CheerupSilver Very Cool!!!

Chirphymium It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

Janae Milner Easily the biggest piece of Right wing non sense propaganda I ever saw.

Sabah Hensley This is a dark and sometimes deeply uncomfortable drama

kxyang This is a historical martial arts drama with a lot of talking. This movie has great use of color. The story is the main focus in this story, although there are a lot of cool fight scenes. Very philosophical movie with deep themes. Not a hollywood movie, but a movie for people who have brains.Don't expects explosions and stuff, although there are a few CGI effects in the movie. Beautiful movie, soundtrack, and story. The final 15 minutes are also amazing.

Yashua Kimbrough (jimniexperience) "Hero"Elegance told through stylized martial arts and storytelling with some historical significance behind the meaning ... ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Emperor of Qi wants to unite all the kingdoms of China together under unified law. He has a very ruthless strategy of unification however, slaughtering thousands and seizing thrones everywhere. Many assassins have crossed the land to assassinate the Emperor but all have failed ...One day a swordsman named Nameless is presented in front of the King for his achievements of slaying three masterful assassins: Sky, Snow, and Broken Sword. Broken Sword and Snow have a love affair going, and rumor has it Snow had a one-night with Sky. To stage an act of jealous murder, Nameless slains Sky, and tells Snow it was Sky's dying wish for her to avenge him and kill Sword. Snow falls for the trap, and is easily defeated by Nameless after she kills Sword.The Emperor has doubts about Nameless claims, fore he too fought these great warriors and knows them not to fall under the guises of feelings. The Emperor's theory is the four assassins are working together to get close to his throne. He and Sky staged his murder so Nameless will be granted permission into the kingdom. Nameless then goes to Sword and Snow to enlist their help. Snow agrees but Sword refuses, believing the Emperor will indeed bring peace to the lands through his unorthodox tactics.Sword's clever words make Nameless hesitant. He relays Sword's message to the Emperor and the Emperor has a moment of epiphany when he understands the people who understand him the most are a rag-tag team of assassins. He's pressured into killing Nameless for his plots, but buries him a Hero instead of a traitor. The Emperor then goes to unite the six kingdoms and build the Great Wall of China..8.5/10

alamafroz-25681 Hero is visually pleasing and artistically beautiful masterpiece by Zhang Yimou. It is a Chinese martial art film and the director presents this majestic art from using minimal bloodshed in the movie. Zhang Yimou re-tells his version of the assassination attempt of King of Qin( 220 - 210 BC ) with Jet Li as his protagonist - "Nameless". This movie also brings up the subject of Maoism.Hero is a rare movie which blends storytelling into a visual poem. The color composition it blows your mind away, even more so when you realize the significance of each color with respect to the story. It is the central grace of the movie and the director, Zhang Yimou, reportedly made incredible efforts to fulfill his requirement. There is mesmerizing natural imagery and costumes in the film which takes us back to the ancient china.The acting was good, though at some places it felt a bit unreal and forced. Music in the movie complemented the visual poem Yimou was trying to create. In conclusion, I would like to say that I liked this movie a lot and would recommend this to anyone who appreciates natural beauty and art.

sharky_55 Hero is concerned not only with physical prowess and ability, but also the battles that occur within the mind. The entire film then takes place solely within the confines of the king of Qin's palace, and they are trading stories, not blows. Like in Rashomon, they are fighting for their own version of the story, attempting to gain an upper hand in the proceedings. And within these stories there are also mental battles; Long Sky and Nameless' initial clash is in their imagination, a vicious one-on-one muted in grey-scale. They are like chess grandmasters, with each blow calculated and bringing infinite possibilities and outcomes, so that the fight is over before it has begun. Their mastery of the art of swordfighting makes this possible. The choreography of Hero is in the wuxia style, which has been codified over time so that Western audiences may also come to appreciate and know its art. Masters of the style float over long distances as if they are suspended by strings, barely needing to touch the ground before they gracefully float away again (affectionately dubbed 'wire-fu'). When they fight their movements are so ferociously fluid that they whip up leaves into tornadoes, which curl around the characters themselves. Zhang Yimou is concerned with form as much as he is with function; Flying Snow does not merely repel, but dances amongst the rain of arrows, and the writers inside are painting with ink as red as blood, also fiercely devoted to their craft. Consider this: Broken Sword derives his mastery of swordplay from the strokes of his calligraphy. Or is it the other way around?The prominent art of Christopher Doyle is also on display. He begins with an initial dreary grey, a drabness to the present day story. This allows for the sharp contrast of the stories the two men tell, which are each punctuated strongly with their own colour code. There are a many number of possibilities and interpretations here. I was shocked by the vividness of the red ink, and its likeness to the blood shed by the diligent students of calligraphy. In the demonstration of the 10 pace killing technique Doyle and Yimou find beauty and tranquility in the cool blues, the apt slow motion, the little dink of the sound design as the cup lands on the sword. The blade is shown to be as ferocious as it is gentle. Robed in white, he reveals a purer technique, a strike of such surgical precision magnified in the shallow focus and slow motion. Yimou uses the latter well, cutting judiciously from serenity to furious motion, assuming the perspective of these masters who move and see at a different speed level. They whip their blades which such strength that they the metal bends and groans to their touch.The king tells his story with such passion and understanding. In his version, Flying Snow and Broken Sword are lovers so desperate to take the fall for each other they must resort to fighting for that honour. It is a tragic love story, more so than the apparent truth. This also points to the king's understanding of the nature of sacrifice; he is able to imagine the sorrow and grief of a sword twisted just enough to wound but not to kill, and that sword being beaten to save the life of another. So he is also able to recognise the greatest sacrifice of them all, and that sometimes the greatest warrior is the one who lays down their sword. So in the end it is indeed tranquility that wins out.