Review: "GODZILLA: KING OF THE MONSTERS" Does Too Much

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 15 of 2024 (No. 1959) by Leroy Douresseaux

Godzilla: King of the Monsters (2019)

Running time: 132 minutes (2 hours, 12 minutes)

MPA – PG-13 for sequences of monster action violence and destruction, and for some language

DIRECTOR:  Michael Dougherty

WRITERS:  Michael Dougherty and Zach Shields; from a story by Max Borenstein and Michael Dougherty and Zach Shields (based on characters owned by Toho Co., Ltd.)

PRODUCERS:  Jon Jashni, Alex Garcia, Mary Parent, Brian Rogers, and Thomas Tull

CINEMATOGRAPHER:  Lawrence Sher (D.o.P.)

EDITORS:  Bob Ducsay, Roger Barton, and Richard Pearson

COMPOSER:  Bear McCreary

SCI-FI/ACTION/MILITARY

Starring:  Kyle Chandler, Vera Farmiga, Millie Bobby Brown, Ken Watanabe, Ziyi Zhang, Bradley Whitford, Sally Hawkins, Charles Dance, Thomas Middleditch, Aisha Hinds, O'Shea Jackson, Jr., David Strathairn, Anthony Ramos, Elizabeth Faith Ludlow, CCH Pounder, and Joe Morton

Godzilla: King of the Monsters is a 2019 monster movie and action film directed by Michael Dougherty.  Produced by Legendary Pictures and distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures, this film is the third entry in the “MonsterVerse” film series, which began with Godzilla (2014).  Godzilla: King of the Monsters pits the monster-monitoring agency, Monarch, against a legendary monster, and the only hope for the world is the missing Godzilla.

Godzilla: King of the Monsters opens five years after the events depicted in Godzilla (2014).  The world is now aware of the existence of giant monsters called “Titans.”  Monarch is the U.S. government agency that monitors and studies the Titans (which it once called “MUTOs” or “massive unidentified terrestrial organisms).  It has bases (bunkers) around the world where its scientists struggle to find a way in which humanity and the Titans can share the planet.

In a bunker located in the Rainforest of Xishuangbanna in China's Yunnan Province, Monarch scientist Dr. Emma Russell (Vera Farmiga) has developed a device, called “ORCA,” that can emit frequencies that can attract Titans or alter their behavior.  However, her research has attracted the attention of Alan Jonah (Charles Dance), a former British military officer turned eco-terrorist, who wants control of ORCA.  He kidnaps Emma and her daughter, Madison Russell (Millie Bobby Brown).

Monarch scientists, Dr. Ishiro Serizawa (Ken Watanabe) and Vivienne Graham (Sally Hawkins), approach Emma's estranged husband and Madison's father, Dr. Mark Russell (Kyle Chandler), to help track down Emma, Jonah, and ORCA.  However, Jonah has already forced Emma to use ORCA to awaken the legendary “Monster Zero,” the three-headed dragon known as King Ghidorah.  Now, Serizawa must convince the U.S. government and military that the only Titan capable of stopping Ghidorah is “Gojira,” a.k.a. “Godzilla.”  But where is Godzilla?  Also, where do newly awakened Titans, “Mothra” and “Rodan,” stand in this battle royale of monsters?

The “MonsterVerse” is an American multimedia franchise that includes movies; a streaming live-action television series (Apple TV+) and a streaming animated series (Netflix); books and comic books; and video games.  It is a shared fictional universe that includes the character, “Godzilla” and other characters owned and created by the Japanese entertainment company, Toho Co., Ltd.  The MonsterVerse is a reboot of Toho's Godzilla franchise.  It is also a reboot of the King Kong franchise, which is based on the character, “King Kong,” that was created by actor and filmmaker, Merian C. Cooper (1893-1973).

The fifth film in the MonsterVerse series, Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire, is due to be released sometime in March 2023, so I have decided to watch and review the previous four films:  Godzilla (2014), Kong: Skull Island (2017), 2019's Godzilla: King of the Monsters (which is the subject of this review), and Godzilla vs. Kong (2021).

Godzilla: King of the Monsters is the ultimate giant monster smack-down.  With the wizardry of digital VFX and supernatural CGI, King of the Monsters is a monster mash infused with visual splendor.  This movie is non-stop action, practically from the start.  It is so much an action movie that if you could cut it, King of the Monsters would bleed fire and brimstone.  To add the craziness, each new monster reveal is mind-blowing and even mind-bending...

