For my moviegoing public -- Hero

I was really excited to see this, hearing nothing but good about it. I'm certainly no connisseur of the genre and do not even claim to be able to tell a good martial arts film from a bad. The only previous experience I have really had was Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, therefore comparisons between these two are unavoidable. I really enjoyed CT, HD despite being subtitled and having a hopelessly convoluted plot. Hero had both of these as well, but also more stunning visuals and Jet Li besides. I don't know what it is about Jet, maybe the acne scars, maybe the taut buttocks, but he is HAWT. I remember having a harder time keeping all the players straight in CT, HD, but ultimately feeling more for them as the story played out. When Chow-Yun Fat died, for instance, it was much sadder for me by far than when anyone in Hero did, probably because they kept going back and telling and retelling the tale different ways until I was utterly confused. The assassins are bad guys, no, wait, they're good guys, Jet Li killed them, no, wait, he only seriously wounded them *sigh* I loved all the fight choreography and the bold use of colors. I loved that when they stormed the palace, Broken Sword left his chick, Snow, outside to ward off the army while he faced the king. The palace courtiers (?) at the end urging the king to execute Jet was a little like a silly Greek chorus. All the going on about the calligraphy revealing the secrets of swordsmanship I am sure was very interesting to genre fans, but I didn't get anything out of it at all. I don't understand nearly enough about the samurai code to be as wowed as I felt I should be by any of it. The music was so similar to CT, HD I was convinced it was the same composer. And I was right. I tried to watch the interview at the end with Jet and Quentin, but could literally only tolerate a minute and a half of Quentin's manic verbal diarrhea. Someone needs to make him lay off the speed. So, in a nutshell, fabulous visuals, amazing fight scenes, unnecessarily complicated storyline, totally strung out producer. And one seriously gorgeous Hero. 4 out of 5

Kundun: So after Hero was done, I rewatched for the 6th time Scorsese's Kundun, a beautiful movie that I would recommend to almost anyone. It is long (what Scorsese flick isn't?) and starts off a little slow, but I love it nevertheless. It is about the 14th (current) Dalai Lama and his struggle to keep Tibet free from Communist China. The Tibetan culture is so fascinating to me, especially the spirituality of it and the utmost sacred regard for peace and life. It gives me such hope for the human race and makes me long to live such a quiet, contemplative life. One of my favorite scenes is the depiction of a sky burial, a very rare site for foreigners to see. Since the ground is too hard to bury their dead, they dismember the bodies and let vultures and other birds feed on the remains, thus continuing the circle of life. I think the philosophy is so beautiful. (If it were possible, I would want to go this way when my time comes.) Also the reverence and love the people have for the Dalai Lama is incredibly moving. All of this is set to a bizarre yet gorgeous soundtrack by Philip Glass. There are no extras or commentary (which is a pity, because unlike Tarentino, I don't feel an urge to smack Scorsese upside the head regularly), but I will always adore this movie. Watching it always leaves me with a sense of serenity and stillness, even if the ending isn't necessarily happy. 5 out of 5.