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A
MAN CALLED HERO
AKA:
Legend of Hero
Year:
1999 Reviewer: Phil
Mills
Hero
(Ekin Cheng) is a young student of the martial arts who shows
extreme promise under the watchful eye of his master until one
day his family are brutally murdered. He seeks justice
in the form of trial by execution and, after seeking
retribution, flees to America to leave his troubles behind
him. When his wife becomes pregnant she decides to
follow him but only runs into dead ends upon her arrival.
She seeks out the assistance of the men who have encountered
Hero along his travels and they slowly unravel the mystery of
what has happened to her beloved. When they are finally
reunited it appears that things are not quite so fairytale
after all as Hero is forced into a feud between his master and
a Japanese rival. With the pressure mounting up around
him, Hero must fight for the honour of his kung fu style and
hope that he can keep those close to him safe and sound.
After
'The
Storm Riders' became such a huge success at the Hong Kong
box office, director Andrew Lau decided to bring another comic
book character to life in a distinctly western stylised, special
effects laden extravaganza. As such, 'A Man Called Hero' promised
to be a defining moment in a new generation of classic kung fu
movies, correcting the mistakes made by it's predecessor and
improving upon the computer generated battle scenes that had
been so successful in the first place. Several stars
jumped on board and the hype grew, creating good word of mouth
before the film was even released and inevitably the takings
were high. Ultimately however, the film only really
serves as another reminder of how comics are best left to
artists and not actors.
It's
hard to make an assessment of 'A Man Called Hero' that doesn't
sound like a repetition of
'The Storm Riders' review simply because Andrew Lau appears to
have made exactly the
same mistakes. Rather than examine previous successful
comic book adaptations such as 'Batman' or 'Spiderman', he
decides to plough his own way through the minefield which
proves to be his first mistake. The main reason for this
is that he opts to ignore the tried and tested formula that
keeps it simple with one main hero or villain scenario and
instead litters the film with an abundance of minor characters
and sub-plots. All this does is confuse the viewer as
there is no clear focal point to the film or a distinct hero
to follow and you soon find your attention wandering as you
attempt to figure out who or what you should be
watching. Added to this, Lau soon realises he doesn't
have 10 hours worth of movie time to fill and as the film
draws to a close, he is forced to rush the conclusions which
means most of them are either poorly resolved or just left
hanging in the air.
Lau's
second mistake emerges within the character development (or
lack of it) as most of the personas are treated with complete
contempt and never allowed to develop distinct traits or
levels of reasoning. The character of Hero himself is
probably the most undiscovered of them all and from the very
outset of the film, you have no real inclination as to why he
makes the decisions he does or what really becomes of him in
the finale. Several more meaningless parts are also
introduced which are played by established stars like Ken Lo
and Yuen Biao, possibly to boost their own careers or maybe
just to be part of an expected masterpiece, but they only come
across as too many cooks in an already overcrowded kitchen.
What we really needed was a return to basics (perhaps a
traditional kung fu movie storyline) that had new ideas
moulded onto it but instead we only end up with a mess of
misconstrued propositions.
It's
all too easy for me to criticise this film but there are also
some good points that emerge from the rubble. The
special effects have definitely been improved and the people
no longer appear to be pasted onto a computer game and
occasionally the imported backgrounds look somewhat realistic.
The fights have also been imaginatively put together with some
genuine martial arts accompanied by computer generated effects
that serve to enhance the action rather than suck it dry.
The most notable of these is the water battle between Anthony
Wong and Francis Ng in which the two combatants fight sword to
sword from a distance using the flow of the water as a weapon
without ever having to actually touch blades. The finale
is also worth watching as it takes place atop the Statue Of
Liberty and, although not entirely convincing effects wise, is
still an impressive site that is a step in the right direction
for these types of films.
If
only Lau had realised what was wrong with 'The Storm Riders'
then maybe this film could have made something of itself but
sadly it ends up as more of a carbon copy than a progressive
leap forward. The advances in CGI effects for Hong Kong
films make it worth checking out but not a film that warrants
repeat viewings.
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