All-conquering Hero

Zhang Yimou, China's blue riband director, has made better films than Hero, but none as popular. For a subtitled film to make more than $40 million at the American box office in a mere three weeks is phenomenal. Even Ang Lee's hugely successful Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon could be eclipsed.

Ang Lee's epic is undoubtedly the movie to which Hero (literally Heroic Warrior) will be compared. But Zhang's spectacular third century BC tale is very different. It has a cluster of Asian superstars strutting their stuff, thousands of extras manning the skyline and cinematography from the Australian ace Chris Doyle that is hellbent on impressing.

There is, however, a downside. The story is so complicated that you wonder who is doing what to whom. And it seems to suggest that totalitarianism is preferable to soggy democracy. How the Chinese government, often suspicious of Zhang, must love him for that.

To begin, an assassin called Nameless (Jet Li) gingerly approaches a powerful, paranoid warlord (Chen Daoming) to relate how he has killed three of the tyrant's most dangerous rivals. The warlord appears pleased and invites him for a drink. But he keeps a full 10 paces away - Nameless could be another who wants to kill him.

Then, we go back to see what really happenedin the assassin's earlier encounters. The sky clouds with hissing arrows in huge battle scenes, billowing silk almost obscures the magnificent sets as solo encounters are played out, often in mid-air, and the characters pursue their deadly games with lines punctuated by those strange noises chopsocky performers have made their own.

Add Tony Leung and Maggie Cheung to the list of stars, which also includes Zhang Ziyi, surround them with this sort of action and the film has every chance of cleaning up in Asia. But the West seems ready for it, too.

Zhang's The House of Flying Daggers is coming soon and, would you believe it, he says Hero was just a highly-coloured and balletic rehearsal. But see this first.

Hero
Cert: 12A