First, let me add a few points about this movie since alot of people are uneducated to the deal behind the movie.
First, this movie wasn't made by QT. It was made by the following people:
Directed by: Zhang Yimou
Produced by: Zhang Yimou, Bill Kong, Bill Kong
Partial Filmography of Zhang Yimou:
• Hero (2004)
• House of Flying Daggers (2004)
• Happy Times (2002)
• The Road Home (2001)
Producer Bill Kong
• Hero (2004)
• Springtime in a Small Town (2004)
• Zhou Yu's Train (2004)
• Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000)
Now, this movie was made almost 2 years ago and released strictly in China back in 2002 I believe it was. Now QT thought the movie was really good and wanted it released here. Mirmax thought the movie was going to be "artsy" for most American viewers so they wanted to cut out alot of the scenes because of that. QT wanted the movie to come to America without being edited so he agreed to have his name attached to the movie to keep it unedited. QT didn't have a single thing to do with this movie.
The problem with this movie is people seem to think it is strictly an action movie from the was it was advertised. This movie is an artistic movie, not an action movie. Without spoiling the movie, the specific colors used within the movie are used for a specific point. Certain colors mean certain moods, actions, parts of the story, etc. and each color sequence is defined for a certain mood or upcoming action.
Below I am going to paste a review from the release of Hero back in 2002 in China: (BELOW IS NOT RELLY A SPOILER BUT TO GIVE PEOPLE AN IDEA OF HOW THE MOVIE WAS MEANT TO BE PORTRAYED)
Zhang Yimou is not the only director who knows how to master colors but he is the only one I know who actually cast colors as actors to play in his film and the human actors only take supporting roles. Each color is playing one chapter and five colors are telling one story through different eyes. Red is the story Nameless told the king. It is simple, it is straight and it makes sense. But it is not real and it failed to convince the king. Blue is the story the king came up. It is closer to the truth but not close enough. White is the real story, or maybe not. Because after the red and the blue being labeled not real, you would start to doubt about the white as well. The green is the story within the white and it was only told by Broken Sword. Black is the story with only two characters and is also the narrator links other colors together.
The costumes were made to consist with the color of each chapter. But you will not see any two actors wearing exactly the same color. A little bit contradictive to RAN, in which the costumes are lavishing and colorful, HERO has actors in simple, clean and single-color clothing. Once again, Emi Wada has showed her talent with colors.
Also, for people who don't know, there was one sequence of the movie in a bunch of trees. The leaves are a certain color during this sequence. Zhang Yimou had a person sitting in this location for months until the leave reached a certain color. Once they reached this color they rushed out to the location and starting filming the sequence. Every leaf was checked for color consistency when it was used. All the leaves are real on both the trees and the ground, no CGI was used.
Jet Li also to a pay cut to be in this movie because he wanted to be in it.
My review of the movie was I thought it was excellent but I knew ahead of time that the movie wasn't just some Kung Fu action movie. The story was excellent and it was one of the most beautiful movies I have ever seen. The colors were beautiful and how they tied in with the movie made it even better. There was alot of action in the movie, but it was action like Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon. If you want to see a movie with an excellent story and great use of colors then go see it, if you want Amercian action don't waste your time.
Also, I'm not going to spoil what color signifies what. If you want to find out go do some research online.
