interpretation. I can't remember the order of the white and grey sequences, and the freestanding red as strife.

My SO, who is a painter of abstract expressionism said it best IMO, "I want to put that movie in my mouth." The work as a whole just has to be taken in all at once as a single idea.