Hero

Kargyle · Post by **Kargyle** » August 27, 2004, 12:14 pm

Anyone here going to see it today? It has gotten really good reviews so far. I'm just curious if it is going to be subtitled or dubbed. I typically prefer subtitled because it annoys me me when the voices don't match the faces.

noel · Post by **noel** » August 27, 2004, 12:17 pm

I'm seeing it on Sunday, and looking forward to it. I'm hoping for subs as well. Remember when you're seeing it that this is a two year old movie.

Rottentomatoes really seems to like it.

Boogahz · Post by **Boogahz** » August 27, 2004, 12:38 pm

A co-worker has a copy that he was watching at his desk...he said it was good and like many of the genre's movies

[Show]: the hero dies!

noel · Post by **noel** » August 27, 2004, 12:42 pm

That's a huge motherfucking spoiler!

You warned me so I'm not complaining, but for anyone thinking of looking.... DON'T!

Sionistic · Post by **Sionistic** » August 27, 2004, 1:23 pm

Whats the difference between this movie and the one two years ago?

Siji · Post by **Siji** » August 27, 2004, 1:34 pm

Really looking forward to this one.. hopefully it's as good as the previews make it look.

noel · Post by **noel** » August 27, 2004, 3:11 pm

Sionistic wrote:Whats the difference between this movie and the one two years ago?

The one from two years ago is identical except that it was only released in China. This one is the same, but released in the US thanks to our friend Quentin Tarantino.

Post by **Xouqoa** » August 27, 2004, 4:36 pm

Going to see it in a couple of hours. Can't wait.

masteen · Post by **masteen** » August 27, 2004, 4:39 pm

Sionistic wrote:Whats the difference between this movie and the one two years ago?

I heard that this one is digitally edited so that the Emperor shoots first

Kwonryu DragonFist · Post by **Kwonryu DragonFist** » August 27, 2004, 6:39 pm

Emperor Greedo!

Donnie Yen is best in this movie!

Tyek · Post by **Tyek** » August 27, 2004, 8:57 pm

I heard on XM radio today that it was subtitles only. They were really proud of that fact. Jet Li said dubbing would have compromised the movie.

Hesten · Post by **Hesten** » August 28, 2004, 1:09 pm

I hope for you that its subbed. Voiceover = bad.

As for when it came out, it came out in asia and europ 2 years ago, but for some lameass reason the US movie importers waited 2 years to import it.
Just like they did with Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, which turned out to be nominated to an oscar for best movie. (that one was released in europe around 1 year before US).

But i can only say one thing about Hero, SEE IT. And see it in a good theater, for gods sake do NOT download a rip, if you download it, a least get a DVD version. The first rip from euro release had fucked the colors up, and colors means a LOT in this movie.

Kelshara · Post by **Kelshara** » August 28, 2004, 1:23 pm

man I am so glad we got a good theater near us.. I love good sound and picture and the shithole they called a theater down where we used to live made me a sad panda

So going to see this.. can't wait!

Post by **Xouqoa** » August 28, 2004, 3:37 pm

Excellent movie, liked it a lot.

Trek · Post by **Trek** » August 28, 2004, 10:34 pm

Was a totally different movie then I thought I was going to see. That said, I liked this movie a lot. I have no problems with subtitles so that is a non-issue for me. Now if was one of the old kung-fu type movies I would demand voice over!

Stalker Vacio · Post by **Stalker Vacio** » August 29, 2004, 4:12 am

Yeah ads had me thinking it was going to be something completely different then it actually was.

Overall it was good...Chinese movies are not my cup of tea.

Kwonryu DragonFist · Post by **Kwonryu DragonFist** » August 29, 2004, 4:37 am

Donnie Yen Best Kicks!

Anuin · Post by **Anuin** » August 29, 2004, 10:41 am

The actual chinese release is half an hour longer than the US release. I'd like to find a copy of it somewhere. I really wonder what they thought was appropriate to remove and if it changes the story any.

Mak · Post by **Mak** » August 29, 2004, 3:12 pm

Again, this ended up being a totally different movie than the one I went in to see.

I really liked the movie- the cinematography was superb. I simply can't say enough good things about it. There was a real artistry in it.

Now having said that, I thought the fight scenes were overdone. It seems that the Chinese are perfectly content to take the old 70's crappy fighting effects and turn them into 00's crappy fighting effects. I didn't care for that style in CT:HD and I didn't care for it here either. Especially...

