Zhang Yimou's "Hero"

[SunWuKong]

http://asia.cnn.com/2002/WORLD/asiapcf/eas...reut/index.html (http://asia.cnn.com/2002/WORLD/asiapcf/east/08/05/hongkong.film.hero.reut/index.html)

http://www.time.com/time/asia/features/hero/index.html

Oooooohhhh yeeeeaaahhh... it's finally coming out.

For those of you who haven't heard of this film yet. Well it's gonna be a great film. At least I'm hoping it will be because it literally has a group of first class people in the project.

Zhang Yimou - Most famous of the "fifth generation" of Chinese directors. He has been controversial in China and famous in the international film festival circles. He has made many great and beautiful films.

Christopher Doyle - Photographer for most of Wong Kar Wai's films. Yes, this is the guy that does all that crazy camera work in WKW's films and made Faye look great in ChungKing Express.

Tony Leung - Star of many Wong Kar Wai's films. Great actor. He won the best actor award at Cannes for In The Mood For Love.

Maggie Cheung - If any woman is as sexy as Faye, it would be Maggie. Absolutely great actress. She has won numerous awards in the international film festival circles. Starred in In The Mood For Love with Tony Leung.

Jet Li - I think most of you know about him.

Zhang Ziyi - I think most of you know about her, too.

[deez nuts]

Movie looks hot. It should be on bootleg and your local Chinese video rental place should have it in about a month or so after it opens up in HK in December :D. Go go go Flushing!

[SunWuKong]

shit yeah, i found out about this project about a year ago. Zhang Yimou directs and Christopher Doyle (he does alot of Wong Kar Wai films, for those who don't know) in charge of photography... i must have cummed in my pants when i first found out about that. it's like Zhang Yimou borrowed Wong Kar Wai's people (it stars Maggie Cheung and Tony Leung), added one of his own (Zhang Ziyi) and then threw in a couple of guys he knows the American audience would like (Jet Li and Donny Yen). it'll be very interesting to see what the Zhang-Doyle collaboration would look like because Zhang Yimou and Wong Kar Wai have very different styles of directing. Wong Kar Wai is so fluid and has no form, while Zhang Yimou is very deliberate.

by the way, Chen Kaige also did a film based on the same story (the story is a historical chinese story). the film is called The Assassin. it's not as flashy as Hero's going to be, but if you're a fan of Chen Kaige's work, you should watch it. it's excellent. it stars Gong Li.

hahha and Donny Yen made it on the poster and trailer? i thought he has a small role. and when did he become a "martial arts legend"???

[deez nuts]

Originally posted by tazadar@Nov 1 2002, 04:50 PM
Chasiubao_Boy:

Those bootlegs are hurting the film industry in Asia. It's just wrong. Since I cannot wait for the US release I probably watch a bootleg, but I will support the film by watching it in theater when it's released.


Same here, good point.

No qualms about watching certain bootlegged American films and not giving my love and cheddah to them, however.

[SunWuKong]

Originally posted by tazadar@Nov 1 2002, 04:50 PM
You are referring to THE EMPEROR AND THE ASSASSIN. It's part of my collection and I will buy HERO DVD (official copy of course). The movie is excellent, but I wanted to see more prolonged battle scenes that would have made it even better. Gong Li is beautiful.
yeah well fight scenes is not exactly what Chen Kaige does. he always does his own thing. compared to him, even Zhang Yimou is a sell-out. his films are really an acquired taste.

[ChinaLama]

do bootlegs really hurt the Asian film industry? i mean maybe it helps them cuz otherwise people wouldn't buy or watch the stuff anyway.

errr i dunno... only wanted to defend bootlegs so i can watch them without guilt. :)

[ellsworth81]

Originally posted by tazadar@Nov 25 2002, 08:10 AM
I would think January 10, 2003 North American release date following closely with Asia release date of December 2002 is the logical path than November 2003. Hope it's Jan/2003.

http://www.monkeypeaches.com/0211M.html#021123B
the movie looks like it has potential. i just hope it doesn't turn out TOO fancy with its cinematography and such like ashes of time turned out to be.

but it's got an all-star class, and they've all done some martial-arts movies before, so who knows.

[TyroneK(prettypretty)]

Fucking a. That fucking sucks. That was one of the few movies I was looking forward to seeing this coming year.

I really hope they don't release a dubbed, editied version in film and video. If they can leave French films alone, why give Chinese movies the quack-job surgery?

[SunWuKong]

I really hope they don't release a dubbed, editied version in film and video. If they can leave French films alone, why give Chinese movies the quack-job surgery?


oh no. i will forever hate miramax if it dubs Hero for the american audience. i would rather it not release the film in north america at all.

[MellowDrama]

Miramax fucking sucks! I fucking hate how they butcher Chinese films with their shit dubbing and deleting of scenes, and changing of soundtracks, and poor poor promotion of some very good films. If I were the Chinese studios, I'd blacklist those motherfuckers.

[SunWuKong]

fuck i'mma get the fucking VCD it'll probably be out before a north american release
motherfuckas

[MellowDrama]

Originally posted by SunWuKung@Dec 13 2002, 10:25 PM
fuck i'mma get the fucking VCD it'll probably be out before a north american release
motherfuckas
Word.

[LoneSwordsman]

ah crap i like have to get the vcd now....

miramax also did shaolin soccer.....and u also kno how that turned out....

[LoneSwordsman]

oh and 20mins of it was cut on the miramax version of hero

[iris]

I am seeing Hero on Monday in Hong Kong. So hah to all of you in the States!! Rad, I'll pick up the VCD for you on Tuesday in Shenzhen if you don't want to wait for it to officially come out. They already had some VCDs of it last Thursday when I was up there - ripped of course.


By the way, it's advertise in Hong Kong as having a Dec. 2003 release date in the United States. :blink:

[deez nuts]

Wasn't someone giving me heat about my bootleg habit and watching "Ying Shong" on bootleg. The Flushing video store will get bootlegs of it a few days after x-mas. There's already a waiting list.

I'll cut a check for 10 bucks to Zhang Yimou. Not watching no dub shit in a theater. Or I'll buy a copy of the HK release on DVD when it goes on sale in Asia. Not buying no stinky gwai-lo version, after they dubbed it.

[kimpossible]

Originally posted by MellowDrama@Dec 14 2002, 06:04 AM
Originally posted by SunWuKung@Dec 13 2002, 10:25 PM
fuck i'mma get the fucking VCD it'll probably be out before a north american release
motherfuckas
Word.
Exactly. I'm not paying theatre price and waiting that long.

Hey, what's up with the multiple Ing Shong (that's the way the title sounds to me) productions?

I watched one mainlaind series this weekend. Not bad, kind of goofy. Then when I was looking for some streaming Taiwan TV I found an ad for a Taiwan version of Ing Shong - which is totally different from the movie and the mainland series. I'm confused.

[kimpossible]

Yeah, Ying Xiong. Sorry, I hear the words and don't know the pinyin. At any rate, there's a mainland series already out with the same Chinese title but the English title is Imperial Guards. Then I just ran across a Taiwan series or movie with the same Chinese title.

[SunWuKong]

by the way, i think i mentioned this already, but the story in Hero is a chinese classic/myth and it's the same story behind Chen Kai Ge's The Assassin - which was a good movie, but definitely not as flashy as Hero is going to be.

[TyroneK(prettypretty)]

Will an import DVD have English subtitles? My Chinese is okay, but not good enough to understand a movie without some textual help.

[iris]

As far as I know it will. All the DVDs I've bought in HK have Cantonese, Mandarin, and English subtitles. BUT if you buy them ripped, then the english doesn't always match what they are saying. Sometimes it's in fobby English or Chinglish.

[SunWuKong]

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/China/EA23Ad01.html


Heroic Chinese blockbuster takes on Hollywood
By Antoaneta Bezlova

BEIJING - In their ambitions to fend off cultural imperialism, Beijing's mandarins have done it all - challenged Disney characters by creating home-grown cartoon heroes, and made a pilgrimage to the theater mecca of Broadway to seek inspiration for Chinese musicals.

Now, they have a China-made blockbuster tipped to compete with Hollywood films for the Oscars.

Star director Zhang Yimou's martial-arts epic Hero has raked in 200 million yuan (US$24 million) after just a month in theaters, becoming the highest-grossing Chinese film ever.

The film shown in China that has made the most money to date is the Hollywood blockbuster Titanic, which took in 320 million yuan ($38.6 million). But at the moment, it seems as if it may lose its crown to Zhang's film, which opened in theaters here in mid-December and is still playing to full audiences.

Meantime, its performance at the box office is feeding intense pride and nationalism among film critics and cultural officials.

"Domestic film industry awaits more heroes," declared the English-language newspaper China Daily this month. "Hero is a spark of hope for China's film industry," said a signed commentary in the paper. "It demonstrates that China is capable of making its own blockbuster films."

Southern Metropolitan News, published in the southern city of Guangzhou, agreed: "Hero is a symbolic film, and all the frames in the movie have the same symbol: Made in China."

The film endorses a questionable vision of a unified China whose greatness justifies the sufferings of thousands by lauding the deeds of Emperor Qin - one of China's most controversial rulers and a role model for chairman Mao Zedong. The cruel founder of the country's imperial system, in 220 BC Qin Shihuang succeeded in unifying numerous warring states in the Middle Kingdom under centralized power.

Yet unification was just the beginning of his cause - keeping the country under totalitarian control was a must. For this purpose, Qin had his enemies tortured and killed. He also ordered Confucian scholars buried alive and their books expounding peace burned. It was he who launched the construction of the Great Wall, and the thousands of terracotta warriors that guard his tomb in the city of Xi'an are world-famous.