...but after about 75 minutes, Godzilla: King of the Monsters wore me down.  The writers and actors have fashioned a cast that has almost twenty characters with dramatic potential.  The Russell family subplot about the loss the son, Andrew, is only used to sell dysfunctional family contrivances, which is a shame.  The monster movie theatrics get bigger and bigger with each minute of this story, but the drama and story shrink with each minute until they are flimsy like wet toilet paper.

Godzilla: King of the Monsters is as exciting as any other blockbuster.  Few, if any, monster movies will ever be as epic as it is when it comes to big monster fights.  Few monster movies will ever be as gorgeous as it is in terms of cinematography, special effects, production values, and visuals.  This is “cinema of sensations” writ large and out of control, and that's a shame.  Godzilla: King of the Monsters is a monster of a movie, but I wish its human element was just as awesome.

[This film has one scene after the end credits.]

B

6 of 10

★★★ out of 4 stars

Thursday, March 21, 2024

The text is copyright © 2024 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved.  Contact this blog or site for reprint and syndication rights and fees.

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New "Godzilla" Movie Has Begun Filming

Warner Bros. Pictures’ and Legendary Pictures’ MonsterVerse Kicks into Gear as the Next Godzilla Feature Gets Underway

Director Michael Dougherty helms the film in which stars Kyle Chandler, Vera Farmiga, Millie Bobby Brown, Ken Watanabe and Zhang Ziyi take on the King of the Monsters…and more

BURBANK, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Following the global success of 2014’s “Godzilla” and this year’s “Kong: Skull Island,” comes the next chapter in Warner Bros. Pictures’ and Legendary Pictures’ cinematic MonsterVerse: an epic action adventure that pits Godzilla against some of the most popular monsters in pop culture history.

The film, which begins principal photography, is being directed by Michael Dougherty (“Krampus”), and stars Oscar nominees Vera Farmiga (“Up in the Air,” “The Conjuring” films), and Ken Watanabe (“The Last Samurai”) and Sally Hawkins (“Blue Jasmine”), both reprising their “Godzilla” roles; Kyle Chandler (“The Wolf of Wall Street,” “Manchester by the Sea”); Millie Bobby Brown (“Stranger Things”) in her feature film debut; Bradley Whitford (“Get Out”); Thomas Middleditch (HBO’s “Silicon Valley”); Charles Dance (HBO’s “Game of Thrones”); O’Shea Jackson Jr. (“Straight Outta Compton”); Aisha Hinds (“Star Trek Into Darkness”); and Golden Globe nominee Zhang Ziyi (“Memoirs of a Geisha,” “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon”).

The new story follows the heroic efforts of the crypto-zoological agency Monarch as its members face off against a battery of god-sized monsters, including the mighty Godzilla, who collides with Mothra, Rodan, and his ultimate nemesis, the three-headed King Ghidorah. When these ancient super-species—thought to be mere myths—rise again, they all vie for supremacy, leaving humanity’s very existence hanging in the balance.

Dougherty directs from a script he wrote with Zach Shields. The film is being produced by Mary Parent, Alex Garcia, Brian Rogers and Thomas Tull, with Barry H. Waldman, Zach Shields, Yoshimitsu Banno and Kenji Okuhira serving as executive producers and Alexandra Mendes co-producing for Legendary.

Behind the scenes, Dougherty’s creative team includes director of photography Lawrence Sher, whose past credits include “War Dogs” and “Godzilla,” for which he handled additional photography; production designer Scott Chambliss (“Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2,” “Star Trek Into Darkness”); editor Roger Barton (“Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales,” the “Transformers” films); costume designer Louise Migenbach (the “X-Men” and “Hangover” films); and Oscar-winning VFX supervisor Guillaume Rocheron (“Godzilla,” “Ghost in the Shell,” and part of the Oscar-winning team behind “Life of Pi ”).

Filming is taking place mainly in Atlanta, Georgia. A presentation of Warner Bros. Pictures and Legendary Pictures, the film is currently scheduled for release in March 2019, and will be distributed in 3D and 2D and in select IMAX theaters by Warner Bros. Pictures, a Warner Bros. Entertainment Company, except in Japan, where it will be distributed by Toho Co., Ltd.

