Zhang Yimou's "Hero" Opens Tomorrow

Calm Horizons

That's right folks! The dark lords of the Irish film industry have finally pulled their thumbs out of their asses and slapped Hero into the projector for our viewing pleasure.

Opens tomorrow (Friday the 5th) in UGC at least, Savoy haven't updated their listings online yet but I assume they'll be showing it at some point.

For those of you who've never heard of it; Hero is a martial arts flick starring Jet Li. It's based on a Chinese Legend (The Emperor and the Assasin I believe) and features some absolutely spectacular cinematography and fight scenes. This film could be considered a work of art before even taking its excellent story into account.

http://www.miramax.com/hero/ <--links to trailers

Go watch it ASAP, definitely not something you want to miss while it's up on the big screen!

Mr E

Gorgeous movie. Its out in Limerick too (which MUST mean that it got a general release!). Looking forward to seeing it on the big screen.

OfflerCrocGod

Calm Horizons wrote:

This film could be considered a work of art before even taking its excellent story into account.

I wouldn't go that far! I mean it's about as emotive as a plastic bag. Really there are no emtions in it at all, but the cinematography is brilliant.

ixoy

OfflerCrocGod wrote:

I wouldn't go that far! I mean it's about as emotive as a plastic bag. Really there are no emtions in it at all, but the cinematography is brilliant.

That's my chief worry - that I'll form no emotional connection with the protaganists (and its something all reviews have touched upon). The distance was one of my chief problems with CTHD. Still its beauty alone I hope will keep me entertained.

Is "House of Flying Daggers" more of the same, or is it more concentrated on storyline? I certainly like the look of the trailers.

Agent Orange

ixoy wrote:

That's my chief worry - that I'll form no emotional connection with the protaganists (and its something all reviews have touched upon). The distance was one of my chief problems with CTHD. Still its beauty alone I hope will keep me entertained.

Is "House of Flying Daggers" more of the same, or is it more concentrated on storyline? I certainly like the look of the trailers.

Dude, 'Hero' makes CTHD look like a pile of puke. It looks amazing and has an engaging story.
'Hero' is an epic - 'House of Flying Daggers' is not, so you'll have to adjust your expectations accordingly. Personally, I was very disappointed with Daggers. There's a different cinematographer and it shows. The storyline isn't anything special. 'Hero' is by far the superior film.

rivers

i cant agree with you, i thought house flying daggers was better than hero,
the latter was a bit slow and dare i say it, art-y....whereas daggers was superior in fights scenes & had slightly more emotional depth than hero...

Sarky

I watched Hero myself recently. It was beautiful. I simply must go travelling to the east to see some of the scenery for myself, it was so stunningly gorgeous. The fights are very good and artistic, there's some brilliant use of CG and bullet-time shenanigans, and the story's a good'un. I must say it seemed a little short to me, but it's well worth watching.

nadir

Hero is a good film.

IrishMike

The film is quality and is in a different league to house of flying daggers.
Gotta say jet li must be the best martial artist making movies atm, hes amazing.

MadsL

The film is quality and is in a different league to house of flying daggers.

Did you not like Flying Daggers then??

Personally, I loved Flying Daggers - can't wait to see Hero.

Hugh Hefner

I'm planning on going to see Hero later today.
I need to know whether or not I should reserve a ticket. Were any of the showings you guys went to sold out? If not, about how many people went e.g. 1/2 the screen filled, 2/3 the screen filled? Also include when and where you went to see it.

Thanks.

Makaveli

I saw Daggers last night.
Really enjoyed it, pretty good story. Probably a better story than Hero.
Not as stunning visually as Hero but that shouldn't take anything away from it.

Hugh Hefner

Okay. Just got home from seeing Hero. It kicked freakin' ass!
It was soooo good. Colour was excellently used. I can see how some people might not have connected emotionally with the characters but if you didn't have to read thew subtitles then I'd say you would.

All in all an excellant movie. I recommend, highly.

PWEI

House Of Flying Daggers is good but no where near as good as Hero.
To say CTHD is a pile of puke compared to Hero is just pure ridiculous.
The storyline in CTHD was much stronger than in Hero.Remember most of the fight scene's in Hero don't actually take place!!

Goodshape

Don't take place? In terms of storyline you mean?

Spoiler tags could have been used there

Hero is truly breathtaking imo. I thought it was full of emotion by the end, beautiful and interesting throughout; far more so than CTHD, or anything else I've seen in recent years. It's a film born out of a single idea, which doesn't become aparent until the end, but it's the type of film you just don't see much of these days - at least not in Hollywood's 'west'.

It's certinitly full of wild and - storywise - irrelevent tangents, but that's all to the point I thought. History is often built upon to make the victors (or 'Heros') seem more heroic.

elvis2002

Hero is so old now, hard to believe it's only out now in cinema's in ireland. I seen it just before christmas 2 years ago.... ridiculous is all I have to say about that.

nadir

elvis2002 wrote:

Hero is so old now, hard to believe it's only out now in cinema's in ireland. I seen it just before christmas 2 years ago.... ridiculous is all I have to say about that.

yea really, it sucks hard. I guess anyone who has any interest in movies is buying and downloading online though.
It would almost make me want to run a massive warez server. But they thought of that one too no ****ing decent bandwidth.

Crucifix

I quite like it. Although I must say, I still don't like ridiculous wire moves, but everytime one of them came up I just smirked, thought "power rangers", and got back into the movie.

projectmayhem

i saw it a while ago thanks to... the internet. amazing film. i definitely will not miss it on the big screen.

ixoy

Ah it looks pretty but I felt pretty detached from the whole experience. The cinematography was so good that it was almost distracting - the characters and settings often looked too beautiful that it made the characters less real. That and the fact they had a tendancy to look too stoic and impassive all the time. I didn't care if they get sliced or run through with a sword except that, if they did, I know it'd look extremely pretty.

If it's to pick up awards, I hope it's for Art Design and Cinematography. The way their robes and other items constantly matched their surroundings would have the Queer Eye guys weeping for joy. Me? I'd have liked a bit more heart to the film.

OfflerCrocGod

ixoy wrote:

Ah it looks pretty but I felt pretty detached from the whole experience. The cinematography was so good that it was almost distracting - the characters and settings often looked too beautiful that it made the characters less real. That and the fact they had a tendancy to look too stoic and impassive all the time. I didn't care if they get sliced or run through with a sword except that, if they did, I know it'd look extremely pretty.

Perfect summation of the movie, I'd give you +rep except I'm out of it. The movie had zero emotion! I feel more moved when I fart for crying out loud! It is a beautiful thing though, unlike my fart.

Crucifix

There was a definite lack of emotion, but as far as the story went I enjoyed the sort of over dramatic serious tone (particularly prominent later on in the film).