HERO (Ying Xiong) (DVD Review) - 8/2/07

An astonishing palette of colours are on show in this epic production from the Director of "House Of Flying Daggers" Zhang Yimou is his film of "Hero" with a great cast featuring Jet Li, Tony Leung, Maggie Cheung, Zhang Ziyi, Chen Dao Ming and Donnie Yen. Initially I was going to watch it off the telly but had seen clips from it and decided to just buy it outright and I'm glad I did. Spectacle of a huge scale is covered in wondrous set pieces and this is really brought to life in the background Special Features what a massive task it all was. A tale of assassins and love, redemption and regret brought tears to my eyes as the tale unfolds in swathes of colour and swordplay. The amazing scene from the rain dripped fight in a chess game to a lake of still water as characters fly across it in reflective mirror smooth sword fighting as they soar amongst blue and white snow-capped mountains, to the ethereal windswept sands of the desert and the flights of arrows crashing into buildings against a backdrop of swirls of golden leaves in a woodland strewn with a blanket of windfalls. Surreal and almighty the tale of the First Emperor of China who unites his warring lands into a whole is unbelievable and I cannot believe that it's running time was only 95 minutes but seemed longer - but in a good way - as the characters are fully integrated into the story as different versions of the truth emerge. SPECIAL FEATURES: These cover a nice making of in "Hero: Defined" and flesh out the story and characters and the sheer scale that this film production took on in bringing it to the screen. We also get four Screen to Storyboards with the Golden Forest, Library, Ring Of Iron and the Lake. With a further background production in "Inside The Action: A Conversation With Quentin Tarantino & Jet Li".

Languages: Dolby Digital 5.1: Mandarin/English & Dolby Surround 2.0: English Described English. Subtitles: English/HOH. Bonus materials may not contain subtitles. COLOUR - PAL. Running Time: Approx 95 Mins. Widescreen Format: 2.35:1 Rating: 12. Region 2 (UK). Miramax. D881414/ISBN # 5017188814140>