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Review: "House of Flying Daggers" is a Martial Arts Spectacle (Happy B'day, Ziyi Zhang)

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 71 (of 2005) by Leroy Douresseaux

Shi mian mai fu (2004)
International English title: House of Flying Daggers
COUNTRY OF ORIGIN:  China/Hong Kong; Language: Mandarin
Running time:  119 minutes (1 hour, 59 minutes)
MPAA – PG-13 for sequences of stylized martial arts violence and some sexuality
DIRECTOR:  Zhang Yimou
WRITERS:  Feng Li, Bin Wang, and Zhang Yimou
PRODUCERS:  William Kong and Zhang Yimou
CINEMATOGRAPHER:  Xiaoding Zhao
EDITOR:  Long Cheng
COMPOSER:  Shigeru Umebayashi
Academy Award nominee

MARTIAL ARTS/DRAMA/ROMANCE/FANTASY

Starring:  Takeshi Kaneshiro, Andy Lau, Ziyi Zhang, and Dandan Song

The subject of this movie review is Shi mian mai fu, a 2004 Chinese and Hong Kong wuxia film that is known in English as House of Flying Daggers.  A romantic drama and martial arts-fantasy, the film is directed by Zhang Yimou (Raise the Red Lantern).  House of Flying Daggers follows a police captain and the beautiful member of a rebel group he breaks out of prison.

China, 859 A.D. – it is near the end of the Tang Dynasty, and corrupt leaders rule over the country.  However, a revolutionary faction known as the Flying Daggers challenges authority, robbing from the rich to give to the poor.  Jin (Takeshi Kaneshiro) and Leo (Andy Lau), two police detectives, believe Mei (Ziyi Zhang), a blind dancer, is a member of the group.  They hatch a plan for Jin to pretend to be a rebel-of-sorts who rescues Mei from jail.  He then accompanies her to the north country in the hopes that she will take him to the House of Flying Daggers.  However, Mei’s beauty bowls over Jin, and he finds himself determined to protect her on their perilous journey; on the other hand, it seems as if no one is who he or she says he or she is.

As a follow up to his internationally acclaimed film known as Hero (2002, but released wide theatrically to U.S. audiences in 2004), director Zhang Yimou once again delves into China’s legendary martial past in Shi mian mai fu or House of Flying Daggers.  House of Flying Daggers is similar to the 2002 film except that House is more like a musical poem with romantic trappings, with romance having both the modern connotations and its 19-century literary and artistic meanings.  Hero was an epic tale of espionage, romance and revenge that looked at China’s mythical past as a celebration of Chinese nationalism.  Flying Daggers is more emotional; the stunning cinematography (by far the best of 2004), the luxuriant costumes, the abundantly colorful back drops are meant to evoke feelings more than to get the viewer to think about the film’s surprising plot twists and turns.

Action choreographer Tony Ching Siu-Tung, who worked with Yimou on Hero, once again turns in some delicious fight scenes that are different from his work in Hero and meant to fit the mood and impressionistic flavor of Flying Daggers.  The cast is also quite good, and it’s a shame that Ziyi Zhang was once again ignored by Oscar, as she was for Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.  She has a wonderful talent for playing dualities:  coy to aggressive, innocent to beguiling, weak to strong, and helpless to fully capable.  Her face is a small mask, capable of a seemingly endless array of subtle shifts that embellish both the character and the story.  Takeshi Kaneshiro, who almost gets lost next to Ziyi Zhang, plays Jin with his heart on his sleeve and his soul open for the audience to see the conflicting emotions within him, a performance that really drives this film’s tricky plot.

House of Flying Daggers is a visually arresting film (frame after frame of breathtaking, mind-bending beauty), maybe more so than Hero.  However, the film does seem to dry up on several occasions, and the script is careless with some of the character motivation.  Still, the film’s intense and overwhelming visual beauty makes it a must see for lovers of cinema, and fans of Asian cinema and hot martial arts will also certainly like this.

8 of 10
A

NOTES:

Saturday, April 23, 2005

Updated: Sunday, February 09, 2014


NOTES:
2005 Academy Awards, USA:  1 nomination: “Best Achievement in Cinematography” (Xiaoding Zhao)

2005 Golden Globes, USA:  1 nomination: “Best Foreign Language Film (Hong Kong)

2005 BAFTA Awards:  9 nominations: “Best Film not in the English Language” (William Kong and Yimou Zhang), “Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role” (Ziyi Zhang), “Best Cinematography” (Xiaoding Zhao), “Best Editing” (Long Cheng), “Best Production Design” (Tingxiao Huo), “Best Costume Design” (Emi Wada), “Best Sound” (Jing Tao and Roger Savage), “Best Achievement in Special Visual Effects” (Angie Lam, Andy Brown, Kirsty Millar, and Luke Hetherington), and “Best Make Up/Hair” (Lee-na Kwan, Xiaohai Yang, and Siu-Mui Chau)

2005 Image Awards: “Outstanding Independent or Foreign Film”

The text is copyright © 2014 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this site for syndication rights and fees.

