I GUESS This Fits Here...

[Sierra Mike]

Review of Zhang Yimou's The Hero...

Zhang Yimou sounds defensive when he speaks of Hero as "a genre piece." The implication is: just a genre piece, a diversion, a long sword fight played by grownups. Perhaps the director is thinking of his last purely frivolous work, the 1989 Codename Cougar, a goofy skyjack thriller that outfitted his severe star and muse at the time Gong Li in a tight stewardess uniform. If so, Zhang is underestimating both the power of the movie-epic form and his ability to inhabit and revive it.Well, I'm a moderate fan of Zhang's work...Lord knows he's one of the few mainlanders to actually make some groundbreaking cinema, and while having to suffer under strong censorship at the home front. Jet Li and Maggie Cheung? Cool.

Read all about it at In the Mood For Swordplay (http://www.time.com/time/asia/magazine/article/0,13673,501021223-400044,00.html)

http://a740.g.akamai.net/f/740/606/1d/image.pathfinder.com/time/asia/magazine/2002/1223/tony_leung.jpg

SM

[Ravenink]

I've not heard of this film before but it sounds fascinating. is this going to be a major theatrical release in the US?

[Sierra Mike]

Good Lord, you don't know about this? :)

It's already been released in Asia. Miramax will unfortunately release it in the US...in November 2003, along with my girl Michelle Yeoh's The Touch.

People don't understand why Miramax is waiting a full year to release these films in the US, especially since by then all the heat from Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon will have completely dissipated.

SM