This movie is by far one of the most visually stunning movies I have seen this year and quite possibly of all time. If this movie can be nominated for Academy Awards®--it was released in China in 2002, it should easily win Best Art Direction and nominated for Best Foreign Language Film. The movie is also quite entertaining with good acting, interesting story and excellent visual effects.

"Hero" stars Jet Li (Lethal Weapon 4) as the Nameless warrior who is brought before the King of his province to explain how he killed three assassins, who wanted to kill the King. The story is a series of flash backs explaining how Nameless is able to kill all three. However, it is revealed he is not a warrior fighting for the King, but actually teaming with the other assassins, trying to kill him. It is a fascinating story which flows well and is entertaining.

The other stars of the movie, who all did a good job, were Daoming Chen as the King, Tony Leung Chiu Wai as assassin Broken Sword, Maggie Cheung as Flying Snow, and Donnie Yen as Sky. These actors all compliment Jet Li and each other well. Both Tony Leung and Maggie Cheung have worked together before. The other main character Ziyi Zhang (Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon) is in the movie as a student of Broken Sword, but she appears to be nothing more than eye candy for all of the Chinese and American men in the audience.

However, the real story of this film is the colors. Almost every scene has the characters redoing basically the same scene yet in different colors. By far the best scene was between Cheung and Zhang in this field of yellow leaves falling off trees, and then all of it turning to red after Zhang is killed.

If I have any complaints, and they are small, is the language of the movie seemed a little campy, especially in the beginning. However, I don't know if this is because of the script or because of the translation from Chinese to English. Just like "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon," this movie is in Chinese with English subtitles. So, if you don't like to read your movie, you won't like this one. The only other complaint is at times the music and the sound were a little too loud.

This movie is a must-see flick, and it needs to be seen in a movie theater as well. I don't believe the home entertainment system will do it justice. I was also vague about the story for a reason. To understand the whole story, you should go in watching it a little unaware. This film should definitely be on your must see list.

Brian - the Naked Gun