Review: "Rush Hour 2" Improves on the Original (Happy B'day, Chris Tucker)

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 113 (of 2007) by Leroy Douresseaux

Rush Hour 2 (2001)
Running time:  90 minutes (1 hour, 30 minutes)
MPAA – PG-13 for action violence, language, and some sexual content
DIRECTOR:  Brett Ratner
WRITER:  Jeff Nathanson (based upon the characters created by Ross LaManna)
PRODUCERS:  Roger Birnbaum, Jonathan Glickman, Arthur Sarkissian, and Jay Stern
CINEMATOGRAPHER:  Matthew F. Leonetti
EDITORS:  Mark Helfrich and Robert K. Lambert
COMPOSER:  Lalo Schifrin

COMEDY/ACTION/CRIME

Starring:  Jackie Chan, Chris Tucker, John Lone, Ziyi Zhang, Roselyn Sanchez, Harris Yulin, Alan King, Jeremy Piven, Saul Rubinek, and Gianni Russo with Don Cheadle

The subject of this movie review is Rush Hour 2, a crime comedy and action film from director Brett Ratner and starring Jackie Chan and Chris Tucker.  The film is a sequel to the 1998 film, Rush Hour.  In the new film, Chan’s Lee and Tucker’s Carter are on vacation in Hong Kong when they get caught up in a counterfeit money scam.

Chief Inspector Lee (Jackie Chan) is once again the foil for Detective James Carter (Chris Tucker) as Carter comes to Hong Kong on vacation and spends much time subjecting Lee to verbal barbs.  The rest and relaxation is cut short when an explosion kills two American agents.  Lee learns that this case may be tied to crime boss Ricky Tan (John Lone).

Tan is a former policeman and was the partner of Lee’s father until Tan betrayed him.  Lee and Carter follow the case back to Los Angeles, where they meet Isabella Molina (Roselyn Sanchez), a sexy customs agent.  Isabella informs them that Tan is part of an international scheme to launder 100 million dollars in counterfeit U.S. currency.  Lee and Carter head to Las Vegas, the epicenter of Tan’s scheme, for an explosive showdown.

Rush Hour 2 is Rush Hour, but with some improvements.  The screen chemistry between Jackie Chan and Chris Tucker, which was quite good in the first film, is even better this time around.  It’s as if three years haven’t passed between the first film and this one.  They have a near-flawless rhythm and flow, and their performances turn this flimsy joke of a crime plot into action/comedy gold.  Rush Hour 2 does have one big problem – there’s not enough of it.

7 of 10
B+

Thursday, August 09, 2007

Updated:  Saturday, August 31, 2013

The text is copyright © 2013 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this blog for syndication rights and fees.

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Review: "Memoirs of a Geisha" is a Beautiful Film with a Beautiful Heroine (Happy B'day, Gong Li)

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 102 (of 2006) by Leroy Douresseaux

Memoirs of a Geisha (2005)
Running time: 145 minutes (2 hours, 25 minutes)
MPAA – PG-13 for mature subject matter and some sexual content
DIRECTOR: Rob Marshall
WRITER: Robin Swicord (from the book by Arthur Golden)
PRODUCERS: Lucy Fisher, Steven Spielberg, and Douglas Wick
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Dion Beebe
EDITOR: Pietro Scalia
Academy Award winner

DRAMA/HISTORICAL/ROMANCE

Starring: Ziyi Zhang, Ken Watanabe, Michelle Yeoh, Kôji Yakusho, Gong Li, Suzuka Ohgo, Youki Kudoh, Kaori Momoi, Tsai Chin, Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa, Kenneth Tsang, Randall Duk Kim, Ted Levine, and Samantha Futerman

Memoirs of a Geisha is a 2005 historical and costume drama set in Japan during the Showa Era (1926-1989). The Academy Award-winning film is based upon Arthur Golden’s 1997 novel of the same name.

