The Qin Emperor’s strident army was fearless in its pursuit to tame a land of warring states that was Ancient China, yet his goal of unification was not welcome by all. He summons one of his foot-soldiers upon learning that the unknown man has slain three of the Emperor’s most feared opponents: Broken Sword (Tony Leung), Flying Snow (Maggie Cheung) and Moon (Zhang Ziyi). Nameless (Jet Li) is asked to explain how he achieved this unlikely feat, and all is not as it seems. Hero is a staggeringly beautiful film and a major achievement for director Zhang Yimou (Raise The Red Lantern). As Nameless recounts the lyrical detail of his story, it changes under cross-examination and is revisited several times, each variation employing different techniques and patinas to match the evolving emotion of the narrative. Repetition in this context is as exciting as it is welcome, affording several opportunities to absorb the film’s delicacy and rigorous composition. Hero echoes Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon for its graceful martial-arts yet is considerably more than an epic action film. Why a work as distinguished as this should have languished on the distributor’s shelves for over two years remains as mysterious as the feats of Nameless. Fortunately they came to their senses. I’m told Yimou employs a particularly Chinese approach to story-telling whose subtleties may well be lost on non-Asian audiences. However, if you only appreciate sixty or seventy percent of the film, it’s more than enough for two or three viewings such is the scale, wealth of detail and spectacular beauty of this masterwork. // COLIN FRASER