Hero

Well, today's DVD was Zhang Limou's Hero. After I saw House of the Flying Daggers with friends I went out and bought that DVD and Hero the next day and Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon this week. I am just transported by these Chinese films at the moment. They are so artistic. This Hero site has a lot of extras on it. It is billed as a martial arts fest. The sword fights were very animated and spectacular, but so much a part of the fluid movement of body, material and landscape. This is what really absorbs me with these films, the blending of material, bodies,colour and landscape. Leaves, water, dust all become part of the form and movement. Some think you need more of a story. It is not so much about narrative as about art. About moving paintings. It took a while for Hero to get me, but in the end it got me, and well. Those closing scenes met their mark. You are drawn into the motion and the movement so it is that, not the words, which impact upon you. Clearly an earlier film than House of the Flying Daggers, but Zhang Yimou is a director of extraordinary artistic talent. He affects you by his integration , not desintegration, of elements