Oh, Manchester, So Much To Answer For

Zhang Yimou's Hero is astonishing, a visual poem, lyrical like no film I've seen in years. An all-star roster of Chinese actors, including Zhang Ziyi, Maggie Cheung, and Jet Li, anchor the action in a film which is truly viewable, accessible art. Yimou is less concerned with narrative than visuals and tone here - but what visuals and tone! The colors are disgustingly rich, the sound appallingly brilliant. Hero's storyline is told very much in Rashomon style, from various viewpoints, and is never dull. Li plays a hero - or assassin - telling his story to the king of the Qin province, 2,000 years ago in pre-Chinese China. You don't know what will happen, period. This is a martial arts picture which takes lessons learned from Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon even further, and is utterly gorgeous. Frankly, it's difficult to consolidate my feelings about Hero in the written word, chiefly because it's so sumptuous beyond words. A