HERO
(12A) 99min 0...
King Zheng of the Qin state conquered six other dukes through ten years of wars and brought an end to the riotous Warring States Period (476 80—221 BC). Under his regime dissidents and learned men were murdered, all the books were burnt to erase historical records and he created a strong central power with a nationwide military presence to ensure his control. He built up the Qin Dynasty - the first (of many) unified, multinational, autocratic and power-centralised states in Chinese history. Many people had a reason to kill him. Zhang Yimou’s silly, poetic, gorgeous 2002 film takes this premise to its most ridiculous conclusion.
King Zheng (Daoming Chen) is in hiding from the most feared assassins in the kingdom: the calligraphy-obsessed Broken Sword (Tony Leung), his fearsome lover Flying Snow (Maggie Cheung) and the meditative Sky (Donnie Yen). One day a young man called Nameless (Jet Li) comes to his palace to report that the king‘s enemies are dead, but is he telling
the truth or is he just another assassin?
Zhang Raise the Red Lantern Yimou’s fascistic yet oddly
(Mao Zedong looked up to King Zheng as a good example, and under Mao's last years as dictator
bestsellers were written about him is greatly helped along its way by Emi Wada‘s costume design (who also designed costumes for
H M" ’( 1L1 WIMBLEDON (12A) 98min 0.
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contormist piece of retro Chinoiserie
the early 19705 several celebratory
Kurosawa’s Ran). It‘s also enhanced by Ching Siu Tung‘s wire work action
Did you ever know that you're my hero?
choreography and, of course, Chris Doyle‘s simplistic but very beautiful colour coded cinematography (red for imagination, blue for perceived
enlightenment, kind of).
With ideas mostly plundered from in Kurosawa‘s Rashoman, King Hu‘s A Touch of Zen and Wong Kai Wai‘s ) remarkable 1994 film Ashes of Time
reality, white for truth and green for
this may not set your eyes or heart alight but as a gateway into more interesting work it will do for now.
(Paul Dale)
The red light of marital discord
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An unequal balance of moral dilemmas
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