Hero

Saw Hero tonight, like usual waiting until its last day before finally getting out to see it. I'm glad I did, too, since this is one of those movies that really makes use of the movie theatre experience, feeling like one is immersed in an environment rather than peering into a box. One surrenders a certain degree of control when one lets someone else control the projector and the lights. You can't pause the film to take a breather, or rewind to remember some potential clue that suddenly occurs to you. You are taken along, and you put your experience into the hands of the filmmaker more so than when you are sitting at your couch clutching a remote control, with phones ringing and kids running around and all the rest of it.

Hero is paced very erratically, with fights erupting out of nowhere, and interrupted because of a musician has stopped playing and the combatants pause to entreat him to keep on playing, keeping pace with their rhythms with his own.

Aside from the pacing, the look of the sets was naturally gorgeous, but equally beautiful were the close-up shots of the actors, so you could see every line on their face, and every subtle tick to show that there might be more than what is being said. The brilliant use of lighting and tone and shadow added a whole other dimension to the film compared with every other martial arts movie I've seen.

The special effects were also very well done. Instead of being garish, they felt like they were painted on after the fact, as if an artist was accentuating a scene for effect rather than trying to convince you that this was all part of the original scene. Not really noticing that something might be computer generated is when the technique is put to best use, in my opinion.

As for the story itself, it had a refreshingly non-linear and non-concrete structure to it, with versions of past events changing with the telling, and you start to get inside the heads of the two principle plot-mover characters, and begin to think along the same lines as they do, not because the story is predictable, but because the film does an excellent job of conveying motivation and character. This is where a director who comes from the world of dramas and character films can bring something that a pure martial arts director wouldn't even think about.

The theme of the film is a bit unsettling, going against the grain of the severe individualism conveyed in a lot of martial arts heroes, but there's a deeper admonishment as well that people might miss.

This is one of those movies that reminds you why letting yourself be swept up in the flow of the film is the core of the enjoyment.