The Qin emperor emerges as the real hero in Zhang's film as his unwavering pursuit of country unity subdues Nameless - the assassin hero dispatched to kill him.

Hero is Zhang Yimou's first film to be received not only without objection, but with praise by China's cultural mandarins. Although the director's artistic portfolio includes an impressive collection of awards - one Golden Bear at the Berlin Film Festival, two Golden Lions and a Silver Lion at Venice and two Academy Award nominations - in the past Beijing has been reluctant to lavish praises on China's most internationally feted director.

Red Sorghum, Raise the Red Lantern and Ju Dou - three of the director's best-known films, all of which present a visually stunning and tormenting vision of China from the past, were all banned domestically after they were made. They all have since been released.

To Live, Zhang's 1994 work that delves into the life of a couple enduring modern China's numerous political campaigns and self-inflicted calamities - the civil war, the Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution - went to win the Cannes Palm d'Or award, but is still prohibited from showing at the cinemas around the country.

Zhang Yimou is the foremost talent to emerge from the Fifth Generation, the first filmmakers to graduate from the Beijing Film Academy after the Cultural Revolution and who tried to push the limits of communist China's artistic tolerance.

Yet Hero - despite popular expectations of earning censure for delving into the sensitive topic of Chinese tyrants - has impressed China's cultural gurus so much that they are submitting it as China's Oscar nominee for best foreign film at the Academy Awards.

The film "symbolizes the rise of Chinese commercial cinema", said the newspaper China Times, commending what Beijing arbiters of taste believe would be China's elite combat division to counter Hollywood's overwhelming influence.

With a budget of $31 million, making it China's most expensive film ever, a star-studded cast of actors known beyond mainland China and well-choreographed martial-arts scenes, Hero is touted as Beijing's attempt to rival the success of Ang Lee's Oscar-winning Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.

However, some domestic critics say the film pales in comparison to two other films that have covered the same historical ground as Hero.

"The film reminds me of a beautiful photo album, a collection of incredible shots, but there is nothing to make them hold together," said one Chinese film commentator.

The Emperor's Shadow - a 1996 film by Zhou Xiaowen, another Fifth Generation director - also revived the epoch of Qin Shihuang. The film presented the Qin emperor as an anguished tyrant who drowned his ideal of unified great China in rivers of blood and tears.

Similar historical overtones rang through Chen Kaige's 1998 The Emperor and The Assassin. Chen, one of China's most sophisticated film directors and also Zhang Yimou's peer, portrayed the Qin emperor as a weak and brutal man. In the movie, the emperor sets off on a just cause to unify the country and install peace and stability but becomes infatuated with power and ends up a wicked despot.

Both Zhou's and Chen's films were criticized at the time for being violent and bloody. Strangely, Zhang Yimou's Hero is pleasingly blood-free. But its message has left many shocked.

"Commercial success? Yes! And think of all these hundreds of youngsters who have learned their lesson of 'worship the emperor' as they sit mesmerized by the fighting scenes," fretted film critic Wei Minglun in the Guangzhou-based Southern Weekend newspaper.

[Rogmok]

anyone know when this movie is suppose to be released in the states??

i heard early 2003... but dunno when exaclty...

[SunWuKong]

it will be released in my apartment as soon as iris sends me a copy!

[Napoleon Chynamite]

Love those VCDs! Especially when you can see the people walking in front of the screen 'cause they are coming in late with their popcorn, beef jerky, drinks, etc. :P Also it's cool b/c when there's a funny part, you know when to laugh cause you have other people to laugh along with!

[Rogmok]

yeah.. my friend brought back a bootleg VCD from HK, but its only in mandarin w/ chinese subtitles...
and since i can't understand mandarin.. or read chinese.. its useles..

but even if it was in canto, i would wait till it comes out on big screen... or at least DVD.. before i watch it.. looks way too good to watch a scratchy VCD.

[angel nympho]

What's it about?

[ism]

I have to wait for Miramax's probably botched release (pleasedon'tdubit) or a DVD since I can't understand Chinese. =(

[SunWuKong]

Originally posted by angel nympho@Jan 29 2003, 10:45 PM
What's it about?
the assassination of an emperor.

[SunWuKong]

Originally posted by ism@Jan 30 2003, 12:56 AM
I have to wait for Miramax's probably botched release (pleasedon'tdubit) or a DVD since I can't understand Chinese. =(
the original version should have english subtitles

[Rogmok]

Originally posted by angel nympho@Jan 30 2003, 03:45 AM
What's it about?
i think the movie has a site..

like www.herothemovie.com or something...

[blue__blood]

I have a vcd copy right now with English and Chinese subs, but the Mando isn't bad, I was able to understand half of it. It's a pretty good movie too.

[TyroneK(prettypretty)]

http://home.att.net/~sumobaby/walkie.jpg

I guess Imperial China was more advanced than we thought.

[AznYam]

yes, that was a very cruel and distasteful joke you plagued on the YW community.

[TyroneK(prettypretty)]

Admittedly, I have no way to corroborate the truth of this picture.

But unlike my joke, it's not obviously false. Shit like this happens all the time in movies.

[Chris]

are you mocking the hero gang. *twaps VB on the head with a fan* show some R-E-S-P-E-C-T to the Hero gang. LOL :lol:

[Napoleon Chynamite]

Yea and the handle of that thingie that Ziyi has behind her back looks more like the handle of a tennis racket than something like a sword.... :P

[TyroneK(prettypretty)]

FP, it's a Prince Thunderstick. That's a powerful racket!

[Napoleon Chynamite]

Originally posted by VBKao@Jan 31 2003, 10:18 AM
FP, it's a Prince Thunderstick. That's a powerful racket!
oh.....

never saw the movie..hehehehe

[TyroneK(prettypretty)]

Neither have I.

But this movie looks beautiful. I really want to see it.

Chris, how did you get your hands on this? Aren't you in the US too?

[mr. x]

Hey man, us chinese our an advanced peoples

[kimpossible]

Originally posted by SunWuKung@Jan 30 2003, 12:17 AM
the original version should have english subtitles
I saw it in Taipei the other day and it had English subtitles. Honestly, I thought it was more style over substance so I would recommend to you all to wait for a clearer copy from YesAsia or rent it from Netflix. There are some flicks worth downloading and watching on a monitor and there are some flix you should get a good copy and watch on like HDTV. I recommend big screen, lotsa friends and lotsa popcorn rather than just a download and your monitor. Unless you have a huge freaking monitor like an Apple 23" and then I hate your guts.

[537]

I just saw it, on DVD from China. The movie was in Mandarin, although the box said it had Chinese and English subtitles, I couldn't find them.

The movie itself in my opinion was fru-fru. Some parts left me confused, some left me wanting more dialogue. A lot of the movie was "meaningful silence". The end left me hanging.

Maybe I just wanted mindless fighting, but I wanted to see Donnie Yuen kick more ass.

[Duke of Mt. Deer]

You can buy HERO on VCD and DVD now in Yesasia.com

[moschikat]

Originally posted by Duke of Mt. Deer@Feb 19 2003, 08:15 PM
You can buy HERO on VCD and DVD now in Yesasia.com
ooh.
you are my new hero :)

i got a copy of the vcd this past weekend, but it doesn't work on the PS2 :(

must got get dvd version!! :ph34r:

[iris]

It will only be in Mandarin. They are not allowed to sell it with English subtitles yet.

Make sure you can understand it. If you need one with English subtitles, at this point you can find it in Chinatown in NYC or SF. Not sure if they have it elsewhere.

[Duke of Mt. Deer]

Originally posted by iris@Feb 19 2003, 08:31 PM
It will only be in Mandarin. They are not allowed to sell it with English subtitles yet.


It is in English and Chinese subtitle.

http://us.yesasia.com/en/PrdDept.aspx/pid-...videos/did-106/ (http://us.yesasia.com/en/PrdDept.aspx/pid-1002469477/code-c/section-videos/did-106/)

[SunWuKong]

Originally posted by Duke of Mt. Deer@Feb 19 2003, 11:47 PM
Originally posted by iris@Feb 19 2003, 08:31 PM
It will only be in Mandarin. They are not allowed to sell it with English subtitles yet.


It is in English and Chinese subtitle.

http://us.yesasia.com/en/PrdDept.aspx/pid-...videos/did-106/ (http://us.yesasia.com/en/PrdDept.aspx/pid-1002469477/code-c/section-videos/did-106/)
weird. i checked just last week and they didn't have english subtitles listed.

[Dailo]

Originally posted by SunWuKung@Feb 19 2003, 09:37 PM
Originally posted by Duke of Mt. Deer@Feb 19 2003, 11:47 PM
Originally posted by iris@Feb 19 2003, 08:31 PM
It will only be in Mandarin. They are not allowed to sell it with English subtitles yet.


It is in English and Chinese subtitle.

http://us.yesasia.com/en/PrdDept.aspx/pid-...videos/did-106/ (http://us.yesasia.com/en/PrdDept.aspx/pid-1002469477/code-c/section-videos/did-106/)
weird. i checked just last week and they didn't have english subtitles listed.
I know the release of this is imminent so if anyone gets a hold of it. Please post details of the VCD. Like what are the languages of the subtitles and dialog.

I read eslewhere that this initial release is from China so it may not have English subtitles. Also I am looking for the DVD version with Cantonese dailog. Probably have to wait for the official HK release for that. Even though it says release is from HK, I am skeptical.

I just can't trust the product descriptions on the website.

Thnx.

[537]

Originally posted by Duke of Mt. Deer@Feb 19 2003, 08:47 PM
Originally posted by iris@Feb 19 2003, 08:31 PM
It will only be in Mandarin. They are not allowed to sell it with English subtitles yet.


