Martial Masters of Movies!
Sep. 11th, 2004 02:43 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
chaosvizierAnd on Day Five of what will eventually be another epic 19-day work week, the office gave a collective "fuck this noise", drank a lot of wine, and dispersed early (early being hour eleven of the workday). In celebration of this magical event, I went to see Jet Li kick ass in Hero. Mainly becaue Jet Li is the man.
Hero
Martial Arts movies have always, I think, been a stable home for all the cheese in Paris. Many of us remember sitting around on Sunday afternoons watching Kung Fu theater, where Shaolin Monks battled evil warlords to defend the weak, using increasingly improbably techniques that involved floating through the air, balancing on treetops, shaking the earth, and even draining the life force from their enemies using Essence Absorption Stance (no, I'm not making that up; go rent Swordsman II starring Jet Li to witness it). This is a fundamental part of Asian-based martial arts films. It is interesting to note that American-made martial arts films, from Bruce Lee's movies up to Steven Seagal's, are a bit lighter on the "wire-fu" and more into the raw and bloody conflict. The Matrix is an exception... but I'll go into that another time.
Myself, I like the fantastic elements that foreign martial arts films offer. Some people think the whole flying through the air and dangling from wires is too much, too off-the-wall. I agree with this perspective, but at the same time, I just love cheese, and so watching combatants defy gravity while fighting entertains me to no end.
Accept that when watching Hero.
The plot: Two guys tell one story five different ways. Broken Sword gets his ass kicked EVERY SINGLE TIME.
The pros: If you're watching a martial arts movie, you probably want to see really good fight scenes. The film does not disappoint- Jet Li, Donnie Yen, Zhang Ziyi and Tony Leung all offer excellent demonstrations of their skills. My two favorite fights are between Nameless and Sky, and Broken Sword and the King. The story is simple, but well-done: a nameless warrior tells the King of Qin how he killed the three assassins that threatened the King, and then they trade wisdom and wit until the truth finally emerges. The scenery and effects are vivid, especially the battle in the leafy flower garden thing and the battle on the lake. They jump, they fly, they swing swords, and they kick ass. Also, the Army of Qin is pretty much the most overkilling bunch of motherfuckers this side of the Great Wall. "Look, a school. Let's hit it with eleventy-billion arrows!"
The cons: The movie is not too short, but I think some of the fight scenes could have been enhanced, lengthened, or just made more...detailed. I think the best fights were early on in the film. There's lots of wire-flying, which might not appeal to those who don't really enjoy that kind of thing. Even for me, the battle on the lake could have used more fighting and less flying. The story was simple, and effective, but it took me a few moments to finally recognize which story was "the most true" of them all.
The verdict: Loads of butt-kicking, with swords. An excellent 96 minutes of martial arts filmmaking. Subtitle. Go see it. See it now.
Disclaimer: I dare you to play this game and then watch this movie. If you can go through the whole film without saying "ARROWED!" then you're a better person than I.
Hero
Martial Arts movies have always, I think, been a stable home for all the cheese in Paris. Many of us remember sitting around on Sunday afternoons watching Kung Fu theater, where Shaolin Monks battled evil warlords to defend the weak, using increasingly improbably techniques that involved floating through the air, balancing on treetops, shaking the earth, and even draining the life force from their enemies using Essence Absorption Stance (no, I'm not making that up; go rent Swordsman II starring Jet Li to witness it). This is a fundamental part of Asian-based martial arts films. It is interesting to note that American-made martial arts films, from Bruce Lee's movies up to Steven Seagal's, are a bit lighter on the "wire-fu" and more into the raw and bloody conflict. The Matrix is an exception... but I'll go into that another time.
Myself, I like the fantastic elements that foreign martial arts films offer. Some people think the whole flying through the air and dangling from wires is too much, too off-the-wall. I agree with this perspective, but at the same time, I just love cheese, and so watching combatants defy gravity while fighting entertains me to no end.
Accept that when watching Hero.
The plot: Two guys tell one story five different ways. Broken Sword gets his ass kicked EVERY SINGLE TIME.
The pros: If you're watching a martial arts movie, you probably want to see really good fight scenes. The film does not disappoint- Jet Li, Donnie Yen, Zhang Ziyi and Tony Leung all offer excellent demonstrations of their skills. My two favorite fights are between Nameless and Sky, and Broken Sword and the King. The story is simple, but well-done: a nameless warrior tells the King of Qin how he killed the three assassins that threatened the King, and then they trade wisdom and wit until the truth finally emerges. The scenery and effects are vivid, especially the battle in the leafy flower garden thing and the battle on the lake. They jump, they fly, they swing swords, and they kick ass. Also, the Army of Qin is pretty much the most overkilling bunch of motherfuckers this side of the Great Wall. "Look, a school. Let's hit it with eleventy-billion arrows!"
The cons: The movie is not too short, but I think some of the fight scenes could have been enhanced, lengthened, or just made more...detailed. I think the best fights were early on in the film. There's lots of wire-flying, which might not appeal to those who don't really enjoy that kind of thing. Even for me, the battle on the lake could have used more fighting and less flying. The story was simple, and effective, but it took me a few moments to finally recognize which story was "the most true" of them all.
The verdict: Loads of butt-kicking, with swords. An excellent 96 minutes of martial arts filmmaking. Subtitle. Go see it. See it now.
Disclaimer: I dare you to play this game and then watch this movie. If you can go through the whole film without saying "ARROWED!" then you're a better person than I.
