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review of the upcoming u.k cinema date for hero april 2004

In the Mood for Swordplay
TIME reviews Zhang Yimou's epic Hero 
BY RICHARD CORLISS

EDKO FILMS Martial Artist: Warrior Tony Leung Chiu-wai is as adroit with a brush as he is with a sword

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.

For Hero—Zhang's attempt to explode in the worldwide movie market as Ang Lee did with Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon—is a lucid and cunning drama: ancient history (3rd century B.C.) refracted through a modern skeptic's sensibility. It views the birth of a nation through the murky motives of some of the first Emperor's potential assassins. For they are as duplicitous in their emotional lives as in their fatal politics.

The plot is a series of tales told by the warrior Nameless (Jet Li) to the Qin King (Chen Daoming). Any or none of the stories may be true; this is Rashomon with a Mandarin accent. But the moral, or rather the ethic, is as clear as it is bleak: man must make war to secure the peace.

Nameless has three main adversaries: Sky (Donnie Yen), a master martial artist he defeats in the film's first, superb battle scene; Broken Sword (Tony Leung Chiu-wai), a calligrapher who is as adroit with a brush as with a saber; and Flying Snow (Maggie Cheung), Broken Sword's soul mate. Flying Snow has a side skirmish of her own with Moon (Zhang Ziyi), Broken Sword's smitten apprentice. Loyalties are tested, alliances made and sundered. Death is the price for betrayal—of the King or the heart.

Zhang made his reputation as a cinematographer. And in his early films as a director, cinema became the acutest form of rapture. These movies were tales of perfidy played out in lush tones and textures; the camera and color not only told the story, they were the story.

Hero marks a return to that precise, luscious style after a decade in which Zhang flirted with less beguiling visual and narrative strategies. A triumphant return thanks to his work with cinematographer Christopher Doyle, who has shot many of Wong Kar-wai's films. Zhang, of course, controlled the design of Hero, but Doyle's hurtling, poetic personality shines through; you can sense the camera in his hands as surely as you could feel the brush in Jackson Pollock's. He is a calligrapher with light.

Each image is ravishing: clouds rushing over low mountains; a sword point that slo-mo slices through drops of water; lovers curled into each other, sleeping under red silk; a sword fight in a grove of golden leaves that turn red, plum, magenta and fall like fat confetti; soldiers squatting in a circle, caked in clay; a gray landscape of dunes daubed with Cheung's turquoise gown.

1/6/2004

www.rottentamatoes.com

3rd round win

Crewe 0-1 Telford
06/01/04

Lee Mills scored after just 75 seconds to earn Conference side Telford a shock win over their First Division hosts.
Mills headed in after a corner had been played short to Fitzroy Simpson and twice could have doubled the lead. 

Crewe hit back and Dean Ashton was twice denied by Chris Mackenzie and also fired just over..

But Alex keeper Clayton Ince blocked an effort from Sam Ricketts while Telford substitute Chris Murphy hit the post.

Telford went into the game on the back of a stunning 3-0 victory over Second Division Brentford in the second round and they were soon back in their stride.

Mills gave Telford a dream start by scoring with just over a minute gone.

The striker headed home after a corner had been played short to Fitzroy Simpson to notch his 13th goal of the season.
telford united.com

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1/6/2004