DVD | Hero

I was absolutely dismayed when I finally got to see Hero. I put the DVD on and sat back to see what I had been hanging out to see for some time. And there it was, in all it’s glory and utterly destroyed by the dubbing into English.

Luckily I was so shocked that they had done this that I figured it must have been a mistake and that there must be language and subtitle options. Upon checking the audio options I switched it to Chinese with English subtitles, and then sat back and enjoyed the movie. But why would they make the default setting dubbed? Why not have an option at the start to let you set it up. I wonder how many people will watch this DVD with the awful dubbing?

Anyway, enough of my ranting. Hero was a bloody amazing film. Better than I expected.

Visually stunning, no doubt that it’s one of the best considered and filmed movies of the year. The story is told through a series of flashbacks. In these Flashbacks the use of colour is amazing. A little odd at first, but lets you know exactly what’s going on.

The colours all have different meaning; red (imagination) to blue (perceived reality) to white (truth). In the final flashback green represents enlightenment and peace.

The action scenes were spectacular. Sure, the flying through the air and fighting was utterly unbelievable, but added a bit of light humour to an otherwise violent movie. Another great thing was the almost complete lack of blood – this gave the whole movie a dreamlike feel.

And the story. What a cool story, with so many different levels. Revenge, love and sacrifice. Some of my favourite themes! And very unpredictable, with a sad but very pleasing ending.

The performances were great too. I loved Tony Leuig, he was as awesome as he was in Infernal Affairs, and Jet Li is always on his game when it comes to fighting – can’t wait to see him and Morgan Freeman in Unleashed.

But what’s with ‘Quentin Tarantino presents’? Sure, without his backing most people would never take any notice of a Chinese movie, but what sort of a movie viewing world are we if a movie such as Hero requires an American to put his name to it to get noticed?

Oh hell, I’m ranting again. Hero is going to be a permanent part of my DVD collection and will be watched again.