It is in English and Chinese subtitle.

http://us.yesasia.com/en/PrdDept.aspx/pid-...videos/did-106/ (http://us.yesasia.com/en/PrdDept.aspx/pid-1002469477/code-c/section-videos/did-106/)
Like I said, the box said it has English and Chinese subtitles. But I couldn't find the English subtitles anywhere. Buy it yourself and see =\

[YuheiCarreau]

Originally posted by 537@Feb 20 2003, 09:13 AM
Originally posted by Duke of Mt. Deer@Feb 19 2003, 08:47 PM
Originally posted by iris@Feb 19 2003, 08:31 PM
It will only be in Mandarin. They are not allowed to sell it with English subtitles yet.


It is in English and Chinese subtitle.

http://us.yesasia.com/en/PrdDept.aspx/pid-...videos/did-106/ (http://us.yesasia.com/en/PrdDept.aspx/pid-1002469477/code-c/section-videos/did-106/)
Like I said, the box said it has English and Chinese subtitles. But I couldn't find the English subtitles anywhere. Buy it yourself and see =\
I just ordered it. I don't care if it doesn't have subtitles, it's only $8! As long as it's from an actual print of the film, not a theater bootleg, I will have gotten my money's worth.

[iris]

I have it. I brought it back from Hong Kong. There are NO English subtitles on any official copies of Hero - even if you buy it from Yesasia. However you can get ripped versions of it. Miramax already has the film with English subtitles. When I saw it in the movie theatres in Hong Kong, I saw English subtitles and some of my friends have it in the USA from buying it in Chinatown in NYC and it is of very good quality. If you live near a big city, just try buying it there.

[SunWuKong]

Originally posted by YuheiCarreau@Feb 20 2003, 10:21 AM
Originally posted by 537@Feb 20 2003, 09:13 AM
Originally posted by Duke of Mt. Deer@Feb 19 2003, 08:47 PM
Originally posted by iris@Feb 19 2003, 08:31 PM
It will only be in Mandarin. They are not allowed to sell it with English subtitles yet.


It is in English and Chinese subtitle.

http://us.yesasia.com/en/PrdDept.aspx/pid-...videos/did-106/ (http://us.yesasia.com/en/PrdDept.aspx/pid-1002469477/code-c/section-videos/did-106/)
Like I said, the box said it has English and Chinese subtitles. But I couldn't find the English subtitles anywhere. Buy it yourself and see =\
I just ordered it. I don't care if it doesn't have subtitles, it's only $8! As long as it's from an actual print of the film, not a theater bootleg, I will have gotten my money's worth.
actually they sort of have a "grab bag" of movies that they charge you $5 for if you buy three of them. Hero is one of them.

[Rogmok]

my friend brought one back from HK and it had no english subtitles..

I hear the release date has been pushed back to November 03...

[Dailo]

FYI,

I bought the VCD. It is the official Hong Kong released version by a company called Edko. It is on two VCDs and the quality is very good. The dailog is in Mandarin and the subtitles are in Chinese and English. I think this version is available at YesAsia.

This website has alot of good info about upcoming Asian movies and future Hero DVD details:

Monkey Peaches (http://www.monkeypeaches.com)

Just thought I should pass that along.

[mr. x]

anyway, i figured it would be better to watch on my computer with friends then risk watching miramax butcher the theatrical version

Great film, nice visuals and story. What more can i say

[YuheiCarreau]

I just got the VCD today. Despite having been advertised as having no English subtitles, it has English subtitles. Scanned some of the amazing action scenes this evening, and I'll probably watch it all the way through tomorrow... It looks fantastic.

[ism]

Where did you get the VCD from?

[yoMAMA]

How was Jet Li's performance?

He was the assasin, Jin Ke, right?

[mr. x]

yup, he's the assasin. Pretty good performace, but other than fight scenes, he pretty much just has to deliver his lines mysteriously, he sorta comes off like the angel of death.

as for the movie, my brother's friend got it from a friend so i have no idea where he got it

[angelwiththesword]

jet li really comes off like the angel of death in Kiss of the Dragon

[SunWuKong]

i just watched this! great film!
you can definitely see zhang yimou's style in there as well as christopher doyle's style.
zhang yimou's signature emphasis of color is definitely there.
wow, i love this film.
i've been excited about it since last february when i first read about it!
most of the people that worked on this film - zhang yimou, christopher doyle, tony leung, and maggie cheung - are already very respected in the film festival circles around the world, but i think this film will generate a lot of mainstream respect for kungfu films and chinese filmmaking.
the fighting is definitely better than that in crouching tiger hidden tiger, in my opinion. it's more fluid and the camera work definitely enhances it. as for cinematography between the two films, there's not even a comparison. hero is much better in terms of that.
and from the fighting and just the story itself, i can tell that hero was made for the chinese audience as opposed to how crouching tiger hidden dragon catered more to the western audience.
wow, i can't wait for this to be released in american theaters. i hope miramax doesn't fuck it up! we need to convince the american audience that reading subtitles isn't hard work... those lazy bastards.

[mr. x]

there is one thing though i can see. Stuff getting lost in translation. I know this is a minor issue, but the subtitle said "three words, "all under heaven" " and yes, that is three words, but in chinese it was two. Thats minor but yeah. In chinese there's a lot of word play and stuff that even i dont understand. The ending (ima spoil it a little so watch out)

Jet Li gets killed by the emperor's troops after getting his point across. I understood that it meant that though Li was mad about what happened to Zhao, he (and the others) died for peace after China's unified and the petty wars stop. This may be a bit hard to understand for more casual viewers i think. I mean they'd be like "what a gip, he didnt kill the guy?!?"

[SunWuKong]

Originally posted by mr. x@Mar 5 2003, 01:20 AM
Jet Li gets killed by the emperor's troops after getting his point across. I understood that it meant that though Li was mad about what happened to Zhao, he (and the others) died for peace after China's unified and the petty wars stop. This may be a bit hard to understand for more casual viewers i think. I mean they'd be like "what a gip, he didnt kill the guy?!?"
yeah you may be right. i think most chinese people in asia would understand this if they've watched chinese entertainment at all, because this theme is not an unusual one when a story is about shi huang di.

[SunWuKong]

Originally posted by tazadar@Mar 5 2003, 02:52 PM
You guys I watched the VCD version, right?
i did

[SunWuKong]

Originally posted by tazadar@Mar 5 2003, 03:50 PM
Isn't it a bad quality, picture-wise? I wonder why they don't release the DVD version yet.
no. quality was great. not pirated, unless whoever did it spent the money to recreate the nice VCD cover it came with. and definitely not bootlegged.

i only wish i watched it in the theater.

[mr. x]

i think my friends was simply a burned avi file. Pretty good quality, he had to install some subtitle software though.

Man, if its one thing us asians excel at universally, its not math, but pirating

[YuheiCarreau]

Originally posted by mr. x@Mar 5 2003, 11:57 PM
i think my friends was simply a burned avi file. Pretty good quality, he had to install some subtitle software though.

Man, if its one thing us asians excel at universally, its not math, but pirating
Not all Asians, just Chinese people. They are cheap cheap cheap! :P

[SunWuKong]

Originally posted by YuheiCarreau@Mar 6 2003, 01:33 AM
Originally posted by mr. x@Mar 5 2003, 11:57 PM
i think my friends was simply a burned avi file. Pretty good quality, he had to install some subtitle software though.

Man, if its one thing us asians excel at universally, its not math, but pirating
Not all Asians, just Chinese people. They are cheap cheap cheap! :P
heheheh
yeah my friends in HK don't even bother to spend the 3 or 4 USD for a VCD. one of them would get it and then just burn them onto CDs for each other.

[mr. x]

Originally posted by YuheiCarreau@Mar 5 2003, 10:33 PM
Originally posted by mr. x@Mar 5 2003, 11:57 PM
i think my friends was simply a burned avi file. Pretty good quality, he had to install some subtitle software though.

Man, if its one thing us asians excel at universally, its not math, but pirating
Not all Asians, just Chinese people. They are cheap cheap cheap! :P
arent like malaysians and filipinos and southeast asians too? koreans too of course

[Napoleon Chynamite]

Originally posted by mr. x@Mar 6 2003, 12:23 AM
Originally posted by YuheiCarreau@Mar 5 2003, 10:33 PM
Originally posted by mr. x@Mar 5 2003, 11:57 PM
i think my friends was simply a burned avi file. Pretty good quality, he had to install some subtitle software though.

Man, if its one thing us asians excel at universally, its not math, but pirating
Not all Asians, just Chinese people. They are cheap cheap cheap! :P
arent like malaysians and filipinos and southeast asians too? koreans too of course
Hey man being cheap just means ur an efficient spender................. :) :D

[ism]

Where could I obtain a VCD of this?

[ellsworth81]

one of the many nice members might be willing to send it to you, haha

it's avail. on kazaa if you're willing to wait

and i thought jet li's name was "wu ming" :confused:

a friend of mine billed this movie a "commie" movie due to the "for the greater good of the people" message :lol:

[YuheiCarreau]

Well, it supports imperialism and totalitarian rule more than communism. However, there is a strong sense of... Socialism, maybe.

I was particularly interested in the idea behind Nameless' death at the end; the Emperor explains that the highest ideal of a swordsman is to lay down his sword and bring peace, and so the assassin allows the king to live and is killed to reinforce his rule. I suppose you could say Nameless acts in support of a socialist ideal, or perhaps fatalism, as he realizes that the peace he supports can only be obtained by removing all challenges to the Quin emperor's rule. I found it similar to a Japanese tragedy in a lot of ways; I don't know if Chinese theater is as dire as Japanese, but I do know that it's a big influence on Zhang Yimou's work.

[mr. x]

hmm, is this story true? At least the emperor should be right?

