Since you want to die, I shall assist you.

Hero has had a terribly hard time getting to the US. It released in Hong Kong way back in December of 2002, and has had a US release date bumped around pretty much since then. It finally showed up in theaters last night.

I hosted a movie night for it, and I think it was my worst recieved movie night movie ever (I've don't around 20 movie nights too.) How did this happen, you ask. It was loved by the criticts: Ebert gave it 3.5 stars and Rotten Tomatoes has it at 94%. Everyone talked about how gorgeous it is, and how artful the fight sequnces are. What they didn't talk about is how much the story in unamerican. This comes out in two important ways.

The structure and flow of the movie are still very rooten in classic Hong Kong kung fu movies. The dialog is choppy, and to the point. The subtitles didn't flow. This creates lots of unintentional funny moments from the ridculousness of the dialog. These moments distract from the serious story and the beauty onscreen.

The bigger way is the whole story is a very Chinese story, and one that's not going to jive with most Americans. This is based on a Chinese fable about ancient China before it was unified, and has a lot of sacrifice for the greater good themes to it. I'm not going to go into it too much since I don't want to provide spoilers, but lets just say a movie with this ending and themes would never, ever be made in Hollywood.

All of that said, I really liked it. The actors involved are amazing and telented in their martial arts abilities. The scenery was spectacular. The way they kept changing color tones for the scenes as they were repeated with a new viewpoint was great. The art direction in this film deserves some awards. Any I like exploring some of the differences in Asian culture.

I think it's most telling to put this film next to The Last Samaurai. They both have similar themes, and similar situations the characters put themselves in the end. The Asian version stays true to the themes and philosophies of the movie, but in the Hollywood rendition it doesn't have the courage and chickens out with a Hollywood ending.

Just like Hero could never be made in Hollywood, The Last Samurai could never have been made in Asia. If you want to see the locals take on their philosophy, this is a great choice. And it's not hard to look at either.

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