I saw Zhang Yimou's "Hero" last September and was amazed by its beautiful imagery and heroic, passionate story. It's a tale of a man from China before its unity who is found to be one of China's king's heroes. Jet Li plays the warrior who is brought before the king after he seemingly saved him from the most severe of dangers. The story unravels through the hero's narration of how he came to be in the king's presence. It is told wonderfully in this style.

What was really astonishing about this film were the individual scenes and shots. There was a fight scene between the two female heroines in a swarm of yellow leaves. The two women fly and bring the leaves up with them as they glide and slip through the air. A viewer can almost feel the cool, fall air and smell the scent of autumn leaves. When the younger woman is stabbed, the leaves turn to a warm vermilion, the color of their clothing. Another scene had Jet Li's character challenging the other dominant male figure, and they fought on a river. They beat through the sky and danced along the river, only ever dipping in a few inches at the most. It was so beautifully shot and directed. There was a warmth to each sequence for the expressions of emotions held in the images, costumes and settings.

I don't know if anyone has had the good fortune to have seen this yet, but I hope if you did see it, you enjoyed it, and if you haven't, you might give it a look in the future. It's just absolutely breathtakingly beautiful.

i never saw it.

Seen it. Didn't do much for me. The imagery was nice, sure, but the story... I grew up with Chinese history-based epic novels, so the story seemed kind of mediocre.

i quite enjoyed the movie. it was breathtaking visually, and the story was good. my girlfriend hated it though. but i still loved it.

I thought it was amazing as well. The colors and the whole feeling of the film was spectatular. I love the end how they never show the final part of Jet Li's life. Beautiful film.

Just finished watching this. Amazing stuff. Visually stunning. Can't believe it took me this long to see it. I recently re-watched Kill Bill I and it kind of got me into the mood of checking out other movies with great visuals in fight scenes. I'm downloading Crouching Tiger right now. Should I expect the same kind of awesomeness in that one?

I love all those movies...Crouching Tiger, House of Flying Daggers, Hero. Like you said, visually they are just awesome but i have enjoyed the story as well.

check out Red Cliff.

I'll add Red Cliff to the list

I thought this was for the 90's movie with Dustin Hoffman and Andy Garcia.

i have yet to watch the international version which is two parts and over four hours long. i'm wondering what the 2.5 hour theatrical version left out??

i'm going to watch this again tonight!