Hero 2002

Majestic.

When I searched for the most beautiful movies, this constantly topped the lists, I had to watch it. I am thrilled by this epic tale. I have loved the entire film frame by frame. I could take a screenshot at any moment and it would be a wallpaper for sure.

Cinema is a visual medium. Movies like these keep highlighting this intrinsic fact about films and I am thoroughly grateful for their existence. The visuals are a unique trait of this medium and they must be given paramount importance when making a film. Those are the elements which make a story into a movie. Many times those are the ones which break or make a film. For a story of this epic proportion, stunning cinematography was needed. There wasn't any other way to emphasize the grandeur of the characters and the weight of the moral choices.

A simple lowly person from a remote village has managed to kill three of the most formidable assassins of China. This grants him an audience with the king, which otherwise is just not possible. The King is very keen to understand how these encounters went. He wants to learn how such a feat was even possible for a simple person such as our protagonist.

Minor spoilers ahead!

To write about the film, you will need to think about how the colours are portrayed in the film. There is a Rashomon element to this tale. It starts with black, devoid of a perspective, it is neutral. The king is intently listening to how Jet Li is narrating his tale. When the first assassin's duel is described, the king looks sceptical but demands more information about the other two. The colours start appearing here. Jet Li, who is referred only as the nameless one, surmises that the king will not easily lap up the tale he is describing. So he adds more passion and elements of betrayal in his story. To make it more believable. Here enters the colour red.

However, unlike many of the movies idiot emperors, our king is thoughtful. He peruses the tale deeply and rejects it. He then offers his own explanation of how events must have unfolded. He likes the tales and his interpretation is painted in colours black and blue. They are neutral and rational. He is calculative. His motives are to understand the reasons behind the deception. He already has a history with these assassins and so, he constructs a tale so this mere peasant's account becomes justifiable. We do have elements of green and yellow in between, which showcase tales within tales.

When I started the film, I was only aware of its cinematography and colours, but it turned out, the movie has a brilliantly crafted story. The assassins are named Long Sky, Flying Snow and Broken Sword. The hidden meaning of the third assassin only becomes clear towards the end of the film.

Apart from the cinematography and story, there is another element which adds to the overall impact. The music. Tan Dun's often introspective, soft violins are a highlight of the music department. They amplify the tone of a scene to relegate the exact emotion needed. He also has percussion pieces to add the needed intensity for the action sequences, but primarily towards the end, his violins help you appreciate the moral choices the characters have to make.

Films like these are best enjoyed alone, preferably in theatres. But a silent night, laptop and headphones, is the next best setting to truly relish the art the director wants us to enjoy. It was a brilliant experience and I would wholeheartedly recommend this. Make it your top priority when you are thinking about what to watch next.

During China's ancient "Warring States" period, a solemn warrior appears at one royal palace bearing gifts: the collected weapons of three notorious assassins, whose prior attempt on the king's life did not succeed. Now paranoid due to the attack, the monarch sits alone in his throne room, not even his advisors allowed within a hundred paces, but allows this steady-eyed visitor to draw near as he tells his story. What follows is an act in three parts - two hypotheticals and a truth - that describe identical topics through biased eyes. We see fact stretched into fiction, though the telling is so sweeping, vivid and resonant that we often overlook the context clues.

Director Zhang Yimou's vision is breathtaking, an intricately detailed work of moving art that blends seamlessly with the romantic martial arts epic at its core. Fabricated memories take on a dreamy quality, reflecting the speaker's sweeping exaggerations. Fight scenes flow like syrup, a poetic ballet of impeccable fighting stances and wuxia acrobatics. Environments pulse with life and color. The lush, mesmerizing golds and reds of a leaf-coated orchard during autumn, perhaps the most memorable setting in a film that's absolutely stuffed with them, still leaves my jaw agape.

A strikingly gorgeous film, crafted with expert care, that's equally profound on a thematic level as it is on a compositional one. You'll want to watch it more than once.