The movie Hero.

[Lyfer]

I didn't like it, too much flying.

 

[kami]

Originally posted by: Electric Amish
Just that fact that it's directed by a dickweed gives it a 90% chance of sucking.

Why is Yimou Zhang a dickweed?

 

[MadPeriot]

Anything with Zhang Zi Yi has to be good.

 

[igowerf]

Originally posted by: preslove
It's poetry because it's beautiful put somewhat impenitrable. The Scenes impart feeling through the visual medium, and not really the narrative. Didactic? No, just unbelievably pretty. Visual Haikus, if you will.

So you've just said that the narrative is weak and the movie is mostly eye candy. I can agree with you on that. The visual elements in the movie were attractive to the eye.

Originally posted by: preslove
This is a well known Chinese Folk Tale and is not supposed to tell a linear story.

I said that it was a "weak attempt at non-linear story telling." So again, I agree with you that the story is supposed to be non-linear, but I'm saying that it's not very good.

Originally posted by: preslove
If you can't appreciate incredible the visual and sonic composition, and their interaction, something is wrong with you. I have not seen a movie so perfectly blendmotion, color, choreography, and sound into one gorgeous tapestry. Every scene is fvcking work of art. If you're complaining about the plot you just don't get it.

Fine, the visuals were stunning. There were lots of pretty colors and floating materials (leaves, scarves, gowns, paint, etc) all presented to us in slow motion. I also enjoy looking at the shiny objects that I find on the ground. Also, the scene where Jet Li charged through the droplets of water in bullet time was absolutely original and not cheesy at all.

I thought the sounds during the fight scenes to be a really weird mix of diagetic and non-diagetic sounds. In fact, I found all the grunting in the soundtrack to be pretty humorous. The music wasn't bad though.

The overall style was consistent but there was just too much visual candy that it became tasteless to me. Mix that with a weak plotline and the movie just didn't seem very appealing in the end.

 

[tk149]

I loved it.

 

[ShowdOWN]

i didnt know anything about this movie until my friends asked me to go see it. when i saw the subtiles i was ready to gtfo of there.

 

[Mo0o]

Originally posted by: ShowdOWN
i didnt know anything about this movie until my friends asked me to go see it. when i saw the subtiles i was ready to gtfo of there.

You're not good with the words are you.

 

[Aharami]

i absolutely hated this movie. fight scenes were lame as hell!!! didnt like the story. movie bored me to death. characters were meh. movie was boring.


expected so much more action...expected so much more from this movie

edit: ok, i do have to give it credit for its awesome cinematogrpahy and visuals. but that didnt save the movie. and i felt horrible for dragging 3 of my friends to see this

 

[Lizabath]

Originally posted by: preslove

Originally posted by: igowerf

Originally posted by: preslove

Originally posted by: HamSupLo
ha, i still haven't seen it yet. You guys seem to be trashing it, but the director Zhang Yimou is one of China's best. His past movies are better with less of the artistic fluff.

Yeah, I'm sure these morons would walk out of "Raise the Red Lantern"

If Hero was visual poetry, then it was as poetic as an angsty teenager trying to be cool. The entire movie was just absolutely ridiculous and over the top.

For example:
Insane amounts of fluttering leaves in a fight? It seems to me that he's been watching a little too much anime. It gets bettter when they turn red at the end. How didactic.
Two people swatting away swarms of arrows? I don't even remotely see the appeal of such an action scene. Why not just have them punch through mountains too to show how strong they are?
An ENTIRE movie plot based on two characters presenting "what if" situations to each other? It seems like a really weak attempt at non-linear story telling.

It's poetry because it's beautiful but somewhat impenetrable. The Scenes impart feeling through the visual medium, and not really the narrative. Didactic? No, just unbelievably pretty. Visual Haikus, if you will.

This is a well known Chinese Folk Tale and is not supposed to tell a linear story. If you can't appreciate incredible the visual and sonic composition, and their interaction, something is wrong with you. I have not seen a movie so perfectly blendmotion, color, choreography, and sound into one gorgeous tapestry. Every scene is fvcking work of art. If you're complaining about the plot you just don't get it.

Well said!

 

[maddogchen]

Originally posted by: Aharami
i absolutely hated this movie. fight scenes were lame as hell!!! didnt like the story. movie bored me to death. characters were meh. movie was boring.


expected so much more action...expected so much more from this movie

edit: ok, i do have to give it credit for its awesome cinematogrpahy and visuals. but that didnt save the movie. and i felt horrible for dragging 3 of my friends to see this

don't you hate it when the commericals give you a wrong impression of a movie?