With her mother ailing in the years before World War II, a Japanese girl, 9-year-old Chiyo (Suzuka Ohgo), finds herself torn from her family when her penniless father sells her and her sister, Satsu (Samantha Futerman), to two Kyoto geisha houses. Chiyo endures harsh treatment from the owners of the okiya (geisha house) that buys her, and the okiya’s head geisha, Hatsumomo (Gong Li), who is envious of the nine-year-old’s stunning beauty and lovely eyes, is especially nasty. Hatsumomo’s chief rival, a geisha named Mameha (Michelle Yeoh), takes Chiyo under wing as a maiko (apprentice geisha).

In time, Mameha renames Chiyo, Sayuri (Ziyi Zhang), and she becomes Kyoto’s most famous geisha. Beautiful and accomplished in her profession, Sayuri charms some of the most powerful men of the day, but she loves one in particular, a man she met as a child and who is called The Chairman (Ken Watanabe). She hopes that one day The Chairman will chose to be her danna, the wealthy patron supports the geisha’s expensive profession. However, World War II and the post-war American Occupation threaten to take away her privileged lifestyle and make the burden of the secret love that haunts her even harder to bear.

Geisha means “art person” or “person of the arts.” Geisha skillfully entertainment men with music, dance, and conversation (which the do artfully), but geisha aren’t necessarily prostitutes, although after WWII, some young women called themselves “geisha” and prostituted themselves to American troops. Geisha were perhaps most common in the 18th and 19th centuries, and have become less common since.

The 2005 film Memoirs of a Geisha is based upon the 1997 Arthur Golden novel, Memoirs of a Geisha. The book is historical fiction, although Golden interviewed an actual geisha about her experiences for use in his book. The film earned high praise for its stunningly beautiful visuals, but many critics disliked the film’s supposed lack of narrative, slow story, and lack of substance. The film is indeed a visual feast. Cinematographer Dion Beebe’s (Chicago, Collateral) photography is supernaturally beautiful, and Beebe won an Oscar for making Memoirs look like enchanted eye-candy painted by an Old Master. The costumes, clothing, and uniforms are impeccable in their design as they are functional in their use, and some of them are super duper beautiful. Art, production, and sets do what the best of their kind do, transport the viewer to a world in which they can believe – a world that rings true, and one in which they might want to visit if not live. The candy coating is John Williams’ highly evocative and moving score that moves the narrative and provides the appropriate mood indicators.

On the other hand the narrative and story are not weak. Yes, the first 35 minutes of this film are so dull and slow, and the cinematography is so dreary, dank, and dark that to watch the movie is like doing a chore – mowing the lawn, cleaning the toilet, scrubbing scum, etc. It’s around the 35 minute mark that Ken Watanabe’s The Chairman enters the film, and Memoirs comes to life, allow the cast and crew to show their best talents in the glorious light of Beebe’s photography. Perhaps, many viewers are turned off by a story that focuses on the spiteful interpersonal politics of desperate and competitive women – cat fights, disputes over men, territorial pissing matches, etc. But it all rings true; all the fighting is genuine and captivating. The characters have depth and their struggles have meaning, and that’s why we can believe and empathize with the motivations of even the characters that are villains.

Something else that many reviewers may miss is that it is the cast through the characters not the script that carries this film. Of the many fine performances that mark this film (and it’s a shame that Ken Watanabe will likely be regulated to playing the Asian token in many American films), the trio of Ziyi Zhang, Michelle Yeoh, and Gong Li is Memoirs of a Geisha’s holy trinity. Li actually makes the malicious and spiteful force of nature, Hatsumomo, into a three-dimensional character worthy of study and sympathy. Michelle Yeoh is splendid as the motherly sage Mameha, and Ziyi is the top of the pyramid.

Oscar seems to have made a habit of ignoring Ziyi's luminous performances in such films as Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and Hero (2002), and the Academy clearly wronged her here. With grace and subtlety, often with a facial expression and emotion more than with words, she shows us Chiyo/Sayuri as a resourceful hero who goes on a journey to claim her prize. It isn’t the ultimate prize, but it is the best for which she could hope in her position. By showing us a young woman finding happiness within the limits forced upon her, Ziyi shows us the face of Memoirs of a Geisha. Kept from being a near-perfect gem because its first half hour is garbage, the film recovers and makes the very best of what it has left, giving us two hours of the movie as a beautiful picture book containing a story about a heroine worth championing.

