Review of A Man Called Hero (2 disc set)

Introduction

From the team who brought you Stormriders is thier follow-up, another Special FX kung fu/magic movie. Based on a Hong Kong comic book, Hero is a man whose family has been killed, forcing him to move to the US to avoid retaliation after his merciless revenge on the murderers. However, he finds even more problems trying to enter a prejudiced early 20th century America…

Video

Two versions are included on Disc 1: a widescreen version (original language) and the full screen version (English). Of course, the widescreen one is the only one to watch, and is a very good transfer. Most Hong Kong DVD masters suffer from storage or technical problems that ruin the picture quality, but luckily ‘Hero’ is recent (1999) and had a big budget. The result is a sharp image, with accurate colours. However, a couple of points come off because it is non-anamorphic.

Audio

The 5.1 Cantonese track is very good, up there with most American DD releases. I didn’t listen to the English dub, and I wouldn’t recommend watching any foreign film in the dub given a choice, apart from for purely novelty value.

Features

The second disc contains a few decent extras, but I think nothing that warrants a whole disc devoted to it.

The best feature is the making-of. Running at 17 minutes, this isn’t the most comprehensive documentary, but it does tell you quite a lot about the conception of the movie and the SFX – and for a HK movie, it is positively mammoth in length! HK flicks are notoriously hard to find resources for, so it is great that more recent titles are starting to think about the DVD whilst in filming.

The other extras include trailers, a music video, some still photos and some very well done biographies. The menus are also animated.

Conclusion

A Man Called Hero is a very confused film that definitely offers style above substance. The blockbusting success that Stormriders was enabled this big-budget production, but more work into the plot and editing would have made for a much better film.

The first hour or so simply sets up the plot – often told in irritatingly huge flashback sequences – and slows down the pace considerably. However, despite all the time devoted to the exposition, sometimes jumps are made in the plot, which makes the storyline hard to follow. You should note that this is the American-friendly version of the film, cutting almost 15 minutes of action including a KKK scene and an anti-American speech ending (not unlike the anti-Japanese speech ending of Pearl Harbor shorn for the Japanese market). This does not help the problems of a poor script.

The SFX are of course spectacular – with a few great action sequences, notably the fight in the rain – but the end fight on the statue of liberty, pre X-Men, still seems obviously computer generated. My main problem with the fight scenes is that the editing is so fast and choppy that it is hard to see anything going on. The CGI has been sped up and the camera undercranked for wife effects so much that the super-fast speed looks ludicrous.

In the end, this movie is a disappointment after all the hype (“Hong Kong’s highest ever grossing movie”) and the quality of actors involved. Some interesting ideas such as the ‘China Secret – the secret to all kung fu, only held by a master – is brushed over. The ending is also rushed and ends unsatisfactorily. However, HK fans will be excited to know that Yuen Biao – Sammo Hung’s and Jackie Chan’s best friend – makes a small appearance here. Hopefully he will start making more films, perhaps teaming up with his two ‘brothers’ in the US sometime.

The DVD is good, but not as good as you would expect a two-disc set to be. They could have easily dropped the full-screen version and put the extras on one side – or kept it and fitted everything on, like on the “Go!” DVD. Still, if you like the movie then this is a very good addition to your HK collection.