Delayed Reaction: Hero

Premise: After killing three deadly assassins, an unnamed hero is granted an audience with the king to recount how he did it.

 

I'll need some time to sit with this movie. It's good but it's not at all what I expected. My memory of this movie from when it came out was the trailer with the scene of all the arrows coming at Jet Li's hero. I think it used some of the scenes earlier in the movie of him fending off arrows too. I was expecting a batshit crazy martial arts spectacular. That fits with the fact that at the time, it was the most expensive Chinese film ever and came on the heels of the crossover hit, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. So, I was underwhelmed with the movie to some extent. The movie that it is though is another kind of movie I love. It's a Rashomon of sorts, made at an epic scale, with a hell of a cast.

I think in time, I'll conclude that this movie rules. It's not like it's missing action scenes. Jet Li, Tony Leung, Maggie Chueng, and company get to show off plenty. The "problem" is that I was expecting "holy shit" fights and got really competent fights instead. I'm a bigger fan of Jackie Chan-style actual stunts than choreography that mixes in impossible movements. And if there are impossible movements, the more audacious the better. Eventually, I'll warm to what Hero offers in that realm.

 

The rest of the movie is great. I love how it's all a meeting between the nameless hero and the king. It's a battle of wits, full of twists. At times it even felt like a logic puzzle. I'm for all of that. And it's crazy how much of the cast is people I actually know. Jet Li, Tony Leung, Ziyi Zhang, and Donnie Yen are on the shortlist of Chinese actors I could actually name and they're all in this. I'm thankful too that Miramax left it subtitled rather than dubbing it.

 

Verdict: Weakly Recommend