[YuheiCarreau]

Originally posted by mr. x@Mar 6 2003, 09:17 PM
hmm, is this story true? At least the emperor should be right?
The emperor was real, as were the attempts on his life, but something tells me the Flying Chinese People thing was faked :D

[SunWuKong]

Originally posted by YuheiCarreau@Mar 6 2003, 09:57 PM
Well, it supports imperialism and totalitarian rule more than communism. However, there is a strong sense of... Socialism, maybe.

I was particularly interested in the idea behind Nameless' death at the end; the Emperor explains that the highest ideal of a swordsman is to lay down his sword and bring peace, and so the assassin allows the king to live and is killed to reinforce his rule. I suppose you could say Nameless acts in support of a socialist ideal, or perhaps fatalism, as he realizes that the peace he supports can only be obtained by removing all challenges to the Quin emperor's rule. I found it similar to a Japanese tragedy in a lot of ways; I don't know if Chinese theater is as dire as Japanese, but I do know that it's a big influence on Zhang Yimou's work.
err... i don't know about any messages supporting communism or socialism. as you may or may not know, most of zhang yimou's past films have been very subtley critical of the chinese government. many of his films were banned in china. even in The Story of Qiu Ju, which on the surface praises the reforming chinese court system, was really a backhand criticism of it. at first the chinese censors thought he had finally "seen the error of his ways" after he was criticised heavily for his past films, but after a little while, they had second thoughts about what the film was really saying... hehehe.

and at the same time, justifying shi huang di's cruelty with the goal of chinese unification has not been an uncommon theme in stories about shi huang di. i'm more convinced that this film was just out to portray shi huang di as a misunderstood human being who has a great goal, but i guess it could have been about socialism.

[SunWuKong]

Originally posted by mr. x@Mar 6 2003, 10:17 PM
hmm, is this story true? At least the emperor should be right?
the story of his conquests is true and him being described as cruel is also true. and he is credited by historians as the first to unify china. the specific assasination attempts on him in the film itself were fiction. however, many people did want him dead and many people did try to kill him.

[YuheiCarreau]

Originally posted by SunWuKung@Mar 7 2003, 01:11 AM
err... i don't know about any messages supporting communism or socialism. as you may or may not know, most of zhang yimou's past films have been very subtley critical of the chinese government. many of his films were banned in china. even in The Story of Qiu Ju, which on the surface praises the reforming chinese court system, was really a backhand criticism of it. at first the chinese censors thought he had finally "seen the error of his ways" after he was criticised heavily for his past films, but after a little while, they had second thoughts about what the film was really saying... hehehe.

and at the same time, justifying shi huang di's cruelty with the goal of chinese unification has not been an uncommon theme in stories about shi huang di. i'm more convinced that this film was just out to portray shi huang di as a misunderstood human being who has a great goal, but i guess it could have been about socialism.
I didn't mean the film was overtly socialist or political, just that a sense of socialism or obligation to the community was present throughout. I think this movie is more of a drama than political or social criticism.

[YuheiCarreau]

Originally posted by SunWuKung@Mar 7 2003, 01:18 AM
however, many people did want him dead and many people did try to kill him.
But they all observed the laws of physics in doing so!

[SunWuKong]

Originally posted by YuheiCarreau@Mar 7 2003, 02:36 AM
But they all observed the laws of physics in doing so!
hahhahah!

no man, don't you know that chinese people all have superhuman powers? in real life, we just don't show it in front of people who are not chinese.

[ellsworth81]

one question:

Did Sky intentionally let himself get killed so that Wu Ming could get closer to the emperor, as the emperor theorized?

I thought it was kind of odd how Sky just got stabbed after an epic battle. Unless of course, that last stab was Wu Ming's signature move that he had practiced for years?

By the way, I'm only asking b/c I had an avi with Simplified subs, and plus my reading isn't quite up to snuff with Classical/Textbook chinese (as opposed to colloquial/spoken Chinese). So yea, things aren't 100% clear :wacko:

[ellsworth81]

Originally posted by SunWuKung@Mar 6 2003, 11:41 PM
hahhahah!

no man, don't you know that chinese people all have superhuman powers? in real life, we just don't show it in front of people who are not chinese.
bouncing off of water is practical I guess. But some of Wu Ming's feats with that sword were excessively impressive. I wonder if any of that was performed for real. <_<

[SunWuKong]

Originally posted by ellsworth81@Mar 7 2003, 02:56 AM
one question:

Did Sky intentionally let himself get killed so that Wu Ming could get closer to the emperor, as the emperor theorized?

I thought it was kind of odd how Sky just got stabbed after an epic battle. Unless of course, that last stab was Wu Ming's signature move that he had practiced for years?

By the way, I'm only asking b/c I had an avi with Simplified subs, and plus my reading isn't quite up to snuff with Classical/Textbook chinese (as opposed to colloquial/spoken Chinese). So yea, things aren't 100% clear :wacko:
the real story is that sky got stabbed in a non-critical spot and pretended to be dead in front of the emperor's men.

[YuheiCarreau]

Originally posted by SunWuKung@Mar 7 2003, 01:41 AM
hahhahah!

no man, don't you know that chinese people all have superhuman powers? in real life, we just don't show it in front of people who are not chinese.
You know, that's the exact same thing my Chinese friends told me. I'm starting to think maybe you guys can fly... :huh:

[SunWuKong]

Originally posted by YuheiCarreau@Mar 7 2003, 03:33 PM
Originally posted by SunWuKung@Mar 7 2003, 01:41 AM
hahhahah!

no man, don't you know that chinese people all have superhuman powers? &nbsp;in real life, we just don't show it in front of people who are not chinese.
You know, that's the exact same thing my Chinese friends told me. I'm starting to think maybe you guys can fly... :huh:
if we show you, we'll have to kill you with the "Death In Ten Paces".

[SunWuKong]

Originally posted by tazadar@Mar 7 2003, 04:44 PM
I learnt how to fly at 4 years old. It was easier than learning how to use chopsticks.
man you were slow, i was already deflecting a few hundred elbows with my bare hands by the time i was 4 years old.

[mr. x]

hmm, im taiwanese, and not a whole lot know unfortunately (the chinese are a bit bitter about the independance thing and refuse to teach us)

[Dailo]

Originally posted by tazadar@Mar 5 2003, 12:50 PM
Isn't it a bad quality, picture-wise? I wonder why they don't release the DVD version yet.
Actually the official version from China has been released. The movie has English subtitles but the menus are all in Simplified Chinese. The picture quality was very good too. You can get it on Ebay. Do a search for "hero DVD", there are a bunch of listings. The average price is like $12-$20 not including shipping.

This was the version I watched. It is definitely worth getting if you don't want to risk getting a Miramax butchered US dvd release in the future.

[Dailo]

Originally posted by YuheiCarreau@Mar 6 2003, 11:35 PM
I didn't mean the film was overtly socialist or political, just that a sense of socialism or obligation to the community was present throughout. I think this movie is more of a drama than political or social criticism.
I agree. I don't think the film was meant to make any political statements. The idea of self sacrifice for the greater good was the basis of why the characters were considered heroes, hence the movie's title. This has been a theme in many movies in the past. One Star Trek movie comes to mind, I think it was Star Trek 2, where Spock sacrifices himself for the crew's good and said something like "the good of the many outweigh the good of the few".

Be careful, MAJOR spoilers ahead...

Sky sacrificed himself for the greater good of Jet Li's mission to get closer to the king. Tony Leung sacrificed himself so that Maggie Cheung could understand his conviction to his belief in the greater good. And Jet Li sacrificed himself so that the king could show that no one was above the law. That even the king cannot make an exception to the law. They all sacrificed their lives for the greater good of a unified nation and that is why they are heroes.

[SunWuKong]

Originally posted by Dailo@Mar 8 2003, 12:50 PM
I agree. I don't think the film was meant to make any political statements. The idea of self sacrifice for the greater good was the basis of why the characters were considered heroes, hence the movie's title. This has been a theme in many movies in the past. One Star Trek movie comes to mind, I think it was Star Trek 2, where Spock sacrifices himself for the crew's good and said something like "the good of the many outweigh the good of the few".
well actually, star trek is full of socialist ideologies. the society that star trek people lived in is socialist. people don't work for money anymore. they work for the good of society.

[kimpossible]

Originally posted by SunWuKung@Mar 7 2003, 01:46 PM
man you were slow, i was already deflecting a few hundred elbows with my bare hands by the time i was 4 years old.
those must have been some dangerous elbows

[mr. x]

(spoiler)

the sad part is Maggie Cheung didnt sacrifice for anything cept to be with her man. And Zhang Ziyi basically had nothing.

Too bad they had to execute Li, cuz he coulda had the land and the gold, and run off with Zhang Ziyi's character

[SunWuKong]

Originally posted by tazadar@Mar 10 2003, 12:38 AM
The Emporer and the Assassin is much better than Hero. The movie has no character development. It seems that some added scenes are needed to have a some form of cohesion to the story. The whole movie felt choppy. The only scene I like about this movie is the Jet Li and Donnie Yen fight.
oh god emporer and the assassin was so boring. i was never a big fan of chen kaige. but yeah hero puts more emphasis on cinematography.

[ellsworth81]

Originally posted by SunWuKung@Mar 9 2003, 11:56 PM
oh god emporer and the assassin was so boring. i was never a big fan of chen kaige. but yeah hero puts more emphasis on cinematography.
yea, well, but at least gong li was hot :wub:

[yoMAMA]

E&A was ok, Li Xuejian put on an ok performance as Shihuangdi, he's also Song Jiang in the water margin tv series. :lol:

[TyroneK(prettypretty)]

I finally saw this on VCD. Thank God for yesasia.com and CD-Rom drives...

I liked the cinematography and the general bent of the movie.