[Show]: ...the waterdance fight between Hero and Broken Sword. I suppose if they're trying to say these guys are so good they are supernatural, I can buy into it a small bit, but that whole "staying on top of the water on swordpoint" was pretty distracting to me.

Other than that I loved the movie and will go see it again just for the scenery and the photography.

Boogahz · Post by **Boogahz** » August 29, 2004, 9:18 pm

Anuin wrote:The actual chinese release is half an hour longer than the US release. I'd like to find a copy of it somewhere. I really wonder what they thought was appropriate to remove and if it changes the story any.

I'm trying to get a copy of it from the co-worker I mentioned above...he taunts me with it by having the case, but not the disc, on his desk almost every day...I am thinking about turning him in for watching movies on his portable DVD player at work for it!

Kwonryu DragonFist · Post by **Kwonryu DragonFist** » August 30, 2004, 2:21 am

Mak!

Try to get some Jademan Comics and specifically Iron Marshal, Blood Sword, Oriental Heroes!

The heroes(and villains) do things like you have written in your spoiler all the time!

You will also see some similar feats in other similar movies such as Storm Riders, Kung Fu Cult Master etc etc

Nothing new!

Kluden · Post by **Kluden** » August 30, 2004, 9:30 am

Storm Riders is not really comparable to this movie, Kwon! Although it kicks ass...it is less artsy than Hero..

I have the chinese dvd, so that's the version I saw. I'm trying to see this in the theatre so I can see what was cut out.

Kwonryu DragonFist · Post by **Kwonryu DragonFist** » August 30, 2004, 10:32 am

Not comparing movies Kluden, just what was spoiled!

Hesten · Post by **Hesten** » August 30, 2004, 3:39 pm

Errr, where do you get that "chinese version is half an hour longer than US release" from?

My euro copy DVD is 94 min. How long are the US version you talk about?

The official play times from IMDB are China:107 min (extended version) / China:93 min / Finland:98 min / Germany:99 min / Sweden:99 min / USA:96 min

Notice that the 107 min are extended version, not the original theater version. And notice taht both euro and US release aer actually longer than the original chinese release.

Brotha · Post by **Brotha** » August 30, 2004, 4:10 pm

If it wasn't for the fact that I had Starbucks right before this movie started I probably would have fallen asleep 30 minutes into it (instead I yawned continuously and got jabbed several times by gf).

[Show]: Some of the fight scenes were cool and the cinematrography was beautiful, but the plot was terrible. The only way I'd find the re telling of basically the same story over and over interesting was if it seemed like some kind of mystery I was trying to solve, which it didn't. I didn't find myself at all trying to guess "But wait, did he kill her or did he kill him or did either one of them even die? Why don't I watch it for 30 minutes and see if they might end up killing each other instead?" Usually at the end of a movie like this there's some strange twist that really makes you think- there wasn't one at all in this movie. Ok, maybe it would have been strange that he ended up not killing him, but by that time I was ready to leave the theatre and had already figured it out way before he decided to fly across the room. It just seemed like they wanted to make a whole bunch of cool fight scenes with the same people over and over and threw this plot together as an excuse to be able to do it.

Metaphantasus · Post by **Metaphantasus** » September 1, 2004, 12:07 am

[Show]: At some points the fight scenes were a little destracting like the water thing, but then I remembered that it's highly romanticized telling of history, and also the telling of a story so everything they happened can look however because it's just a story. I also thought about doing that shit in my dreams and thought hell, i could do it there, why can't they do it in the movies?

Kwonryu DragonFist · September 1, 2004, 1:28 am

Metaphant

Heroes in chinese legends and mythos were almost superheroes, being able to do these things!

Just get ahold of some Jademan Comics with titles like Iron Marshal, Blood Sword etc or just watch movies about older times in China such as StormRiders, Kung Fu Cult Master etc etc

Mort · Post by **Mort** » September 1, 2004, 1:48 pm

Buddy got the Original DVD from Chinatown(Pretty cool box/booklet btw)... cept the fact the we had to go through about 20 options to finally find teh magic "English Subtitles" option, was a kick ass ride IMHO.

Keverian FireCry · Post by **Keverian FireCry** » September 1, 2004, 3:04 pm

I was completely unimpressed with this movie, maybe in part because I had too high hopes...

