Hero ("Ying Xiong")

I can’t get enough of this movie, my husband and I , keep watching it over and over without getting bored .

first of all; i will not write anything about the movie itself. just about the quality of the blu ray.picture quality differs from 3,5 - 4,5 out of 5. wide angle shots definitely lack some sharpness, but the closer the camera gets the better the sharpness becomes. a few close-ups get a 4,5. but this is rare.the colours are strong and powerful with a good contrast overall. wide angel shots show some(!) blurriness. compared with the previous releases on dvd this blu ray it a BIG improvement picture quality wise.sound quality is the BIG negative (but this is complaining on a higher level). the DTS-Master-Soundtrack excists only as a dubbed english soundtrack, which is so poorly crafted i cannot find the words for it. the effects and music-score kick some a**, but the dubbed dialogue is only there for a good laugh (that's my opinion). so the 5.1 dolby digital chinese soundtrack kick some a** as well, but definitely doesn't even come close to the lossless track. guess the chinese soundtrack was used on all the dvds before, so not so much of an improvement on the sound part.there are some extras as well, which i didn't really check so far. some making-of featurette, fight scene featurette, storyboards and something else. guess there is like one hour of extras on it.overall i'd give 3,8 stars for the picture quality and sound quality. that's closer to 4 than to 3 and with a bonus for the movie itself the blu ray deserves 4 stars! sell your dvd (if you still get something for it) and get this blu ray. it's a fair upgrade!

I'm fairly new with this type of film, having not seen Crouching tiger, hidden dragon. However I did see House of flying daggers by the same director and have to say this is much better. This isn't just a straight forward martials arts film, it is a very artisitc, and stylised movie. Using the world famous wire technigue used in traditional Hong Kong martial arts films, which has beed used in a lot of films now including The Matrix, they have produced some amazing fight scenes. This film has some of the best fight scenes I have seen in any film, they are so well choreographed and stylised, they are just a joy to watch. The film also has a vivid use of colour similar to House of flying daggers, with bright red, green and blue costumes against pale backgrounds. The cinematography is very cool as well and some of the locations are impressive, the fight on top of the lake is great!The story tells of an assassin and his quest to protect the Emporer from other assassins, or is all as it seems? Various flashbacks show how he has arrived to where he is now. If you like good action films, martial arts or appreciate stunning visuals you will love this film.The chat with Quetin Taratino and Jet Li is an ok extra about 12 mins and mainly shows scenes from some of Li's other lesser know films and fight scenes. The hero defined extra is an approx 30 min making of, going behind the scenes on how the fights were done, the special effects, locations. The bulk of this is an interview with the director with comments from the main actors in the film as well. The DVD enables you to watch the film either in Chinese with subtitles or dubbed into English. Overall a great film that will stay in the memory long after you have watched it!

I like the actors a lot, but the plot is slow imho. I found the cinematography to be excellent, however the dramatical flying through the air is tedious at best. With real skilled people like Jet Li why not just show something realistic and make it very very good. It's not completely boring, but it isn't super interesting.

Wonderful fantasy loosely based on the story of Jing Ke's assassination attempt on the King of Qin, set in 227 BCE.Beautifully shot with a superb story.

I watched this film on TV and i really enjoyed it that i wanted to get it on blue ray disc. It carries a very deep spiritual meaning which i would only assume that some would easily overlook and pay attention to the action thrill and kung fu sword fight. Its a really peaceful type of film with no sounds of head smashing electric guitar and drums hitting your eardrums while they fight. scenary is very good, peaceful simple music and the story line in particular is spot on. Nothing out of the ordinary apart of the nylon thread supported moves in the sword fights which i would have prefered they kept it normal rather than jumping around fighting upside down or sideways. I was particularly shocked that the english subtitles were different from the film showed on TV and this BluRay. the old musician near the beginning was called Old Master but in the bluRay it was called Sir. Cinnabar in the TV film but it was called Red Ink in the BluRay. springbrook was flying Snow's disguised name at the calligraphy school but her and Broken Sword's real name was used by Nameless whereas in the TV film it was their disguised names that were used until he showed Sky's sword. Becuase i don't know chinese i can't tell what was real and what is not but i can assume that some aspect of the film may have been corrected afterwards, who knows. Some other english dialogues were changed like in the TV version it said "How swift thy sword" and in the blue Ray its "How swift your sword must be". The special words like cinnabar, thy and old master add a touch of class to the film but the latter English subtitles on the disc feel like they were written by someone who must have failed their GCSE English, hence the 3 star rating. Other than that its a really good buy and i highly recommend it. I'm not sure if other chinese films out there can meet the standards set by this film so i am just happy with this one chinese film and not risk spending money on other chinese films and getting disappointed until they come on TV.