What I had a problem with was the lack of real dialogue. All the messages were implied. I'm sure that Zhang Yimou is not a BS artist, but I'm always wary of this silence because I'm not sure whether the integrity of the message was intentionally constructed or whether it came from the lack of any real dialogue to attack. It's a lot easier to overlook flaws in reasoning when the director is playing it as mysterious as this.

Also, most of the action scenes were okay, but a little CGI goes a long way and the posing of the actors just seemed a bit much. The water fight between Jet Li and Tony Leung was incredible, but in general though, Yuen Woo Ping did a better job making the stunts look like real fighting and natural movements rather than posing in Crouching Tiger and other films.

I could go on and on, but in the end it was a good film. Kind of unsatisfying though. I guess my main problem was how neatly the film fit into mainland China's whole "order for peace, freedom through tyranny" schtick. It left a bad taste in my mouth.

[SunWuKong]

Originally posted by VBKao@Mar 17 2003, 01:08 AM
I finally saw this on VCD. Thank God for yesasia.com and CD-Rom drives...

I liked the cinematography and the general bent of the movie.

What I had a problem with was the lack of real dialogue. All the messages were implied. I'm sure that Zhang Yimou is not a BS artist, but I'm always wary of this silence because I'm not sure whether the integrity of the message was intentionally constructed or whether it came from the lack of any real dialogue to attack. It's a lot easier to overlook flaws in reasoning when the director is playing it as mysterious as this.

Also, most of the action scenes were okay, but a little CGI goes a long way and the posing of the actors just seemed a bit much. The water fight between Jet Li and Tony Leung was incredible, but in general though, Yuen Woo Ping did a better job making the stunts look like real fighting and natural movements rather than posing in Crouching Tiger and other films.

I could go on and on, but in the end it was a good film. Kind of unsatisfying though. I guess my main problem was how neatly the film fit into mainland China's whole "order for peace, freedom through tyranny" schtick. It left a bad taste in my mouth.
nah, a lot of stories about shi huangdi is about bringing order through tyranny.

and yeah, zhang yimou is never heavy on dialogue. he's all about cinematography.

[TyroneK(prettypretty)]

The thing I liked about Emperor and the Assassin though was that it showed Qin Shi Huang as a flawed man and questioned the sanctity of his vision in a way by showing how his quest to unify the various kingdoms was driving him insane and still offered him and the rest of the nation very little peace. It showed that the message was compelling, but at the same time the idea wasn't perfect.

With Hero, you didn't really have any complex questioning of the idea that order and tyranny bring lasting freedom and peace. It seemed a little too content to just put forth that fairly one-dimensional message. It wasn't well thought out, but it wasn't philosophically perfect either.

[SunWuKong]

Originally posted by VBKao@Mar 17 2003, 09:00 AM
The thing I liked about Emperor and the Assassin though was that it showed Qin Shi Huang as a flawed man and questioned the sanctity of his vision in a way by showing how his quest to unify the various kingdoms was driving him insane and still offered him and the rest of the nation very little peace. It showed that the message was compelling, but at the same time the idea wasn't perfect.

With Hero, you didn't really have any complex questioning of the idea that order and tyranny bring lasting freedom and peace. It seemed a little too content to just put forth that fairly one-dimensional message. It wasn't well thought out, but it wasn't philosophically perfect either.
yeah if you compare chen kaige and zhang yimou's work, chen kaige's films will always have more depth while zhang yimou's films seek more to captivate the audience. it's just a preference i guess, not that they're not good, but i feel like i'm reading a book when i watch chen kaige films. i think zhang yimou just have more understanding of how to really utilise the film medium with his great cinematography. i was so bored watching Emperor and The Assassin but i really like Temptress Moon.

[DaBestSpooner]

I prefered the emperor and the assassin as well.

I liked it more than cthd though.

the dvd released now doesnt have any english subtitles for the prologue and epilogue text.

[mr. x]

so what gets cut in the miramax version? I take it less dialogue?

[YuheiCarreau]

Originally posted by mr. x@Mar 17 2003, 04:54 PM
so what gets cut in the miramax version? I take it less dialogue?
If there were any less dialogue, it would just be a montage of fight scenes with that screechy shouting going on. I think they probably cut some of the (numerous) shots where something beautiful is happening on the screen but no one is speaking and nothing is happening to advance the plot.

[mr. x]

cmon, everything is vital. stupid americans.

[SunWuKong]

zhang yimou
it's all about the cinematography
so many directors don't really know how to fully utilise the film medium
they should write books instead of direct because their shots are always so boring

[Ch8Li179]

I watched this movie about a month ago and I liked it. I thought is was a lot better then "Crouching Tiger!" The director was great! He painted a beautiful picture. The designer did an amazing job and the clothes moved swiftly with the wind.

[KATANA]

Last night I watched the Academy Awards and I saw that the movie "Hero" was up for Best Foreign Language Film, it didn't win of course. But my question is this, wasn't "Hero" supposed to come out in American theaters before the awards? Would it have won if it had been seen by American moviegoers? Is it still going to come out in U.S. theaters some time this year?

[Shuriken]

Nominees for Best Foreign-Language Film do not need to be theatrically released before the Oscar ceremony. However, they must be seen by Academy members, and this is usually done through private screenings arranged by the Academy.

One quirk about this award: The competing films must be officially submitted by the country of origin, and if a country does not submit a particular title, that title does not qualify. For example, even though Pedro Almodóvar's Talk to Her, from Spain, won the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay this year (the first Spanish-language screenplay ever to win a screenwriting Oscar), it did not qualify for Best Foreign-Language Film because Spain did not officially submit Almodóvar's film for the category.

Also, each submission must sufficiently reflect the submitting country's culture. For example, Hong Kong (not officially a "country," but still able to submit films) wanted to submit Michelle Yeoh's The Touch, but the Academy rejected the submission because the film was mostly in English. Here's another anecdote: When Timothy Bui's Three Seasons first opened, it was publicized that although it was shot largely in the Vietnamese-language, the film was wholly financed with U.S. money. And when Vietnam submitted the film as its official entry, the Academy rejected it because it was not produced by a Vietnamese film company. It was suddenly announced that Three Seasons was a U.S.-Vietnam co-production, and the film became one of the nominees that year.

[KATANA]

Thanks Shuriken. I didn't know the movie "The Touch" was submitted for an award and was rejected.

[Rogmok]

so anyone know when Hero is going to come out in US theatre's??

[Napoleon Chynamite]

Originally posted by tazadar@Mar 25 2003, 12:39 PM
It was? I haven't watch it, 'cuz the movie suck big time.

Rogmok,

Just get the DVD. No, wait. Get the Director's Cut instead.
If you haven't watched it yet, how do you know it sucked? :ph34r:

[Dailo]

Originally posted by Rogmok@Mar 25 2003, 12:36 PM
so anyone know when Hero is going to come out in US theatre's??
The word around the NET is that it will come out in November 2003. The official Miramax page says Winter 2003.

http://www.miramax.com/hero/index.html

So you got a long wait, unless you pick up the VCD or DVD that is out already.

[purezero]

I thought The Touch was okay, I guess. That one guy from Birthday Girl was in it. I liked watching the acrobatics.

[blue hoodie]

any idea when it's going to have more openings?

[SunWuKong]

what the hell is this?

[Craig]

Looks like some Desi movie also called hero and the internal database entry somehow got merged with another movie of the same name/translation.

[etcj]

Originally posted by tazadar@Apr 22 2003, 02:38 AM
Starring: Jet Li, Sunny Deol, Preity Zinta, Zhang Ziyi, Priyanka Chopra&nbsp;
I didn't see Jet Li on that website among the starring roles...it seemed to be a Bollywood film. Looks pretty cool... I wouldn't mind seeing it, although Jet Li is probably the last person that I would be excited to see on the big screen. :rolleyes:

Oh yeah, some of these South Asian guys are pretty hot :D

[Rogmok]

Originally posted by blue hoodie@Apr 22 2003, 07:59 AM
any idea when it's going to have more openings?
ditto..
when is it going to be released in other cities?

[SunWuKong]

please tell me this is just a rumour. i will honestly lose respect for zhang yimou if he starts making sequels.

[VV o n g B a]

Originally posted by SunWuKung@Apr 25 2003, 12:55 PM
please tell me this is just a rumour. i will honestly lose respect for zhang yimou if he starts making sequels.
heh, he's gotta put bread on the table somehow. maybe selling out is the only way... :P

[SunWuKong]

Originally posted by VV o n g B a@Apr 25 2003, 01:57 PM
heh, he's gotta put bread on the table somehow.&nbsp; maybe selling out is the only way...&nbsp; :P
he's gotten by fine all these years without "selling out". i don't know how much money he's made over the years, but i doubt he has made very much, since most of his films are only popular amongst the film festival circles. maybe he feels like it's finally time to make some good money with the name he built for himself. bah... oh well. i don't blame him. if it was me, i would have sold out a long time ago. :P

[Rogmok]

man! i haven't even seen Hero 1 yet!

[TyroneK(prettypretty)]

--> Spoiler Alert <--

Hmm. Given the message of the movie and the fact that Jet Li died in the end, how do you make a coherent sequel to this? I mean, Zhang ZiYi's character didn't even do anything in the movie other than cry and have a fight that turned out not to have happened at all. Other than completely reworking the story so that it's so different it might as well be another film, how could you do it?

A retelling just seems superfluous too. It's not like Zhang Yimou had a embarrassing wealth of ideas in that film.

[yoMAMA]

http://et.21cn.com/dvd/pingdie/2003-03-28/985447.html

Just wanna share it with you guys :D

What do you guys think about the movie?

I thought the scenes were really beautiful, however, the plot SUCKS big time!

[yoMAMA]

http://images.21cn.com/2003-03-28/985447A.jpg

:D

[SunWuKong]

all threads about Hero has been merged.

