Mary To give your life for a greater good is one thing. To give your life for a violent tyrant with delusions of grandeur is another. As noble as the idea "One under the sky" may be, it all depends on who unites the people and how. Because that was also Hitler's ideal, to create one big empire, never mind human casualties. Can we still justify the loss of even just one human soul as "necessary for the greater good" ? Can we still accept the barbaric idea that human souls are dispensable for the good of the cause ? And who defines the righteousness of the cause? These were cruel and savage times but we're supposed to understand better now. There is nothing truly wise or ethical or humble about the King of Qin, not even in the film. All he's after is power, as so many conquerers before him. He says at some point in this film that he does not intend to stop with China, his ultimate goal is to conquer the Earth. Just another megalomaniac , drunk with power, who justified his viciousness and lust for glory with a noble lie - we've seen so many of them in human history. I went through a few reviews and I only found one that pointed out the obvious and clarified a few things. It is indeed shocking that so many viewers cared only for the spectacular effects and the beauty in the scenes and did not even care to examine the message of the film a little deeper. I thank the user by the name "potteries" for pointing out that : "the dynasty the king founded collapsed rapidly after his death as a result of the hatred for his regime". Of course it collapsed. Such regimes are unstable by nature. Tyrannies always collapse. The goal to "unify the people" can never be reached through tyranny. That's why democracy and human rights were invented.

rdoyle29 The King of Qin (Chen Dao Ming) is waging a war to unite all the kingdoms of China under his rule. This has created enemies, and three assassins, Sky (Donnie Yen), Broken Sword (Tony Leung) and Flying Snow (Maggie Cheung) have vowed to kill him. Broken Sword and Flying Snow stormed his palace once and almost succeeded. Since then, no one is allowed within 100 paces of the King. Nameless (Jet Li) comes to the palace bearing proof that he has killed all 3 assassins. He is granted audience with the King and tells the story of how he defeated them ... with each story, he is rewarded and allowed to come closer to the King. When he is done, and only 10 paces from the King, the King expresses skepticism and offers his version of what he thinks really happened. A third version of the story is then told, which comes closer to the truth and reveals that it all comes down to these two men looking at each other face to face. The success of "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" and the reunification of Hong Kong with Mainland China made possible the situation where China's celebrated art house director teamed with a cast of prominent Hong Kong stars to make a martial arts epic. This is a happy circumstance. Zhang Yimou creates a sumptuous epic that's both visually stunning (each version of the story is uniquely colour coded) and thoughtful ... considering what a hero would actually be in Chinese culture.

TheBigSick First of all, "Hero" is a visually stunning film with many detailed elements depicted very well, largely thanks to the cinematography work by Christopher Doyle. However, the fight sequences are mediocre and clichéd, especially the fight between Jet Li and Donnie Yen. The movie can be improved with some more innovative action choreography.

Leofwine_draca I'm the first to admit that I'm not a big fan of wire work. Used very sparingly in the occasional fight scene – so you stand up and think "woah!" – I can live with it. But in the likes of this film and CROUCHING TIGER, HIDDEN DRAGON, the action choreographers always see fit to dispense with the laws of physics and deliver up battles where the opponents soar through the skies, perform impossible manoeuvres in mid-air, and get up to all manner of airborne mischief. I don't mind when there's a reason for the wire work in the film – for instance, SHAOLIN SOCCER used it for laughs and was great; THE MATRIX had a sci-fi premise so I could live with that. But it's my belief that these historical epics would do much better by keeping their actors' feet firmly on the ground. Firstly, it would enhance realism, and secondly, it would enable the participants to get on with the actual fighting, rather than their ballet-style trying-to-look-good antics.HERO's fight scenes are interminable. I'll agree that they are beautifully shot, with the emphasis on lots of bright and vivid colour contrasts, and accompanied by effective 'ringing metal' and screaming sound effects, but at their heart they are hollow, taking place with no rhyme or reason; a lot of the fighters turn out not to be enemies after all, and other fights take place purely in the minds of their opponents. The trouble with this is there's nobody to root for; hell, even in those low budget kung fu flicks of the 1970s, at least the martial arts kid had a reason for fighting the bad guys; they killed a family member, or somesuch nonsense. In HERO, we get silly battles where the characters jump in the tree tops and skim across the surface of a lake. Sure, it's very pretty, but there's no reason for it.The plot is more interesting, in that it's a simple take on the old RASHOMON story of having one tale narrated by multiple characters. Things do get pretty murky and confusing, but they straighten themselves out for the climax, which adds an epic and historical angle to the proceedings that'll make you think "aaah!". The film's strength lies in the depiction of the Chinese army, made up of 18000 extras; the soldiers here are more impressive than those CGI guys in TROY! Their method of firing arrows is also very entertaining and the film's best scene has an attack of thousands of arrows soaring through the sky as Jet Li attempts to beat them off. There's also a cool arrow bit at the end which reminded me of G.I. SAMURAI but I don't want to go there too much.Jet Li famously returned to Hong Kong for this film, but he's unfortunately wasted in the role, which could have been played by anyone. He doesn't get an opportunity to act, just to partake in some wire work tomfoolery, and he's barely in the film. Unfortunately, greater prominence is given to unimportant secondary characters like that played by Tony Leung, who is utterly boring – and it doesn't help that I keep remembering the awful GORGEOUS every time I see his face! The best performance comes from an almost ethereal Maggie Cheung, who I thought had vanished into the woodwork since her Jackie Chan days in the 1980s; how wrong was I! This ageless actress may not be a born fighter but her acting is great and a real strength of the movie. She throws the work of the wooden Ziyi Zhang into sharp relief, revealing the latter actress to be nothing but a one-dimensional impostor.HERO deserves kudos for cinematography and sound effects alone. The unusual method of storytelling keeps it interesting, and it's just a shame that the action is so lacking in… bite. Had the film offered more meaty battles, it might have been one to watch over and over again; as it is, it works more as a passing curiosity than anything else.