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Hero is a Visual & Action Packed Masterpiece |
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Written by STEVIE STYLES
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Friday, 08 January 2010 |
For a film that was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film in 2003, it still took another year before it made it to American theaters. The film business is a strange industry and sometimes it is only by persistence and passion do any of these films ever see the light of day. Hero directed by Zhang Yimou, who would also go on to make the equally big budget and successful film, House of Flying Daggers, was the most expensive film to be made in China at that time but also the highest grossing as well. It was immediately snatched up for US distribution by Miramax Films but delayed the release for almost two years. Now the wait is over to see it in hi-def as Hero makes its debut in a two-disc set on Blu-ray.
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Hero
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 Entertainment
 Special Features
Directed by Zhang Yimou
Written by Zhang Yimou, Feng Li, Bin Wang
Starring Jet Li, Tony Leung Chiu Wai, Maggie Cheung, Zhang Ziyi, Chen Daoming, Donnie Yen
Rated PG-13
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A nameless warrior (Jet Li) is granted an audience with the King (Chen Daoming) of ancient China who forbids visitors after a failed assassination attempt. The warrior is here to tell the story how he killed the King’s most wanted enemies Flying Snow (Maggie Cheung), Broken Sword (Tony Leung) and Long Sky (Donnie Yen). But as he recants the tales the King quickly becomes suspicious of the warriors real intentions. Is nameless here as a friend or here to take down the King?
Hero is a beautifully made film that on its surface might look to be a martial arts film but as you dig deeper it’s more a dance of poetry set to a historical backdrop. The film Hero has everything from love, action and cinematic beauty that needs to be seen to be appreciated.
Extras
First up we have on disc two a digital copy of the film for you to download and take with you on your mp3 player. This is a trend that seems to being offered more and more as bonus material but in this case I can’t imagine seeing this film in anything but on a big screen. Still, it’s a nice extra.
On the Blu-ray disc we don’t have a lot of bonus material but still some nice nuggets to choose from. With Inside The Action: A Conversation With Quentin Tarantino & Jet Li is a nice fourteen minute interview including some nice film clips of Jet’s career. It’s obvious that the two are a fan of each other’s work and makes it a pleasure to watch the two interact with each other.
Hero Defined is a must to watch if you are a fan of this film. It’s a twenty-plus featurette on the making of the film and gives you a wealth of information. Close-Up Of A Fight Scene is the one new bonus material featured in this Blu-ray edition. It is a almost ten-minute behind-the-scenes featurette that reveals some of the secrets of the process involved in making these incredible fight scenes come to life. There is also a Storyboards featurette that takes a comparison look side-by-side at some of the scenes on the film and finally a fluff piece Soundtrack Spot on composer Tan Dun.
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