[mr. x]

i liked Hero but i have my doubts about Hero in the U.S.

why?

"Dude, that was a hella ripoff of CTHD"

"Yeah at least in CTHD you could see zhang's in a wet t-shirt"

"dude and why didnt he kill the bad guy that was gay what a pussy"

[Filiprish]

Hero is finally being released in the US on Aug. 27th.

http://www.miramax.com/hero/

[BigLew]

I just watched this and I loved it. But why the hell do all the best of this genre have to be so damn tragic.

[ZiJing]

hows it tragic? only every single main character gets killed. theres nothing sad about that

*sobs*

i agree..it is an awesome film.

edit: spoiler tags are our friends. let's hope you were wrong about this because i will kill if this movie just got spoiled for me. i've been waiting years to finally see this movie. -kitty

[SunWuKong]

hows it tragic? only every single main character gets killed. theres nothing sad about that

*sobs*

i agree..it is an awesome film.

well, Qin Huangdi didn't get killed.

edit: ibid -kitty

[younggiftedandblack]

*spoiler tags????????*

[Napoleon Chynamite]

I personally didn't like Hero all that much....maybe it was just too artistic or subtle for my Hollywood-rotted mind and tastes. Killing off Donnie Yen in the first portion of the film is also a sign that the rest of the movie is really gonna suck :tongue:

edit: ibid -kitty

[kitty]

Okay people, spoiler tags. PLEASE. don't make me de-karma. there are people in the States who ARE actually waiting for the QT version to see this movie.

*pissed*

[deez nuts]

people are really waiting to see QT's version? is it dubbed or subtitled?

i had the impression most would've seen it by now.

just stop by your local mom and pop's chinese video store and rent a copy.

[Kuchana]

I haven't seen it but I want to. It looks so much more better than CTHD.

[younggiftedandblack]

people are really waiting to see QT's version? is it dubbed or subtitled?

i had the impression most would've seen it by now.

just stop by your local mom and pop's chinese video store and rent a copy.

I'm thinking it's sub text, but it's being released by Merimax. So who knows what they could've done to it.

[sinisterpanda]

I thought crouching was a much better movie than hero. But hero most certainly holds it own with its beautiful colors. I found the DVD in Chinatown chicago.

[moser]

The ads for this movie fuck up the actual plot.

[Irezumi Kiss]

It's out next week, but lemme ask those who've seen it first...should I get the DVD in Chinatown or should I watch the Miramax version first THEN get the DVD?

I did a VCD run yesterday down there and was seriously tempted to pick it up...because I only saw one.

[ellsworth81]

so did anyone figure out if they sub or dub?

[TB4000]

It should get some decent mainstream exposure this weekend since it's opening in quite a few theatres. The ads are playing it up to be another Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, though.

[kitty]

people are really waiting to see QT's version? is it dubbed or subtitled?

i had the impression most would've seen it by now.

just stop by your local mom and pop's chinese video store and rent a copy.

i live in ithaca. we don't have a local mom and pop's chinese video store.

[SunWuKong]

i live in ithaca. we don't have a local mom and pop's chinese video store.

you can order it online. that's what i did.

[deez nuts]

i live in ithaca. we don't have a local mom and pop's chinese video store.

you can order it online nowadays. if i remember correctly when i was visiting cornell there was a chinese supermarket that rented chinese videos off campus. but, this was like 15 years ago. that's the first thing i went out looking for after looking at the campus when i was deciding between colleges.

[younggiftedandblack]

you can order it online nowadays. if i remember correctly when i was visiting cornell there was a chinese supermarket that rented chinese videos off campus. but, this was like 15 years ago. that's the first thing i went out looking for after looking at the campus when i was deciding between colleges.

For all your Asian film needs (http://www.aznfilms.com)

[yoMAMA]

Zhang Yimou is still pretty bitter about the oscar loss, though.

[Irezumi Kiss]

i live in ithaca. we don't have a local mom and pop's chinese video store.
I see opportunities for black marketing chinese videos from NYC to Ithaca opening up here...if there's a market for them, that is... :wink:

[truMp]

I saw this movie a longgg time ago

[lethal]

I read in the SF Chron article I linked in this thread (http://forums.yellowworld.org/showthread.php?t=18354) that it is subtitled and uncut.

[Faithless]

Sharp blade, big action: 'Hero' and 'Bang Rajan' put an Asian spin on thrillers. (http://www.csmonitor.com/2004/0827/p14s01-almo.html)
By David Sterritt | Film critic of The Christian Science Monitor

Asian historical epics are storming American theaters as summer draws to a close. That's especially good news since this week's imports, "Hero" and "Bang Rajan," are especially good movies.

"Hero" comes from Zhang Yimou, who led China's so-called Fifth Generation filmmaking movement with offerings such as "Ju Dou" and "The Story of Qiu Ju," then went into a slump.

I hereby declare his slump officially over. "Hero" is a walloping entertainment, brimming with the magic-realist action that made Ang Lee's somewhat similar "Couching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" a hit.

Jet Li plays a man with no name (shades of Clint Eastwood in his old spaghetti westerns!) who visits an emperor to receive praise for killing the monarch's enemies. In flashbacks, we see the warrior's valiant deeds - driven by martial-arts expertise and psychological savvy - as he recounts them to the king.

The ruler listens closely, then starts asking a few questions, leading to a plot twist that sheds startling new light on everything we've watched.

"Hero" gains its excitement less from the story it tells than from Mr. Zhang's brilliance in telling it. The screen pulses with choreographed movement, vibrantly framed images, and cascades of color that match plot events.

"Bang Rajan" comes from Thailand, where a strong movie renaissance has recently been under way. Based on an old Thai myth, Tanit Jitnukul's movie also bears close resemblance to "The Seven Samurai," the popular Japanese film about threatened villagers defended by a band of newfound friends. The main characters are downtrodden townsfolk, their wounded king, and the leader of a distant tribe that agrees to aid them.

"Bang Rajan" is a violent movie, so stay away if simulated jungle mayhem turns you off. That said, it's also graced with great visual flair and more suspense than most Hollywood thrillers.

Still to come are "Warriors of Heaven and Earth," due from China next week; "Tae Guk Gi: The Brotherhood of War," coming from South Korea the same day; and the bittersweet "Goodbye Dragon Inn," arriving from Taiwan next month.

• "Hero," rated PG-13, and "Bang Rajan," not rated, contain violence.

[Irezumi Kiss]

Almost forgot about "Bang Rajan." I'll have to peep that. I'm not too big on war movies, but I may cop "Tae Guk Gi" on DVD from Chinatown if it gets good reviews. I'm a sucker for contemporary drama/comedies and period piece epics, so "Heaven & Earth" and "Dragon Inn" are must-sees in the theater. Looks like September is gonna make up for a somewhat lackluster mid-August scene for Asian cinema fare (as well as movies in general).

[kitty]

i very much enjoyed hero :) good movie...a nd thank god it was subtitled, not dubbed.

[Chris]

hahhaa i can't wait to go see this on the big screen. The colors!

[fossilfuel]

I saw this movie about a year and a half ago too. I bought it on DVD in SF Chinatown for 9 bucks

It's extremely "artsy" for a kung fu flick and just beautiful to watch.

I think the multiple revisions of the story during the course of the movie might confuse your average American viewer though, especially with all the subtitles to read :frown:

[bluemonq]

wooooooooo! first place at the box office!

[TB4000]

Wow, I wasn't expecting it to get first place. Though a lot of people in the theatre were scratching their heads afterwards like they didn't know what the movie was about. A couple guys were talking as we were leaving and were like, "dude, it's an allegory about sacrifice for the needs of the many, etc." At least it got folks talking.

[bluemonq]

a screen cap, just to show people the illustrious company hero had...

[yoMAMA]

September 2, 2004
'Hero' Soars, and Its Director Thanks 'Crouching Tiger'
By CRAIG S. SMITH

The Hong Kong filmmaker Zhang Yimou, in Europe to promote his next martial-arts movie, is bemused by the surprise response from American moviegoers to his first one, the epic "Hero," which broke box-office records last weekend for an Asian film released in the United States.

"I never thought it would be so popular," Mr. Zhang said by telephone from London.

He gives the credit to another movie that almost stopped his from being made, and then contributed to a long delay in its release in the United States - the director Ang Lee's "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" - and to savvy marketing by the distributor of "Hero," Miramax.

" 'Crouching Tiger' created an audience for this kind of film," Mr. Zhang, speaking Mandarin, said in his signature mumble.

Known as a maker of intimate, intense dramas like "Raise the Red Lantern," Mr. Zhang began writing the script for "Hero" in the late 1990's, when attitudes in the mainstream film world softened toward one of his lifelong loves, martial-arts tales.

He said he nearly abandoned the script when "Crouching Tiger" was released in 2000, fearing people would accuse him of riding on Ang Lee's coattails. But he discovered when he persevered that the success of "Crouching Tiger" - the film, made for an estimated $15 million, sold $128 million in tickets in the United States alone, according to imdb.com - made it easier for him to raise money for his own film's production.

The "Hero" story - of a third century B.C. assassin who comes within reach of China's legendary King of Qin but fails to kill him - is well known to the Chinese. In Mr. Zhang's telling, the assassin gives up the opportunity to kill the king for the good of the empire emerging under the king's rule. The king orders the would-be assassin killed instead.

"The hero sacrifices himself for peace," Mr. Zhang said, a concept that he said resonated with Chinese audiences, who also saw contemporary parallels in the self-sacrifice for a brutal ruler. When the film was released in China in late 2002, "Hero" beat even "Titanic" to become the country's highest-grossing film.

Still, Mr. Zhang said he kept Western audiences in mind while making the film because he knew he would not be able to recoup the production costs through Chinese ticket sales alone.

