IMDb plot summary: A defense officer, Nameless, was summoned by the King of Qin regarding his success of terminating three warriors.
Directed by Yimou Zhang. Starring Jet Li, Tony Chiu-Wai Leung, Maggie Cheung, and Ziyi Zhang.
There's a Rashomon-style quality to this narrative, as we see different versions of the story until finally the truth is revealed at the end. It adds some liveliness to the narrative, which otherwise drags for me. The bright spots here are absolutely the fight scenes, which are visually stunning, with vivid colors and carefully-crafted shots and moments of fantasy where characters fly and run across water. It's one of those unusual instances where I actually felt like the story in between was just a placeholder until we got to those gorgeous combat sequences. But there aren't as many of those as I wish there were, and I just had very little interest in the central story, and every time we moved back to another bit of exposition or explanation I sighed a little. It's well worth watching for its astonishing visuals, but I was less sold on the rest.
How it entered my Flickchart:
Hero > High School Musical 3: Senior Year
Hero < Hoop Dreams
Hero > The Hidden Fortress
Hero < Native Son
Hero < To Kill a Mockingbird
Hero < All's Faire in Love
Hero > Being John Malkovich
Hero < The Kingdom of Dreams and Madness
Hero < Lagaan: Once Upon a Time in India
Hero > Stalag 17
Hero > Jonah: A VeggieTales Movie
Hero < Battle Royale
Final spot: #1208 out of 3304, or 63%.
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