A Man Called Hero

I have not read the comic book, so I don't know how accurate the adaptation was. It might help explain some of the flaws as well.

In my opinion, the first act of the movie is the weakest. There were times where I was bewildered at how quickly the director cut from one scene to another, and moreover, how quickly he introduced plot elements into the story. One of the characters, Shadow, barely registered, and yet becomes a central character later on. Andrew Lau should know better than this! The second act moves at a much more steady pace, and while it could be too melodramatic for some, I found myself actually touched by the movie, and actually empathizing with the characters, particularly Hero's son's quest to find his father. However, a lot of the themes are handled in an extremely heavy-handed manner, to say the least.

As for the third act... I'll be honest, I watch a lot of anime. So I took it all in stride, including when they began to shoot ki blasts at each other. It's certainly no less absurd than your average US action movie where the hero can kill hundred of people with a machine gun without ever reloading... or being hit once.

Well, some believe that this movie is bad, but it isn't. I found rather incredible, comparing to the Storm Riders. It has better special effects, also, the version I saw was dubbed compared to the rather dissapointing subtitles on the american DVD release of the Storm Riders. Sadly, the Strom Riders is the the only movies you can compare this to, but in many aspects this wins out. It's about the same length, with most of the same actors. The shinning points are the action, music, and the story. The story is kind of tragic in a way, but it's perfect, and doesn't leave you crying or smiling, just with you r mouth open at all the jaw dropping scenes. Though I wish it did have a lot more action, there are many fights, and they are all fantastic.

To sum it up, it's a really good film, leading up to the final battle, which is the best fight scene in any live action film I have ever scene, and the fact that it takes place in some what modern America is a plus.

Its really hard to write a review for this kind of film. On the one hand AMCH wants to be a credible story led film. OK, So what about the story. Well it is a strange affair. On the one hand, the hardship the Chinese felt, the bad guy and his ninja squad and a lot of the quest to find hero were pretty good. But on the other hand too many loose ends are left and some things seem to happen for no reason. What's with the weird gay subplot with hero's best friend? What's up with shadow? Why didn't he try and kick invincible's ass, instead of letting 'boss' get his handed to him (I know they were played by the same person, but, hey)? And what the hell happened to Hero's daughter (I accept that it sort of implies that's his latest quest, to find her, but they could have let us know. And why did he blow up the one man who knew where she might be?)?

As a martial arts film it is a strange beast. The only actual bit of traditional kung fu is when hero is showing off his talents to his prospective teacher. The rest is mostly wire work and hardcore CGI, which, for the most part, is pretty good. Shadow zips around, the Ninjas all have captain planet style powers and the face off between Pride and Invincible is awesome. But there just are not enough moments like these. I suppose ructions all the time would take away from what the director is trying to achieve (a man who hates fighting and death), but just one or two more or the existing ones eked out a bit would have been nice, if only to break up the slightly laborious pace.

On the whole, though, it is hard not to like AMCH. The sets are fantastic. The costumes and cast are all uniformly good and the cinematography is superb. The plot holes are forgivable and if you want to see non-stop kung fu action, go rent an old Shaw Brothers flick. The good far outweighs the bad, as far as I'm concerned and the two-disk set is a proud edition to my DVD collection. Its far too easy to cuss up this film, simply because the typical western audience for a martial arts movie don't seem to be ready to try something different. Shaaaame

If you reside in the real world, then this movie will strike you as naive, crude, and bigoted. Credit should be given for the attempt to set the movie outside of China, but the snarky Europeans hired to play Americans, a bunch of undersized frenchmen no doubt ;'), and the heavy handed evil Americans routine, departs from realism pretty quickly.

Halfway through, the plot mutates into the martial-arts as magic universe, and though a lot of work is put into CGI effects, there is nothing here for anyone who hasn't been living in a cave for the last decade to write home about.

We also get a dose of infantile romantic complications that would embarrass Aaron Spelling, some really cheesy music, and generally lame melodramatic scenes.

My favorite, an inexplicable fastcut sequence from several angles of Hero standing in a burning building holding Jade as she dies, the music tracks dramatically with the cuts, is he trapped? ...will he die? Nope he just walks out a second later. What the...?

The plot tumbles on with a Ninja vs Chinese subplot, and then for some reason climaxes with a Chinese revolt against the 'Racist men fom the Klu Klux Klan' who run a mine where Chinese workers are oppressed. Someone's been carping their history from 'The Peoples History of the US' it seems.

If I had to classify this movie I'd use Sword and Sorcery with too much dialogue and dialectic.

This movie is best known in the US as "A Man Called Hero". It is based on the comic book by Wing-Shing Ma that follows the adventures of Hero Hua, born under the Star of Death and cursed to bring unhappiness to those he cares for. This adaptation tells the story from the point of view of several people that knew Hero, told to Hero's son, who is searching for his father. We follow the path of Hero from his early student days in Mainland China and up to his eventual migration to the US. There are many characters from the comic book making small cameos. The final battle between Hero and his nemesis Invincible (what's in a name!) takes place on top of the Statue of Liberty!. Best enjoyed by someone who has either read the comic book or likes Asian Fantasy/Martial Arts films. An overall great movie for a Friday Night with a group of friends.