"I tried to get across themes that would be understood by a Western audience," he said. "There are elements that are purely Chinese, but I made an effort to keep a balance between the two."

Miramax was one of his biggest backers, covering nearly two-thirds of the film's $30 million cost. On Miramax's advice, he cut 20 minutes to speed the pace and make it more palatable for American audiences.

"America is a big market, and I wanted it to succeed, so I agreed," Mr. Zhang said. The uncut version was released in China on DVD.

Talk of the cuts and the delay in bringing the film to American theaters fed rumors that Miramax wasn't happy with the film. But both Miramax and Mr. Zhang say that was never true and that technical factors alone were responsible for the delay. (In Variety today, Harvey Weinstein, the co-chairman of Miramax, wrote a guest column recounting his firm's differences with the Chinese distributors of "Hero" and other obstacles to the "full Oscar push" he says he had planned for it.)

Miramax originally wanted to release the film in 2003 but held back when another martial-arts film, Jackie Chan's "Medallion," appeared on the market. It then planned the release to follow Quentin Tarantino's "Kill Bill" series, running trailers for "Hero" on the DVD of "Kill Bill Vol. 1" and in theaters with "Kill Bill Vol. 2." It also put a "Quentin Tarantino Presents" label on the film, hoping to draw interest from the director's followers.

The strategy apparently worked. "Making that association was very useful for getting the film out to an American audience," Mr. Zhang said.

He expects the success of "Hero" to help his next picture, "House of Flying Daggers," another martial-arts saga that is scheduled to open in American theaters in December - distributed, like "Crouching Tiger," by Sony Pictures Classics. He is in Europe promoting the film, which is set in the waning days of the Tang Dynasty and follows the story of two star-crossed lovers fighting a shadowy revolutionary alliance.

"It should be at least as well received, and maybe will exceed 'Hero,' because it is a film about love, and American audiences may find it easier to understand," Mr. Zhang said.



Copyright 2004 The New York Times Company

[SunWuKong]

The Hong Kong filmmaker Zhang Yimou

incorrect. he is from mainland China.

[hooligan]

incorrect. he is from mainland China.
no, he's from taiwan.

[SunWuKong]

no, he's from taiwan.

Zhang Yimou? are you joking? he's a "5th Generation" filmmaker from China. he's part of the 5th generation of graduates from the Beijing Film Academy. his first film as director of photography was Chen Kaige's (also a 5th generation filmmaker) Yellow Earth and his directorial debut was Red Sorghum (also Gong Li's debut).

[hooligan]

Zhang Yimou? are you joking? he's a "5th Generation" filmmaker from China. he's part of the 5th generation of graduates from the Beijing Film Academy. his first film as director of photography was Chen Kaige's (also a 5th generation filmmaker) Yellow Earth and his directorial debut was Red Sorghum (also Gong Li's debut).:rolleyes: :wink:

[Banana]

He's from Texas! I read it on the internet!

[bluemonq]

imdb backs him up on that:

Biography for Yimou Zhang
---
Nickname: Lao Mou Zi, loosely meaning "old schemer/strategist"
Spouse: Hua Xie (? - ?) (divorced)
Trivia:
Attended the Beijing Film Academy, Beijing, China

Zhang Yimou is part of China's Fifth Generation of filmmakers, who began making films after the Cultural Revolution. Others from this group include Chen Kaige and Zhang Junzhao.

Dated actress Li Gong. [1987-1995]

[Napoleon Chynamite]

I wonder if he took a liking to Zhang Ziyi because he saw her as like a younger lookin Li Gong ;)

[Tao]

man the new york times have been sucking monkey balls lately when it comes to getting the news correctly.

[truMp]

wth. i was positive the guy was from hk.

[Napoleon Chynamite]

wth. i was positive the guy was from hk.

Most people from Taiwan or HK don't use the "Zhang" spelling for their surname.

[yoMAMA]

He's from the mainland, but he's lives in HK now.

[s1eve]

Anyone care to point me where I can purchase the dvd for this film?

Cheers

[yoMAMA]

Anyone care to point me where I can purchase the dvd for this film?

Cheers

Amazon?

SWK knows chinese online websites where you can order them.

:biggrin:

[lethal]

I think you can buy it on asiacd.com...which is now http://us.yesasia.com/en/index.aspx

[SunWuKong]

I wonder if he took a liking to Zhang Ziyi because he saw her as like a younger lookin Li Gong ;)

by the way, it's Gong Li. (assuming you're doing surname-first order.)

I think you can buy it on asiacd.com...which is now http://us.yesasia.com/en/index.aspx


you can also try
http://aznfilms.com/default.php

and
http://store.fivestarlaser.com/

[robotic]

Q_Q but it won't be released here...

*cries*

[truMp]

Q_Q but it won't be released here...

*cries*

rent it.

[SunWuKong]

Q_Q but it won't be released here...

*cries*

you can check to see if www.yesasia.com ships to wherever you are.

[Faithless]

What's the difference between the Hero film that QT is involved with and Zhang Yimou's "Hero"?

[bigwong235]

i don't think there was any difference. just the american release had a "presented by QT" tag slapped onto it.

i bought this movie a couple of years ago on dvd, but my brother refused to watch it. he didn't see any trailers or commericals for it and finally saw it in the movie theaters last week. he loved it. i saw it again in the movie theaters a couple of days ago, and thought that it was definitely worth the theater experience.

[Irezumi Kiss]

i don't think there was any difference. just the american release had a "presented by QT" tag slapped onto it.

i bought this movie a couple of years ago on dvd, but my brother refused to watch it. he didn't see any trailers or commericals for it and finally saw it in the movie theaters last week. he loved it. i saw it again in the movie theaters a couple of days ago, and thought that it was definitely worth the theater experience.
I totally agree. I could've gotten the DVD in Chinatown earlier this summer, but decided against it to see it on the big screen and I'm SO glad I did cuz my so-called "home theatre" is a peesa shyt compared to a big-azz cinema...

The only thing I'm thinking now is, since the movie is like, hotness right now, they probably jacked up the price of the DVD down there...grrrrrr!

[Filiprish]

http://graphics7.nytimes.com/images/misc/logoprinter.gif

September 2, 2004

'Hero' Soars, and Its Director Thanks 'Crouching Tiger'

By CRAIG S. SMITH

http://graphics7.nytimes.com/images/2004/09/02/arts/02ZHEN.1.184.jpg
(Owen Franken for The New York Times)
The Chinese film director Zhang Yimou
at his hotel in Paris yesterday.

http://graphics7.nytimes.com/images/dropcap/t.gifhe Hong Kong filmmaker Zhang Yimou, in Europe to promote his next martial-arts movie, is bemused by the surprise response from American moviegoers to his first one, the epic "Hero," which broke box-office records last weekend for an Asian film released in the United States.

"I never thought it would be so popular," Mr. Zhang said by telephone from London.

He gives the credit to another movie that almost stopped his from being made, and then contributed to a long delay in its release in the United States - the director Ang Lee's "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" - and to savvy marketing by the distributor of "Hero," Miramax.

" 'Crouching Tiger' created an audience for this kind of film," Mr. Zhang, speaking Mandarin, said in his signature mumble.

Known as a maker of intimate, intense dramas like "Raise the Red Lantern," Mr. Zhang began writing the script for "Hero" in the late 1990's, when attitudes in the mainstream film world softened toward one of his lifelong loves, martial-arts tales.

He said he nearly abandoned the script when "Crouching Tiger" was released in 2000, fearing people would accuse him of riding on Ang Lee's coattails. But he discovered when he persevered that the success of "Crouching Tiger" - the film, made for an estimated $15 million, sold $128 million in tickets in the United States alone, according to imdb.com - made it easier for him to raise money for his own film's production.

The "Hero" story - of a third century B.C. assassin who comes within reach of China's legendary King of Qin but fails to kill him - is well known to the Chinese. In Mr. Zhang's telling, the assassin gives up the opportunity to kill the king for the good of the empire emerging under the king's rule. The king orders the would-be assassin killed instead.

"The hero sacrifices himself for peace," Mr. Zhang said, a concept that he said resonated with Chinese audiences, who also saw contemporary parallels in the self-sacrifice for a brutal ruler. When the film was released in China in late 2002, "Hero" beat even "Titanic" to become the country's highest-grossing film.

Still, Mr. Zhang said he kept Western audiences in mind while making the film because he knew he would not be able to recoup the production costs through Chinese ticket sales alone.

"I tried to get across themes that would be understood by a Western audience," he said. "There are elements that are purely Chinese, but I made an effort to keep a balance between the two."

Miramax was one of his biggest backers, covering nearly two-thirds of the film's $30 million cost. On Miramax's advice, he cut 20 minutes to speed the pace and make it more palatable for American audiences.

"America is a big market, and I wanted it to succeed, so I agreed," Mr. Zhang said. The uncut version was released in China on DVD.

Talk of the cuts and the delay in bringing the film to American theaters fed rumors that Miramax wasn't happy with the film. But both Miramax and Mr. Zhang say that was never true and that technical factors alone were responsible for the delay. (In Variety today, Harvey Weinstein, the co-chairman of Miramax, wrote a guest column recounting his firm's differences with the Chinese distributors of "Hero" and other obstacles to the "full Oscar push" he says he had planned for it.)

Miramax originally wanted to release the film in 2003 but held back when another martial-arts film, Jackie Chan's "Medallion," appeared on the market. It then planned the release to follow Quentin Tarantino's "Kill Bill" series, running trailers for "Hero" on the DVD of "Kill Bill Vol. 1" and in theaters with "Kill Bill Vol. 2." It also put a "Quentin Tarantino Presents" label on the film, hoping to draw interest from the director's followers.