 

[Mo0o]

Originally posted by: maddogchen

Originally posted by: Aharami
i absolutely hated this movie. fight scenes were lame as hell!!! didnt like the story. movie bored me to death. characters were meh. movie was boring.


expected so much more action...expected so much more from this movie

edit: ok, i do have to give it credit for its awesome cinematogrpahy and visuals. but that didnt save the movie. and i felt horrible for dragging 3 of my friends to see this

don't you hate it when the commericals give you a wrong impression of a movie?

I definitely agree the commercials gave people the wrong impression of what the movie is really about.

 

[preslove]

Originally posted by: igowerf

Originally posted by: preslove
It's poetry because it's beautiful put somewhat impenitrable. The Scenes impart feeling through the visual medium, and not really the narrative. Didactic? No, just unbelievably pretty. Visual Haikus, if you will.

So you've just said that the narrative is weak and the movie is mostly eye candy. I can agree with you on that. The visual elements in the movie were attractive to the eye.

What I am saying is that Yimou Zhang eschewed a normal narrative, but rather expresses the story through visual and aural composition. Someone called it ballet. This is film ballet. Therefore, faulting it for a weak narrative entirely misses the point of the movie.

Originally posted by: preslove
This is a well known Chinese Folk Tale and is not supposed to tell a linear story.

I said that it was a "weak attempt at non-linear story telling." So again, I agree with you that the story is supposed to be non-linear, but I'm saying that it's not very good.

Well, the one fault I do find with the presentation is the segmentation. You have several different contained plots, with little connection through the main plot. The Jet Li/emperor confrontation could have served as more of a bridge between the subplots, but it instead was presented more as its own subplot. Viewed independently, however, each subplot hangs on its own. So, maybe it's just several really really good movies, instead of one

Originally posted by: preslove
If you can't appreciate incredible the visual and sonic composition, and their interaction, something is wrong with you. I have not seen a movie so perfectly blendmotion, color, choreography, and sound into one gorgeous tapestry. Every scene is fvcking work of art. If you're complaining about the plot you just don't get it.

Fine, the visuals were stunning. There were lots of pretty colors and floating materials (leaves, scarves, gowns, paint, etc) all presented to us in slow motion. I also enjoy looking at the shiny objects that I find on the ground. Also, the scene where Jet Li charged through the droplets of water in bullet time was absolutely original and not cheesy at all.

It's rather dismissive to equate it with "shiny objects" found on the ground. I stand by the above ballet metaphor.

I thought the sounds during the fight scenes to be a really weird mix of diagetic and non-diagetic sounds. In fact, I found all the grunting in the soundtrack to be pretty humorous. The music wasn't bad though.

It's that weird combination that I found so compelling. The bullet time effects weren't original, but the music was. The sound effects were treated as diagetic components of the overal music composition. That is wholly original.

The overall style was consistent but there was just too much visual candy that it became tasteless to me. Mix that with a weak plotline and the movie just didn't seem very appealing in the end.

You may call it candy, but I think of it as an exotic dish filled with complex tastes and texures, bearing almost no resemblance to normal, American cuisine

 

[pmoa]

it was a chinese pride film. The chinese saying is still Our Land. wo ti (chinese pronounciation). I enjoyed but thats only my opinion.

 

[tikwanleap]

Someone told me that this film was funded by the chinese government. Kinda explains the theme of the movie.

 

[OulOat]

Originally posted by: maddogchen

Originally posted by: Kev

Originally posted by: maddogchen
I didn't like it. the biggest thing was the ending. Yeah the fight scenes were kinda lame for me. But the ending was terrible IMO.
SPOILER ALERT




He shoulda just killed the emperor. If the emperor turned out to be a super-fighter and killed him that woulda been better. But to go all the way there and not do it? What a waste and what a waste of my time.

way to miss the point of the movie completely. it must have gotten confusing with all those silly words at the bottom

Well what was what you think was the point of the movie?

That even when your leader is evil and wrong then he is still right, because he is your leader? That killing him would fracture the country and create more chaos? That he was a Hero for not killing the bad emperor? What a load of Communist crap!

What kind of "evil" leader would arm his assasin then turn his back to him?

The whole point of him going to the palace is to remind the emperor to remember all the people who died during the conquest.

 

[yhelothar]

I understand mandarin,but not that well. All their dialogue was like a poem, so I had to read the subtitles to understand what they were saying.

The movie was very well done with the art. I didn't like the flying scenes either. Jackie Chan kung-fu = best

 

[Turkish]

thought it was dumb

 

[SuperTool]

Just saw it. It's basically a piece of nationalistic pro central government Chinese propaganda in the form of beautifully shot martial arts flick.
I would compare it to Eisenstein's Alexander Nevsky, which was also a great movie and a piece of propaganda.