8 of 10
A

NOTES:
2006 Academy Awards: 3 wins: “Best Achievement in Art Direction” (John Myhre-art director and Gretchen Rau-set decorator), “Best Achievement in Cinematography” (Dion Beebe), and “Best Achievement in Costume Design” (Colleen Atwood); 3 nominations: “Best Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures, Original Score” (John Williams), “Best Achievement in Sound Editing” (Wylie Stateman), and “Best Achievement in Sound Mixing” (Kevin O'Connell, Greg P. Russell, Rick Kline, and John Pritchett)

2006 BAFTA Awards: 3 wins: “Anthony Asquith Award for Film Music” (John Williams), “Best Cinematography” (Dion Beebe), and “Best Costume Design” (Colleen Atwood); 3 nominations: “Best Make Up/Hair” (Noriko Watanabe, Kate Biscoe, Lyndell Quiyou, and Kelvin R. Trahan), “Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role” (Ziyi Zhang) and “Best Production Design” (John Myhre)

2006 Golden Globes: 1 win: “Best Original Score - Motion Picture” (John Williams) and 1 nomination:“Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture – Drama” (Ziyi Zhang)

2006 Image Awards: 1 nomination: “Outstanding Actress in a Motion Picture” (Ziyi Zhang)

Sunday, May 14, 2006

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Review: "Hero" or "Ying Xiong," by Any Name is Great

Hero (2004)
Original title: Ying Xiong (2002)
COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: China/Hong Kong; Language: Mandarin
Running time: 99 minutes (1 hour, 39 minutes)
MPAA – PG-13 for stylized martial arts violence and a scene of sensuality
DIRECTOR: Yimou Zhang
WRITERS: Feng Li, Bin Wang, and Yimou Zhang
PRODUCERS: Bill Kong and Yimou Zhang
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Christopher Doyle
EDITORS: Angie Lam and Ru Zhai with Vincent Lee
Academy Awards nominee

MARTIAL ARTS/ACTION/DRAMA/ROMANCE

Starring: Jet Li, Tony Leung Chiu Wai, Maggie Cheung, Ziyi Zhang, Daoming Chen, and Donnie Yen

If you liked Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, you may like Ying Xiong, better known by its English title, Hero. However, the two movies aren’t exactly alike. Crouching Tiger is an epic love story in which the romance is intertwined with political intrigue, betrayal and mystery. Hero is both a love story and a revenge tale, but both of those elements are ultimately submerged for a philosophical and spiritual message of national heritage. They are similar in this: I thought Crouching Tiger was by far and away the best film of 2000, and I think Hero is better than the vast majority of films that have been released domestically in the time since Hero first appeared theatrically in China (2002). Hero was also a 2003 Oscar® nominee for Best Foreign Language Film.

In the story, the Nameless Hero (Jet Li) seeks to murder the King of the province Qin (Daoming Chen). Decades earlier, the King’s forces massacred Nameless’ people in the province of Zhao as part of his campaign to unify the lands that would eventually become China. Nameless reaches the Emperor’s palace and shares the story of his journey up to that point. There is, however, another facet to the story. Nameless also takes on the challenge of defeating three swordsmen, Sky (Donnie Yen) and the assassin couple, Snow (Maggie Cheung) and Broken Sword (Tony Leung Chiu Wai), who also plot to kill the Emperor. Or as the Emperor of Qin discovers, is there more to the story of Nameless and three assassins than Nameless is telling the Emperor.

Although Hero will draw comparisons to the aforementioned Crouching Tiger, the film shares more with Akira Kurosawa’s Rashomon in terms of narrative and Wong Kar-Wai’s Ashes of Time in terms of its visual appearance and its spirit. Regardless of what other films it may resemble, Hero is an exemplary feat of filmmaking that is both thrilling and poignant. Awash in colors and emotion, Hero has beauty that will make your head swoon. The writing defines the lead characters so well, and the cast plays them with such furious conviction that you can’t help but live vicariously through them.

To enjoy such thrilling characters that you can’t help but feel their joy and sorrow, their triumph and noble resignation, or feel their boldness for martial confrontation and feel like you are in battle with them is what we ask of great movie characters. And to find such great characters in a movie that lives up to the promise of its players is an infrequent treat. To find a movie that delves into history and sends a message to the present that makes us realize the importance of the past is all the more rare.

10 of 10

NOTES:
2003 Academy Awards: 1 nomination: “Best Foreign Language Film” (China)

2003 Golden Globes: 1 nomination: “Best Foreign Language Film” (China)

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