Hero is an unusual heavy drama for someone like Corey Yuen unless I am overlooking some titles made by him. This is probably because this is a remake of The Boxer from Shantung a.k.a. Ma Yong Zhen (1972), A Shaw Brothers production. It did take a while for me to get into the groove of the film but once it did, I was invested.
In essence, this is a basic rags-to-riches story where things go badly since the main character, Ma Wing Jing (played by Takeshi Kaneshiro) wants it too fast. In a city, Shanghai where almost every individual has the same ambition, you can count on, that if you would ever succeed in a higher position, you will get kicked down faster than you can say amen. Funnily enough, it is at this moment where events started to click for me. Up until this time, I was struggling to follow the story, since it was far too complex and fast-paced for its own good. I only kept watching for the action, which is stellar but far too short for my taste.
Although, the film redeems itself with a big action sequence involving a horse and a hundred bad guys. Thankfully, I can concur that this horse didn't get hurt or killed in the process. But phew, it was very close. Then there is the action sequence in the finale. Beautiful and surprising! Corey Yuen goes fully John Woo here and it's marvellous. A real shame, that the film gets bogged down by the story that gets engulfed in melodrama too much. When done right, I can appreciate it. Here it felt forced and in my opinion was too much of a distraction from the action. Still, Yuen Biao, while demonstrating his extraordinary martial arts skills also shows off some good acting on his part.
I have to say, it's pretty impressive for Kaneshiro to do as much as he can action wise. He is not a stuntman, nor is he a martial artist. Pretty sure, Corey Yeun pushed him to do most of his own stunts. And it definitely pays off. Overall, this is not the best Corey Yuen has done. But it certainly will be worth your while for the action sequences I discussed.
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