Thought the movie was really cheesy. The cgi sucked, the floppy-as-hell weapons annoyed the crap out of me, which along with slow motion being used every 5 seconds made the fight scenes boring to watch. It's attempt at a Rashomon-like story telling was subpar and I ended up having absolutely zero emotion for any of the characters.

Maybe if this movie had some people who could act, rather than just action stars, it would have been as good as people rate it.

I've heard people say that the director of Hero(Yimou) rivals Akira Kirosawa as one of the best Asian filmakers...that is absoultely absurd. Kirosawa is god and Yimou is a flea on a peasant's hairy ass.

P.S. If you want to see a superb movie, I recommend Twilight Samurai. Japanese movie with fantastic actors, great story and characters you will love. Has more to do with samurai culture than with fighting, so if you see it, understand you are seeing a great drama with some fighting, rather than a great action movie with some drama.

Kelshara · Post by **Kelshara** » September 1, 2004, 4:18 pm

I *hate* movies with actors who can't do the fight scenes.. I'd rather watch a good martial artist who is a decent actor than a good actor who is a shitty martial artist.

Kwonryu DragonFist · September 1, 2004, 4:32 pm

Best Kicks in Martial Arts movies : Donnie Yen!

Hesten · Post by **Hesten** » September 1, 2004, 5:07 pm

Kelshara wrote:I *hate* movies with actors who can't do the fight scenes.. I'd rather watch a good martial artist who is a decent actor than a good actor who is a shitty martial artist.

Yeah, if i see Van Damme is in a movie, i pass it by default.
Only thing worse are when the actor/martial artist CAN do his stuff, but the editing of the movie ruin it.
If i hadnt been in an airplane forced to see Rush Hour, i would have run away screaming after seeing Jackie Chan (who i dont like as an actor btw, but he do know his martial arts) being so horribly edited, like most US movies where the actor CANT do martial arts and they cut to hide that fact.

Keverian FireCry · Post by **Keverian FireCry** » September 1, 2004, 7:41 pm

I *hate* movies with actors who can't do the fight scenes.. I'd rather watch a good martial artist who is a decent actor than a good actor who is a shitty martial artist.

Yeah, I hate actors that can't do fight scenes either, but there's plenty of actors who can pull off the fighting well enough and bring a good acting presence to a well written film.

Martial arts masters who can't act can ruin a film and make it seem cheesy. In the case of Hero, it's ideas were great, but it wasn't executed well. The bad acting takes away from the characters, and when you don't care about the characters, the fight scenes are not thrilling. If I wanted to watch two random guys dance around eachother with floppy aluminum weapons, I' go to a ballet.

Also, typical martial arts movies get boring unless they creative and innovative. This movie had no fight scene that I will remember for it's amazing martial arts, maybe for pretty scenery, but not the fighting itself.

noel · Post by **noel** » September 1, 2004, 7:43 pm

Keverian FireCry wrote:Also, typical martial arts movies get boring unless they creative and innovative. This movie had no fight scene that I will remember for it's amazing martial arts, maybe for pretty scenery, but not the fighting itself.

Not even the scene where Sky and Nameless fought in their minds?

I thought that scene was pretty fucking sweet. Then again, I liked the whole movie and really appreciated the historical significance of it.

Metaphantasus · Post by **Metaphantasus** » September 2, 2004, 12:21 am

Keverian FireCry wrote: the floppy-as-hell weapons annoyed the crap out of me,

It's the style. The weapons are actually like that. If I had a floppy but sharp sword, I'd whip the shit out of someone with a claymore. It's used for speed and disabling rather than chopping. Let them take a slow ass swing with their huge ass weapon, side step cut the tendons in one arm, they can't use it anymore. Just like I play chess, take out all their pieces until all you have is two good pieces like a rook and a knight and all they have is a king and a pawn.

Legenae · Post by **Legenae** » September 2, 2004, 1:41 am

Just got back from seeing this. I enjoyed it very much. Loved the cinematography!

Hesten · Post by **Hesten** » September 2, 2004, 5:28 pm

LOL, just saw the US trailer for Hero, damn how they manage to make totally different movie out of that trailer.
Think ill have to say that the Euro trailer for Hero were NOTHING like this, wonder who allowed the US company to fuck it up like that

.

