The Hero: Love Story of a Spy (2003)

There was a short discussion before starting the movie as to whether we should watch this in Mandarin & subtitles or dubbed in English. We chose the latter - no real reason really. It did give me a tiny giggle when lips and words were out of sync. The action scenes are a lot like Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon but did not match or exceed it technically - so basically disappointing in this respect. Apparently the director had never done an action film before and I hate to say it but this probably had some effect - still if you aren't looking for originality then this is still a solid piece of work. I haven't looked in to who was responsible for choreographing the action sequences but I would have expected the producers to at least compensate for the director's lack of experience with something extra ...? Stylistically - wonderful! The costumes and scenery are breathtaking and this is the absolute highlight overall. Storywise, Vanessa and I were like *huh?* are we missing something? It was really hard to grasp the big picture from the many sequences and story turns. We got that Jet Li's character got to move closer to the king for each of the 3 assassins that he supposedly killed, and we got the meaning of the coloured robes and the theme that sometimes success means losing your life for a cause rather than taking others' lives. We also got (well credit to Vanessa really) that there were 3 story versions; the nameless warrior's version, the king's version and finally the actual version. (Notice the recurring theme of 3?). Still, Mark fell asleep and my eyelids kept drooping from the huge effort. Maybe it was a cultural thing - in the special features Quentin Tarantino talks to Jet Li and they touch on the topic of how some Westerners don't get some Hong Kong martial arts films and ironically some Hong Kong audiences don't get some films made for Western audiences. I was glad in the end that we did watch it dubbed - imagine trying to keep up with both the storyline and the subtitles! I'm really not sure of Jet Li as an actor. Technically he is amazing - he is so fast and fluid - yet as an actor there is something almost robotic about him and I don't see a great range of facial expressions, when compared to Jackie Chan, who can be relied on for more than just great choreography - he also gives great performance even if it is mostly comedic. I think it must be really rare to find an "action" actor with both attributes - great physical & dramatic acting - or to even find a supporting cast that can compensate for the action star's weaker acting ability. I've heard House of Flying Daggers is better so I might seek this one out next time I wanna watch another martial arts movie.