Hero
Zhang Yimou’s melancholic paen to wuxia and fabric conditioner is nothing if not immaculately crafted. Its colour-coded, Rashomon-style flashbacks setting the stage for a series of ravishingly photographed fight sequences (lensed by Wong Kar-wai regular Christopher Doyle) as sensuous as they are politically and psychologically motivated.
Yet there’s more to Hero than the immediate pleasures of its luxurious surfaces. Sporting an aesthetic rigour matched by the complexities of its Chinese-box narrative, it’s as steeped in ancient culture and philosophy as it is playful in its revisionist filtering of history through genre. Still, what surfaces! It may not finally be Zhang’s greatest achievement, but as a feast for the senses it sees him operating at the top of his game.