Kwonryu DragonFist · September 2, 2004, 6:32 pm

noel wrote:
Keverian FireCry wrote:Also, typical martial arts movies get boring unless they creative and innovative. This movie had no fight scene that I will remember for it's amazing martial arts, maybe for pretty scenery, but not the fighting itself.
Not even the scene where Sky and Nameless fought in their minds?

I thought that scene was pretty fucking sweet. Then again, I liked the whole movie and really appreciated the historical significance of it.

Best Scene Imho!

Xzion · Post by **Xzion** » September 3, 2004, 12:01 am

Keverian FireCry wrote:
I *hate* movies with actors who can't do the fight scenes.. I'd rather watch a good martial artist who is a decent actor than a good actor who is a shitty martial artist.
Yeah, I hate actors that can't do fight scenes either, but there's plenty of actors who can pull off the fighting well enough and bring a good acting presence to a well written film.

Martial arts masters who can't act can ruin a film and make it seem cheesy. In the case of Hero, it's ideas were great, but it wasn't executed well. The bad acting takes away from the characters, and when you don't care about the characters, the fight scenes are not thrilling. If I wanted to watch two random guys dance around eachother with floppy aluminum weapons, I' go to a ballet.

Also, typical martial arts movies get boring unless they creative and innovative. This movie had no fight scene that I will remember for it's amazing martial arts, maybe for pretty scenery, but not the fighting itself.

Like most other endorsed Tarantino movies it was an artistic "designer" movie. The directors main objective was to highlight the cultural fantasy of ancient china, and distinguish it with elaborite fight scenes. He was pretty damn obsesed with color though, but im sure i dont have to point that out.
Overall it was fairly unique and a refreshing change from your steryotipical kung-fu flick. I would give it a high 4 stars or even low 5 stars, something about that directors style i really enjoyed, and the fight scenes were original and very well done although

[Show]: i wasnt feeling that cheesy "finishing move" where jet would fly up with the weapon pointed streght at his foe

A few images and some cheesy "love" scenes could have been cut out to add to the character of the movie

Also there wasnt strong character developement at all in the movie, you had very little feeling for any of the characters...but the characters were made to serve as pawns for the ancient chinese fantasy and cultural theme

I wouldnt mind seeing that director around more often

Kylere · Post by **Kylere** » September 3, 2004, 11:36 pm

Hands down the best movie I have seen this year.

Trek · Post by **Trek** » September 4, 2004, 11:14 am

Kylere wrote:Hands down the best movie I have seen this year.

I liked Hero, but Troy is still tops this year for me

Kelshara · Post by **Kelshara** » September 4, 2004, 11:23 am

eh I didn't think Troy was all that.. some good scenes etc but overall? Nah.

Trek · Post by **Trek** » September 4, 2004, 7:48 pm

Kelshara wrote:eh I didn't think Troy was all that.. some good scenes etc but overall? Nah.

So Hero is your pick?

Tegellan · Post by **Tegellan** » September 4, 2004, 8:06 pm

Hero might not be the choice of the year, but Troy wouldn't be my pick of the year either, the movie lacked a little bit of grandiosity and soul if you ask me.

Kelshara · Post by **Kelshara** » September 4, 2004, 10:34 pm

Haven't been able to catch Hero yet.. will tell you when I get a chance!

Kwonryu DragonFist · September 5, 2004, 7:50 am

Tegellan wrote:Hero might not be the choice of the year, but Troy wouldn't be my pick of the year either, the movie lacked a little bit of grandiosity and soul if you ask me.

Better kicks and fighting in general in Hero but Troy had that immortal line that we all use here in Sthlm...

"IMMORTALITY TAKE IT! It's yers...."

So cheesy and Good!

Tegellan · Post by **Tegellan** » September 5, 2004, 8:29 am

Still lacked soul and a real climax!

Trek · Post by **Trek** » September 5, 2004, 10:40 am

So what movie do you like for the year? Troy is still my pick.

Tegellan · Post by **Tegellan** » September 5, 2004, 11:17 am

Best movie of 2004 is a Danish movie called "Terkel i knibe".

All Danes will clearly agree with me on this!

Hesten · Post by **Hesten** » September 5, 2004, 1:28 pm

Hehe,yeah, Terkel i Knibe rocks.

Basically its a animated movie made for like 1/100 of what hollywood need to make it, and its cool.
And its NOT gonna go in US theaters, thats for sure. Its one of the most politically uncorrect movies i have seen.