Tony's Must-Watch Series: Hero

OF COURSE Hero is the first on the Must-Watch Series, it completely shaped my young adult life. "It can't be that good," you say, but before you finish that sentence I've already ran across the surface of a crystal clear pond and smacked you with the hilt of my sword for your disrespect of Jet Li's finest work.

Hero is the story of an Chinese assassin, "Nameless", who plots to kill the Emperor by defeating 3 notorious assassins to get within striking distance during the age when the Qin and Zhao kingdoms fought for control of China. If you haven't already buckled over from the sheer amount of AMAZING that just hit your brain, then watch the movie and see if you still have control over your knees afterwards.

The first thing I'm going to gush about is the music, which TO THIS DAY I feel has never been beaten by any other composer. It's traditional Chinese, but with intensity and drive that punctuates the fight scenes and makes them more intense.

The next thing I'm going to gush about is the scenery. Having visited many of the places that they filmed at (the Forbidden City, Mirror Lake), I can say that their magnificence and scale are accurately portrayed in Hero. Ohhhh my god, so pretty.

The next thing is the fight scenes. Each one is memorable in it's own way, but it isn't necessarily the 1v1 fight scenes that are awesome. By far my favorite fight scene is when the Qin army is at the Zhao caligraphy school. There, you witness the vastness of the Qin army, and even though you're watching them from behind a screen, you still feel the enormity of them and you can't help but marvel at China's power and ingenuity. It really puts the armies of Sauron to shame.

Do yourself a favor and WATCH THIS MOVIE. Seriously. I put this in the Must Watch category for a reason. DO IT. Stop reading this and watch Hero. Go. Right now.

Cheers,

-TonyWatchesMovies