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The following, in his own words, is Part II 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!! =]
Zhang Yimou can be very happy that he had the oppportunity to work together not only with the best "fighters", but also with the best actors in his cast. You really have to repeat those magnificent names again to be fully able to grasp this magnitude: Jet Li, Tony Leung Chiu-wai, Maggie Cheung Man-yuk, Zhang Ziyi, Chen Dao-ming and Donnie Yen!!! You could say that we get the best from both worlds, whereas all performers have already shown that they are also very much capable to star in the other genre.
This interesting mix is also positively evident in the directorial guidance. When Zhang Yimou (Raise The Red Lantern, The Road Home, Not One Less, Happy Times) was the chef of all drama scenes, Tony Ching Siu-tung took over the reins for all action scenes. For all those who might not know him: Ching Siu-tung was fully, or at least partly, responsible for classics such as Duel To The Death, Chinese Ghost Story 1-3, Swordsman 1-3, The Killer, Bichunmoo, etc... Ching Siu-tung now has added another great movie to his already very extra-ordinary filmography. I hope that he might continue to contribute new impulses to the martial arts scene for a very looooong time to come! - - I think it is also very interesting to mention that Ching Siu-tung directed the movie Terracotta Warrior (1989), in which Zhang Yimou was the main character! Zhang Yimou since then has made a very well shift from actor to director!
Actor-wise the level of Hero is pretty high. Most outstanding is - as usual - Tony Leung, who is just one of the best contemporary actors alive!! He can portray almost every role you can imagine, without looking not authentically. Whether he portrays the tough undercover cop in John Woo's Hard-Boiled, the suffering youth in Bullet In The Head, the languishing lover in In The Mood For Love or the brush-swinging swordsman in Hero - Tony Leung fills every role with his very specific charme. Tony is - once again - closely followed by Maggie Cheung, who also recently has played Tony's love interest in Wong Kar-wais highly acclaimed In The Mood For Love. She really hardly seems to age - the older she gets the prettier she seems to become! Once again there is this special tension between Tony and Maggie - whereas one has to say that this tension might be a little bit destructive in this movie.
Zhang Ziyi only is a supporting actress in this one. She is Broken Sword's maiden and also in love with him. Because of her rather little role she doesn't have the opportunity to show the full range of her acting abilties - but if you have seen The Road Home and Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon (for example), then you know that she is one of those actors to watch out in the years to come (I am really looking forward to Purple Butterfly from Lou Ye, the director of Suzhou River!). Even less screentime is granted to Donnie Yen, which only can be seen in the first 15 Minutes. The rest of the movie, we only get to hear other people talking about him. A real pitty, because his fight with Nameless and the other officers can be counted as one of the highlights of the movie. Donnie does emit this special kind of dignity, which I would have liked to watch for more than just 15 minutes.
Chen Dao-ming is also able to master the job as king with bravura. Taking into account thar he is only sitting in his palace, he really succeeds very well in bringing to life his character. Jet Li's nameless character is - due to the script - rather emotionless, which is mastered by Jet without any difficulties. But at the end we still can see that he is also capable of showing a diverse range of emotions and the character's inner conflict!
Many people are asking themselves how the martial arts scenes in Hero work out. First of all, one has to point out that everybody is fighting with weapons and that consequently the stress is put on swordsplay fights. Knowing this, we also know immediately that Ching Siu-tung was the very best choice for this genre! Wires are frequently used in Hero, however most fights are relatively down-to-earth; although most movements won't ever be acchieved by normal mortal human beings. Personally I really do like the fights; the way the opponents fight on a higher level and how parallels between music, caligraphy and swordsmanship are drawn. Furthermore, (almost) no blood is shed! Yes - they fight, but these fights are not brutal or violent at any time. If you have reached such a high level like these combatants, you don't have to be like this anymore. The fights are rather suitable to the movie and its style. They are part of the movie and NOT the movie itself - as one could see in most older HK productions. The fightscenes are just the vehicle of the plot. The fights melt with the imagery of Christopher Doyle, who once again succeeded in capturing really incredible images on celluloid.
Hereby we can come to the cinematography. Christopher Doyle should mainly be known for his work as Wong Kar-wai's regular cinematographer - and is gathering more and more fame around the world just now. The colors really stand out in the movie - each color represents another segment. So we get a blue, red, white, green and black segment... This underlaying with different tints creates the special different moods the segments have. You probably will not be able to find a similar kind of cinematography. I can only come up with the following movies you could compare Hero with: Ashes Of Time (also shot by Chris Doyle) and Ran by Akira Kurosawa and shot by Takao Saito. In respect of Ran and Kurosawa we can find some parallels again. 1985 Ran won an Academy Award for the best costumes (you have to see them with your own eyes), which were made by a certain Emi Wada. This Emi Wada was also hired to design and make the costumes for Hero. (Be sure to check them out!) In my opinion they are not as gorgeous as the ones from Ran, but definitely very beautiful and unique! [Emi Wada was working three years on the costumes in Ran, btw.]
