Last week or so, I wrote a list of my favourite movies, and one of the movies on the list was “Hero“. I hadn’t seen it in at least a year or two when I put it there, and so I decided to watch it tonight, just to see if it really did deserve the spot. And boy, was I pleasantly surprised!

“Hero” takes place during the unification of China, when the King of Qin defeated the other Chinese kings (to the extent that they were “Chinese”; as I’ve understood thing, “China” and thus also “Chinese” is derived from “Qin”, but let’s for the sake of simplicity tolerate this anachronism). This was, of course, no peaceful process, and the King aquired many mortal enemies. Among his enemies were some of the most skilled warriors in China, and these tried to assassinate him on many occations. As a result the King promised to reward the ones who brought him evidence of the death of these assassins, and the movie begins when a lowly Qin official arrives at the Royal Palace carrying the weapons of three of the most dangerous of the King’s enemies. Most of it is told in a kind of retrospect, as this lowly official tells the King of his victories.

The movie’s perhaps most prominent feature is it’s stunning visual beauty. Each scene has its own colour scheme, and both the scenery and the costumes are in matching colours. When in addition the fight scenes are wonderfully choreographed — with none of the close-ups you see too many of in Western movies, where they have to hide the fact that the actors don’t know squat about what they’re doing –, the actors both move and fight with almost divine grace, and the filming is beyond belief, you end up with a visual masterpiece. On top of all this, the score is one of the best I know of, with a mix of traditional Chinese and classical Western music, and it certainly helps to create the film’s magical atmosphere.

I’ve already touched somewhat upon the plot, and won’t go too much into the details of it, beyond saying that it’s execution is perhaps the movie’s weakest part. Don’t get me wrong; it’s not as if I think it’s bad or anything, I just feel that Nameless’ retelling of his fights against Sky, Flying Snow and Broken Sword, and the King’s following doubt, is perhaps a little too long-winded, and many people might end up being bored here. While I myself wasn’t particularly bored, I did at times wonder whether it would end soon. That is, I did until Nameless’ true retelling begun, because that one is so captivating and touching that I didn’t much care about how long it too.

Beyond all of this, I just have to mention Tony Leung Chiu Wai’s awesome achievement in the role of “Broken Sword”, as well as Broken Sword himself — possibly one of my favourite movie characters, now that I have come to be reaquainted with im again.

All in all, perfect from one end to the other, and most deserving of a place on the list of my favourite movies. Despite of this, I won’t give it a full house, because of the slow parts in the middle, where the King tries to piece things together. 9.0/10.