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The following, in his own words, is Part I of a first-hand account by Tim, webmaster of Jet Li / Germany, of events at Hero's screening during the 53rd International Berlin Film Festival and his impression of the film (with minor spoilers) and it's cast and crew:
[Edit: I translated this version from its original language German to English ... I hope it is not too bad! Please have mercy!! =]
In the following text I would like to tell you about some of my impressions of Hero's premiere at the Berlin InternationalFilm Festival and about the film itself. I even met Jet Li himself. Although it wasn't really a long meeting, it still was great and I hope there will be a next time. ;-)
How did it come so far? One night - it was already 4 a.m. and I originally wanted to go offline - I received a message from Mark, the US webmaster. "Got a sec?", so I said "ok" :) After this I was asked, if I would be going to the Berlin Film Festival? I had planned to go there since the summer of last year and therefore said "Yes". The following sentences should then raise my pulse to unknown heights: "Beaver and Jet will be in Berlin at the weekend. Maybe you could do something exclusive for the German site?" Fortunately, I didn't die of a heartattack right there and am able to write thr lines you read now, of course.... But let us just say it like this: I was very happy and obviously pretty excited. :P
Several days, many webmails and many eMails later almost everything was ready. I had bought my train tickets and was ready to rock. But then many phonecalls were done with the PR chef Nicola from Constantinfilm (they will release Hero in Germany on April 24th), the PR chef responsible for everything having to do with Hero at the Film Festival Pamela (Premier PR) and, of course, with Beaver - Jet's assistant. The result of all these calls was that I actually was even allowed to take photos during the premiere and allowed to be backstage.
So I went from the very west (i.e. from the little city of Bochum *lol*) to the capital, that is Berlin. Arriving in Berlin I got to the Hotel Adlon with some minor detours. Once there one certainly was a little bit slain by all this pomposity and felt a little bit deplaced (no wonder - one 'obviously' didn't dress right ;)). After a little bit of confused running around in the Hotel, I finally found the PR women Pamela and Nicola and was informed about my part. Then an incidental look fell on the sheet of paper where the order of cars was noted on, i.e. in what order the cars would stop in front of the theatre. And what did I see there?
1. Christopher Doyle, Alice Yeung, Tim Choe
2. Zhang Yimou, etc...
3. ....
Oh man! I was going to sit in the same car as the legendary Chris Doyle?!?! Phew~~ *gaspingforair* The pianoplayer played calmly and there was a pretty relaxed atmosphere, which stood in a "slight" contrast to my mental state.
And then suddenly everybody was there! - Who was there? - Easy: Jet Li, Maggie Cheung, Zhang Ziyi (*yummie* ;), Zhang Yimou and Christopher Doyle. And, of course, not to be forgotten: Beaver! So I literally just stood several meters away from all of these stars. It certainly was very interesting to see them alive and backstage. And I obviously have to mention Chris Doyle, who might have drunken one or two glasses of champagner too much. Furthermore he asked Zhang Ziyi (each time I mention her you can add the *yummie* for yourself =P) for a little dance appropriate to the pianomusic. But at least since the release of the Hero Making Of Cause everybody should know that Chris Doyle is a real joker :) In Cause you can see the legendary Chris Doyle fool around for about 75% of the making of (only a 'slight' exaggeration :). - but he nonetheless obviously captures the most gorgeous images one even hardly can manage to imagine. More to this later....
Then we finally were heading to the theatre. It already was only several minutes before the scheduled start of the movie and we calmly went out, where it had to snow, of course (Germany). As mentioned before, I had the honour to take a seat in the same car as mister Doyle and together with Alice Yeung (greeeeeetz *wavewave* ^-^V) occupied the seats in the back of the limousine. Doyle evidently took the front seat and immediately started to chat with the female driver. I should not go into details here though. =P However one statement really hit the nail on the head: "If we had walked to the theatre by foot, we would have been there in about 5 minutes." It really must have taken about 10 minutes or more until we cleaved past all those fire engines and all other road users.
Then the time had come. We arrived at the entrance of the Berlinale Palace. I jumped out of the car and immediately to the side, so that I wouldn't disturb the picture ;) After doing that I took out my own camera and tried NOT to be in the way of those legions of cameramen behind me and nonetheless get some good shots.
Slowly all stars went into the theatrecomplex, up the stairs and also signed those huge posters hanging on the wall. Then they entered the theatre room through a side entrance, which immediately was rewarded with massive applause. I took out the ticket I got from Beaver and searched for my seat and then relaxed. Now the time was ripe. The movie I waited for since the beginning of its production about a hundred years ago, was about to unfold before my eyes....
The movie was screened in Mandarin with German subtitles and was of a great quality and in its glorious widescreen format. If I only could watch all great asian movies in a similar quality! *dreaming* - All tickets were sold out and the audience couldn't wait any longer for the movie. When all stars had taken their seats the show could start! Let's start with the plot of the movie...
Jet Li is Nameless, a man without a name, who is one of the lowest officers there is and who succeeded to kill three of the most dangerous assassins. Assassins? Who did they want to assassinate? - The king Xin (Chen Dao-ming), who wants to unify all seven kingdoms to one. But he does it in a very harsh and brutal way. To stop this king and to foil his plans to conquer all the other realms, many assassins emerged. The three most dangerous and famous assassins were Long Sky (Donnie Yen), Broken Sword (Tony Leung Chiu-wai) and Flying Snow (Maggie Cheung). Because of these three assassins nobody was allowed to approch the king less than 100 paces. He even wore his armor all the time, even in his very own palace. For three years his aim had been to get rid of those three assassins; he wanted to be able to sleep without fear again. But although he had set out an immense bounty on their heads, nobody was able to even come close to an arrest. Once they even almost had succeeded in killing him in his palace. - - And now one little sherrif was able to kill all those three assassins? The king couldn't wait any longer to see this hero with his own eyes and to hear his story ...
At least half of all Asian movie fans (I suppose more ;) have waited for Hero for ages? This is the most expensive Chinese production there ever was! Does Hero meet all those high expectations? - In my humble opinion: it does so. Why? Just read on... ;)
The superordinate theme of the movie is... "What qualifies one as a hero?" We get to see many "heroic" fighters in this movie, who all seem to fight for a just and good cause. But are they real heroes?
What impressed me most was that the movie very well succeeded in combining all influences into one complex entity. The plot and the motivations of the characters stand in the foreground. To support these we get other important elements, which are the fights, the music and what is probably most remarkable - the cinematography (which is somehow accompanied by the costumes and art direction). I will try to come back to all those single contributing factors later ....
The original news story | Part II
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