Zhang furthermore incorporates a very similar telling structure as Kurosawa used in his masterpiece and groundbreaking Rashomon! In Hero we are served different layers of truth and only step by step do we get to know the real truth. I must admit that I favor Kurosawa's version, but you actually cannot really compare both movies. Further on I have only seen the 96 minutes cut yet. I am very interested to finally see the 120 minutes version!
Music. The composer for Hero was Tan Dun. If this name does not strike a string: Tan Dun was also responsible for the brilliant score of Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon and even received an Academy Award (2001) for the best score. So is Hero's soundtrack better than the one from Crouching Tiger? Are there many similiarities? -I don't think that one can say that one particular soundtrack is superior to the other. This wouldn't yield any advantage anyway; in my opinion, the whole comparision thing is very unneccessary. I can also only say that I think that the music is very well done, just like the one in Crouching Tiger. The music in Hero furthermore is not so much in the foreground as in Crouching Tiger, but one of those already mentioned subordinate contributing factors to the whole thing. The simililarities just have their roots in the same composer and his interpretation of both movies and the wuxia genre.
Many filmcritics have argued that the movie is way too strong in promoting Chinese political interests. I only want to say to this that the movie is Zhang Yimou's (or at least one among many) interpretation(s) of those legendary assassinations on the first Chinese emperor; this is also explained at the beginning of the movie. The message ("tian xia") might be questionable for some people, but in my opinion it is very well comprehensible in the context of the movie (all historical facts aside). But everybody should rather form his own opinion - based on the movie as a whole.
After the movie and the end of the credits (btw: nice to see that Beaver was mentioned in the credits :) all stars came on stage again. Zhang Yimou, Jet Li, Maggie Cheung, Zhang Ziyi and Christopher Doyle! *applause* Zhang Yimou thanked his co-workers for their great help and explained that without their support Hero wouldn't have been possible. Hmm... there wasn't anything more special then and all stars left again. Afterwards they had a dinner ... but I didn't attend it ;)
Instead I went home (well kinda home... thanks to yori *greetz* =), slept three hours, stood up again, took a shower and still pretty tired went out to the Adlon Hotel, where I should be at 9 o'clock. (Why? - Originally to do an interview with Jet Li ... but it didn't work out *sob* ;) So I was there at 9 o'clock and was already awaited by Beaver. I had to register myself and made myself ready. Jet's schedule unfortunately was too tight to be able to do the interview with him (I even had made a little "Beaver approved" questionaire =), but I had the chance to attend all the other interviews he made. It was very interesting to experience Jet Li being just several meters away. He got this certain calmness you can't really describe. And you didn't get the feeling that he is one of those "glamorous" Hollywood stars, who sit on their very own cloud and think that they're the best (exceptions obviously always confirm the rule ;)). In any case, "off camera" Jet Li gives a very adorable, yet even a little bit shy, impression and is totally likeable.
I took a break after the interviews and went on with the press conference. Jet Li held his own press conference - separately from Zhang Yimou and the others. This was so, because he had to fly back to Paris on Saturday noon again and had a tighter schedule than everyone else. With this press conference he more or less finished his official program and withdrew. Afterwards I should have the orpportunity to meet sifu Li in person to take a photo with him. So it was "waitng" again - but this was no problem with such prospects at hand. After a while (and maybe the most expensive coffee I ever drank) the time had come. Beaver fetched me up. Jet Li seemed to be a little bit tired (they also only had three hours of sleep) and was chatting with some others in this little restaurant in the back of the hotel. Beaver then went to him and notified him *hehe*... and this was how I was able to take a picture with the master and to exchange some few words with him. [Coincidentally it happened that I had my Fist Of Legend (Taiwan) DVD with me, which should now be in France waiting for a signature by Master Yuen Woo-ping.] After this picture I HAD to take one with Beaver, too. (Of course... he is one of the kindest guys alive! - To all his female fans: you are too late!! :)
So after this last photo it was time to part... this segment of the Berlin International Film Festival was about to be closed. It definitely was tremendously fantastic to meet Jet, all the other Hero stars and Beaver in person!! I am looking forward to my next probable meeting with Jet in April (I hope it works out)...
Part I | The original news story
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