I remember having this movie on VCD when I lived in Hong Kong, and did remember it as being a good movie, so I finally got it on DVD here in 2012. And now having seen the movie again, I must admit that the movie was not really as good as I initially remembered it to be.
The story in "A Man Called Hero" takes place in the first half of the 20th century where we follow Hero Hua as he comes to America, struggling to make a living, dealing with racism, intolerance, hard labor, poor working conditions, and apparently suffering from a curse (being born under the star of death). Hero Hua and Jade have twins, but tragic events keep them from being together.
The storyline in the movie was, well for lack of better words, dull. It was not really captivating and I found it hard to fully buy into it. And how come that no one had grown a day older and looked older even after 17 years had passed? They just dyed Hero Hua's hair gray and that passed for having aged 17 years? That was just ludicrous, and I was laughing so hard at this.
Now that we are on goofs and mistakes in the movie. Then lets take a moment to talk about the Japanese ninjas, whom all were speaking Cantonese. Are you kidding me? They should be speaking Japanese, not Cantonese. I will say that the idea with the earth, fire and water for the ninjas was actually quite good, though. Moving on, try noticing the large clusters of dynamite that the white guy was throwing in the showdown at the work camp in the canyon, and then look at the small firecracker explosions that they produce. Hilarious.
One thing that "A Man Called Hero" had working for it, was the ensemble of people on the cast list. There was a lot of big names from Hong Kong cinema here. Of course there was Ekin Cheng (playing Hero Hua), Anthony Wong (playing Pride), Shu Qi (playing Mu), Fracis Ng (playing Invincible), Sam Lee (playing Fire) and a couple more. If you are familiar with Hong Kong cinema, then you will definitely recognize a good deal of the actors and actresses here.
There wasn't a whole lot of martial arts going on in the movie, so don't sit down to watch "A Man Called Hero" with the hopes for seeing something in the likes of a Donnie Yen, Jet Li, Bruce Lee or Jackie Chan movie. There is a couple of martial arts scenes and some swordplay scenes, but nowhere on the scale of movies like "Hero". I, personally, could have wanted to see more martial arts and swordplay throughout the movie. But then again, it was more of a story-driven movie, not an action-driven one.
"A Man Called Hero" is an adequate, although fairly standard, Hong Kong action movie from the late 90's. It might be worth a watch if you enjoy Hong Kong cinema as much as I do, or if you are a fan of any of the people on the cast list.
The movie was lacking something crucial to make it unique and memorable. I am sure that it will quickly fade into nothingness in my memory and just stand on the DVD shelf as a filler in the collection.
The story in "A Man Called Hero" takes place in the first half of the 20th century where we follow Hero Hua as he comes to America, struggling to make a living, dealing with racism, intolerance, hard labor, poor working conditions, and apparently suffering from a curse (being born under the star of death). Hero Hua and Jade have twins, but tragic events keep them from being together.
The storyline in the movie was, well for lack of better words, dull. It was not really captivating and I found it hard to fully buy into it. And how come that no one had grown a day older and looked older even after 17 years had passed? They just dyed Hero Hua's hair gray and that passed for having aged 17 years? That was just ludicrous, and I was laughing so hard at this.
Now that we are on goofs and mistakes in the movie. Then lets take a moment to talk about the Japanese ninjas, whom all were speaking Cantonese. Are you kidding me? They should be speaking Japanese, not Cantonese. I will say that the idea with the earth, fire and water for the ninjas was actually quite good, though. Moving on, try noticing the large clusters of dynamite that the white guy was throwing in the showdown at the work camp in the canyon, and then look at the small firecracker explosions that they produce. Hilarious.
One thing that "A Man Called Hero" had working for it, was the ensemble of people on the cast list. There was a lot of big names from Hong Kong cinema here. Of course there was Ekin Cheng (playing Hero Hua), Anthony Wong (playing Pride), Shu Qi (playing Mu), Fracis Ng (playing Invincible), Sam Lee (playing Fire) and a couple more. If you are familiar with Hong Kong cinema, then you will definitely recognize a good deal of the actors and actresses here.
There wasn't a whole lot of martial arts going on in the movie, so don't sit down to watch "A Man Called Hero" with the hopes for seeing something in the likes of a Donnie Yen, Jet Li, Bruce Lee or Jackie Chan movie. There is a couple of martial arts scenes and some swordplay scenes, but nowhere on the scale of movies like "Hero". I, personally, could have wanted to see more martial arts and swordplay throughout the movie. But then again, it was more of a story-driven movie, not an action-driven one.
"A Man Called Hero" is an adequate, although fairly standard, Hong Kong action movie from the late 90's. It might be worth a watch if you enjoy Hong Kong cinema as much as I do, or if you are a fan of any of the people on the cast list.
The movie was lacking something crucial to make it unique and memorable. I am sure that it will quickly fade into nothingness in my memory and just stand on the DVD shelf as a filler in the collection.