The strategy apparently worked. "Making that association was very useful for getting the film out to an American audience," Mr. Zhang said.

He expects the success of "Hero" to help his next picture, "House of Flying Daggers," another martial-arts saga that is scheduled to open in American theaters in December - distributed, like "Crouching Tiger," by Sony Pictures Classics. He is in Europe promoting the film, which is set in the waning days of the Tang Dynasty and follows the story of two star-crossed lovers fighting a shadowy revolutionary alliance.

"It should be at least as well received, and maybe will exceed 'Hero,' because it is a film about love, and American audiences may find it easier to understand," Mr. Zhang said.

[SunWuKong]

threads have been merged.

[SunWuKong]

threads have been merged.

[applehead]

so i saw this movie at the theatre
last weekend and i just thought it was
the most prettiest film i've seen.
omg. it was so beautiful.

but i'm wondering, is the story
about the emperor and the great
wall true??

[applehead]

oh sorry! i just read through the whole thread
and found my answer to the above question.

i think everyone who loved this film
and haven't yet seen it on the big screen
should do so. it's a whole different experience.

[loserbutt]

does anyone else find the ending of hero to be disturbing? In the end, the assassin decides that the destruction of his homeland and the eradication of his culture is worth the goal of peace, since the more they fought the longer it would go on. And yet... if the Qin tyrant himself simply decided to not go on bloody conquests, there would have been peace. Beautiful movie, horrible ending.

[Kennyb]

Well, the history of China during the time of Hero was infact one of the most barbaric period. I thought the ending was very true to the history of China - it's a mix between a fictional story using real history.

I recommend the book 'Romance of the Three Kingdom' if you want to know exactly how bad the war was in China.

[tint]

And yet... if the Qin tyrant himself simply decided to not go on bloody conquests, there would have been peace. Beautiful movie, horrible ending.
During the Warring States period, there were no peace. The seven states were constantly at war with each other. The message from the movie is pure propaganda and that's why the Chinese government loves it - one country. Peace is a side effect. Like all tyrants, the Qin king's goal was for more power.


Well, the history of China during the time of Hero was infact one of the most barbaric period. I thought the ending was very true to the history of China - it's a mix between a fictional story using real history.

I recommend the book 'Romance of the Three Kingdom' if you want to know exactly how bad the war was in China.
The Three Kingdoms era comes more than four hundred years after the time of "Hero." After the fall of the Han dynasty the country went into a civil war overran by warlords under three major powers (three kingdoms or nations).

[loserbutt]

true. and, some people would say that if not for Qin and the stagnating effect that his one-nation rule had, China might have been on par, if not far ahead of Europe in the technology race, and thus not have to suffer the humiliation of being roundly beaten by European powers.

And, the end message is that the weak should give in to the strong? that's incredibly... horrible. And, tell that to people in Tibet, Mongolia, or Taiwan...

[Faithless]

Finally saw it on DVD after a couple of years of anticipation. "Stylized" is right.

If that's the supposed history, so be it. But from a western perspective, it was probably hard to swallow.

It's funny that the fighting scenes with the wires just won't go away. If this is supposed to be history, it sort of cheapens it, in my mind.

And the fighting scenes on the water. Is that just a copied cliche that is overdone? Or is it supposed to symbolize something else?

[SunWuKong]

During the Warring States period, there were no peace. The seven states were constantly at war with each other. The message from the movie is pure propaganda and that's why the Chinese government loves it - one country. Peace is a side effect. Like all tyrants, the Qin king's goal was for more power.

that's what a lot of Western journalists have said, that it was made so the Chinese government would love it. but if you notice that at the end, Qin Shi Huang was pushed into executing Jet Li's character by a bunch of faceless ministers crowding around him. i'm not sure if Zhang Yimou actually meant it all to be symbolic of current times (and a lot of times i think film academics think there's more symbolism in Zhang Yimou's films than he actually meant there to be), but whatever or whoever Qin Shi Huang is supposed to represent, he didn't actually want to be so ruthless.

traditionally, Qin Shi Huang has always been simply portrayed as a ruthless and even mad tyrant. i think Zhang Yimou was just trying to portray him as human, and i don't necessarily think that the film was made to appease the Chinese censors.

[deez nuts]

from what i've gathered from zhang yimou's movies that i've watched is that he isn't really one to try and appease the chinese censors/chinese government in his movies rather prefers to "poke" at them.

then again, i don't know how accurate my assessment is since the only time i watch chinese movies is when my parents want me to spend quality time with them or when mother is persistent in nagging me to go out and rent a chinese movie that she watched and really liked.

[SunWuKong]

true. and, some people would say that if not for Qin and the stagnating effect that his one-nation rule had, China might have been on par, if not far ahead of Europe in the technology race, and thus not have to suffer the humiliation of being roundly beaten by European powers.

if not for the Qin, there may not even be a China. Qin Shi Huang was the first to unify the people under one nation. and anyway, Qin dynasty China itself only lasted for 14 years. it was Han dynasty China that really cemented the one nation mentality, it lasted for about 400 years. and Han was a dynasty in which China flourished, instead of stagnate (until the end of the Han dynasty - but almost all dynasties stagnated in its ending periods).

in my opinion it was Confucianism that made China stagnate. it doesn't place a very high value on modernism and discoveries. and there're many more reasons to Europe's rise to power than simply that they were fighting each other all the time. shit, African countries never unified, why didn't they ever rise to power globally?

And, the end message is that the weak should give in to the strong? that's incredibly... horrible. And, tell that to people in Tibet, Mongolia, or Taiwan...

it was more like, unifying one people under a benevolent rule. but i guess that's up for interpretation.

Finally saw it on DVD after a couple of years of anticipation. "Stylized" is right.

If that's the supposed history, so be it. But from a western perspective, it was probably hard to swallow.

It's funny that the fighting scenes with the wires just won't go away. If this is supposed to be history, it sort of cheapens it, in my mind.

And the fighting scenes on the water. Is that just a copied cliche that is overdone? Or is it supposed to symbolize something else?

the "stylised" cinematography probably comes from Christopher Doyle. he worked on this movie. but the distinct colours in the film definitely came from Zhang Yimou. he always had a tendency to do something like that in his films, but just to a lesser extreme than it was done in Hero.

from what i've gathered from zhang yimou's movies that i've watched is that he isn't really one to try and appease the chinese censors/chinese government in his movies rather prefers to "poke" at them.

yes, when he was criticised by the government for making films that aren't modern, because they were based in post-Qing and pre-communist eras, he went and made a film set in modern times called Qiu Ju Da Guan Si (Qiu Ju Goes To Court). on the face of it, it praised the Chinese judicial system, and the censors completely bought it. but when you think about it for a few minutes, you realise it was a criticism of how bad the Chinese judicial system is.

[Faithless]

Two (non content) things that irk me about the movie --

* Tarantino giving billing as the "presenter". He really needn't. I think the movie could stand on its own merits. Did "Crouching Tiger..." need Tarantino?

* The one DVD cover with Jet Li and Zhang Ziyi. I might be wrong, but the Ziyi character was, sort of, a minor character. If anything, the Maggie Cheung character should really be featured on the DVD cover.

[SunWuKong]

Two (non content) things that irk me about the movie --

* Tarantino giving billing as the "presenter". He really needn't. I think the movie could stand on its own merits. Did "Crouching Tiger..." need Tarantino?

i don't know if that was Tarantino's idea, but hey, if i was him and the Miramax wanted to pay me so they can mention my name with the movie, why the hell not?

* The one DVD cover with Jet Li and Zhang Ziyi. I might be wrong, but the Ziyi character was, sort of, a minor character. If anything, the Maggie Cheung character should really be featured on the DVD cover.

that's because the American audience knows who Zhang Ziyi is, so she is a selling point. the posters/covers for the Chinese audience generally don't have her prominently displayed.

[Faithless]

i don't know if that was Tarantino's idea, but hey, if i was him and the Miramax wanted to pay me so they can mention my name with the movie, why the hell not?
Well, in the DVD, and you probably know this, Tarantino has his spot in the special features where he is allowed to comment on the film.

(I would have also expected him to talk in the beginning, like Miyazaki does in some of his DVD's.)

He makes the comment that he wasn't sure that "Zhang Yimou" was right for the film, originally, to direct a martial arts film. I think he said.

As if Tarantino was? :rolleyes: I think Zhang Yimou probably watched the same films as Tarantino did, so that he knew enough to construct the action scenes.

[kimpossible]

Two (non content) things that irk me about the movie --

* Tarantino giving billing as the "presenter"
Yeah, I just heard about that. I like the dude enough on his own but I find it irritating that he's becoming synonymous with 'Asian cinema' in the US. He's like a white Hollywood eclipse.

[Faithless]

Yeah, I just heard about that. I like the dude enough on his own but I find it irritating that he's becoming synonymous with 'Asian cinema' in the US. He's like a white Hollywood eclipse.
I guess that's just we get when it's comes through Miramax.

On the DVD, there is some other dude who is a supposed expert in Chinese films.

Does anyone know about this documentary?

Cause - The Birth of Hero (http://global.yesasia.com/en/PrdDept.aspx?pid=1002443675).
The birth of "Hero" came about through a lucky meeting of common people … (Gan Lu, director of "Cause - The Birth of Hero").
This stunning documentary highlights the making of "Hero", which was directed by international renowned filmmaker Zhang Yi-mou and is 2002's most long-awaited martial arts film. Following the remarkable success of "Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon" (2001), this movie will probably be on the list nominated for "Best Foreign Movie" in the coming Oscar Award presentation. Want to preview this amazing movie? Grab a copy of "Cause - The Birth of Hero" now!

[Faithless]

OKay, whose got there's?

http://www.legendshobbies.com/hero/hero01.htm

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v245/chottomatte/hero000t.jpg