Hero, did you watch?

[Billy]

I heard the Hero is the top box in last two week. But it is debated in China. Many people think it is not a good Kungfu movie, but others suport that it brings china movie to a new stage.

Did you watch? What do you think?

[smoothmoniker]

i liked it, but many people in the theatre when I saw didn't. I think the use of color themes to offset each scene worked, but the wirework seemed very tired. Billy, do you think they made this film with a chinese audience in mind, or do you think it was made specifically to export to other markets?

[Billy]

The director, Zhang Yimou, hopes to make one real China mainland Kungfu movie for Chinese audiences, of course for the world. It is his first Kungfu movie. Chinese audiences have watched Hong Kong Kungfu moives for years. Most of us think the story and philosophy ideas of Hero are not so good as our imagination. Of course, Zhang does good at photography, so he show the better scenery than others ago.
We want to see the good story and good ideas, not only good pictures. So we are not so satisfied for this movie.

[Happy Monkey]

That sounds alot like my feeling about the movie. It was beautiful, but hard to figure out why the characters made the choices they made.

[Billy]

The story comes from China old history. It need China culture and history to understand it. So it is a little hard for you to make out the whole story. I cannot clearly explain to you now because I must check and translate in to English.

[Wilder]

This film was huge in China, and with good reason. The martial arts were amazing and different mixes of Kung Fu was amazing. By far Jet Li's best work even though I still love to watch the Legend and Twin Warriors. Hero offers what so many many stream movies do not- the Art factor that goes into making a film

[vsp]

I have it on DVD, and enjoyed it.

Now if Miramax would just get off their asses and release an uncut Shaolin Soccer...

[Billy]

For us, Hero is not Jet Li's best movie. It just looks like huge. We like his Shaolin Temple, Huang Feihong...

I don't know why Miramax released Shaolin soccer. It is not so popular in China.

[vsp]

I prefer Jackie Chan's take on Wong Fei-Hung (Drunken Master I & II) to Jet Li's take (Once Upon A Time In China I, II and III), but all are definitely quality films. Jet Li's version is certainly a more serious interpretation of the legend.

Miramax has a very bad habit of "Americanizing" its Hong Kong imports; they released a clipped, dubbed and mutilated version of Shaolin Soccer instead of the original, and that only in an extremely limited market. Likewise, they waited and waited and waited to release Hero until most of its American target audience already had it on DVD...

[Wilder]

Originally Posted by Billy

For us, Hero is not Jet Li's best movie. It just looks like huge. We like his Shaolin Temple, Huang Feihong...

I don't know why Miramax released Shaolin soccer. It is not so popular in China.

Understand that point only somewhat. Jet Li has grown as an actor and to call some of his earliest work his best would be like saying Bruce Campbell's best was Evil Dead II. Though an awesome flick not his best work, it takes time for these actors to grow especially when there work is out of the "lime" light. Just a thought