12 Foreign Films That Show Hollywood How A Genre Film Should Be Done
4. Hero
Country: China
Genre: Action/Martial Arts
Plot: The story of a nameless defense officer, his defeating of several warriors and an assassination attempt.
Hero is one of the best style-over-substance films of all time; much like with The Raid this is partly because it unapologetically commits to this. A mixture of story and action will only work for certain films. Style-over-substance, no matter how many people complain about it, isn't actually a bad thing. As long as the style is good enough, we're set.
With Hero, the style is pure art. The film's dazzling cinematography, insane fight scenes and incredible use of color make it a piece of action heaven you won't want to end; when a film is this beautiful and this dazzling who needs substance? Nonetheless, if you like substance in your films, Hero will still provide it for you.
Hero isn't actually style-over-substance. Rather, the style is the substance. The artistic visuals, startling use of color and pathos-filled spectacle allow the film to triumph as a touching, interesting narrative. In other words, the action tells the story. Now that is good action film-making.
Remake?
Nada. Hollywood doesn't tend to remake Asian martial arts flicks and this had a wide American release anyway, although Miramax didn't release it abroad until 2 years after the original release.