30th August 2004, 9:19 AM
Good Lord, you think that Hong Kong is the same as Korea?? Have you ever taken Geography before? :p But yeah the movie is from Mainland China, though the fight choreographer and most of its stars are from Hong Kong.
Hero is great, and I talked about it two friggin' years ago when it first came out (and when it got nominated for an oscar two oscars ago), and everyone but GR ignored me. Figure that.
Tarantino had nothing to do with any aspect of the movie, he just told stupid Harvey Weinstein that it might be good to finally release this amazing movie after sitting on it for TWO DAMN YEARS, so he gave in and slapped Tarantino's name on the posters to garner more attention. The original running time of the movie was actually 120 minutes but since Miramax helped finance the movie they of course cut it down to 90 minutes, even in China and Hong Kong. Because of this and the way they just sat on the movie for two years, the director Zhang Yimou decided to get Sony Pictures Classics to distribute his next martial arts epic, House of Flying Daggers. And get this: HOFD was released in China just over a month ago and awesome Sony is releasing it in the U.S. THIS YEAR, uncut and subtitled. See how much better they are? Also, while the subs in this U.S. release are very good, they changed a few things that do have a pretty profound effect on the story. You know that thing that Tony Leung's character wrote in the sand, and what the emperor had over his head (the big red banner)? Well in the U.S. version they translated it as "all over land", while it actually reads "all under heaven". I guess they didn't want to offend non-religious people or something.
Pretty idiotic, huh?
And just so you know DJ, Hero is not much different from most good action movies from Hong Kong, it's just that now you've actually sat down and seen one in its original language and were able to finally appreciate one movie from that age-old genre. :)
Ooh, and now you guys have to see the incredible Rashomon, a 50's Akira Kurosawa movie which Hero takes it narrative structure from, with one story being told by several different people. Rashomon has a far deeper story of course, but it's in black and white and has no fighting so some people might be turned off by it. :D
Anyways, I'm glad you guys enjoyed it. Maybe this will open your eyes to the many great movies made outside of the U.S.
Hero is great, and I talked about it two friggin' years ago when it first came out (and when it got nominated for an oscar two oscars ago), and everyone but GR ignored me. Figure that.
Tarantino had nothing to do with any aspect of the movie, he just told stupid Harvey Weinstein that it might be good to finally release this amazing movie after sitting on it for TWO DAMN YEARS, so he gave in and slapped Tarantino's name on the posters to garner more attention. The original running time of the movie was actually 120 minutes but since Miramax helped finance the movie they of course cut it down to 90 minutes, even in China and Hong Kong. Because of this and the way they just sat on the movie for two years, the director Zhang Yimou decided to get Sony Pictures Classics to distribute his next martial arts epic, House of Flying Daggers. And get this: HOFD was released in China just over a month ago and awesome Sony is releasing it in the U.S. THIS YEAR, uncut and subtitled. See how much better they are? Also, while the subs in this U.S. release are very good, they changed a few things that do have a pretty profound effect on the story. You know that thing that Tony Leung's character wrote in the sand, and what the emperor had over his head (the big red banner)? Well in the U.S. version they translated it as "all over land", while it actually reads "all under heaven". I guess they didn't want to offend non-religious people or something.
Pretty idiotic, huh?And just so you know DJ, Hero is not much different from most good action movies from Hong Kong, it's just that now you've actually sat down and seen one in its original language and were able to finally appreciate one movie from that age-old genre. :)
Ooh, and now you guys have to see the incredible Rashomon, a 50's Akira Kurosawa movie which Hero takes it narrative structure from, with one story being told by several different people. Rashomon has a far deeper story of course, but it's in black and white and has no fighting so some people might be turned off by it. :D
Anyways, I'm glad you guys enjoyed it. Maybe this will open your eyes to the many great movies made outside of the U.S.