Hero

[Odin of Wei]

Originally posted by GeneChing
Love him or hate him, he's done a lot for 'the genre'. I'm very mixed about what he's done with Hero. I wish Hero could have stood on it's own, but I'm sure that his name did help sales tremendously, and it's all about sales. We all complain here about Miramax, Tarantino, and misrepresentation of our beloved KF movies, but when it comes right down to it, money talks. Looks like Hero made some money, and that's great for the future of upcoming films. Sure, it's money for Miramax and Tarantino, but as long as someone makes money, Hollywood will remain interested in 'the genre'.

I didnt notice anything cut.

Just the intro...where they didnt put in the sub on the china DVD.

[norther practitioner]

Gene has caught the 22 and introduced it to all his friends.

[GeneChing]

Sorry, I lost you on that one NP. Is 22 a form of herpes? If so, that wasn't me, it was Design Sifu.

[Odin of Wei]

Originally posted by GeneChing
Sorry, I lost you on that one NP. Is 22 a form of herpes? If so, that wasn't me, it was Design Sifu.

What does that have to do with anything?

[GeneChing]

This is a web forum. How dare you ask such a question....

[Odin of Wei]

Originally posted by GeneChing
This is a web forum. How dare you ask such a question....

Because it is a web forum another thread should be made because it has nothing to do with the current subject.

And if you forgot it was Hero.

[GeneChing]

Really, the difference was only a O vs. a PES, so you can surely understand my confusion. Thread jackings have been made for much less.

OK back OT, after two weeks as #1, Hero dropped to #4. Resident Evil took #1, followed by Cellular and Without a Paddle. Hero took in $4,420,000 last weekend, bring it's total take at three weeks to $41,652,000. Still looking for information on CTHD's take for the first few weeks. Anyone?

[norther practitioner]

Catch 22.. Catch 22

not catching the 22 (we'll go more into that later)...

The catch 22 that is making money.

[GeneChing]

It was the tense usage that confused me. I'm not sure it has the same meaning when you put catch 22 in the past tense. I was close with the herpes tho, yes?

[Li Kao]

First off -- Gene, here are some links to box office numbers for CTHD:

http://www.the-numbers.com/movies/2000/DRAGN.html

http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/crou...on/numbers.php

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0190332/business

Also, Box Office Mojo has a neat little chart called the "Wire Fu Index" which has a list of the all-time top grossing movies that have "wire kungfu"
http://www.boxofficemojo.com/genres/...?id=wirefu.htm

Regarding QT's involvement with Hero -- in general, I think it is a positive thing. Obviously, he is a huge fan as we are of Hong Kong cinema and kung fu movies, so while some argue that he is only doing it for a buck, I think the exposure helps the genre as a whole.

A few years back, QT "presented" a movie in the states under his Rolling Thunder company called Chungking Express, by director Wong Kar Wai. I was unfamiliar with this director, but picked it up out of curiosity and ended up being mesmerized. Since that initial exposure, I have collected all of director Wong Kar Wai's movies and he has become my favorite director of any genre. Had QT not released this picture in the states, it is likely I may have never had the fortune of discovering this genius director.

(Note to Hero fans: the director of cinematography on Hero, Christopher Doyle, is also the cinematographer on all of Wong Kar Wai's movies, which is one of the main reasons Wai's movies are so visually entrancing. Also, if you want to see some more of Tony Leung (Broken Sword) or Maggie Cheung (Flying Snow) in dramatic roles, there is no better place than Wai's films -- either one or both of them appear in almost all of his movies! They are both in Days of Being Wild, Ashes of Time, and In the Mood For Love. Tony is in Chungking Express, Happy Together, and Chinese Odyssey, while Michelle has a great role in As Tears Go By. These are all fantastic dramatic movies which I highly recommend! If you need more motivation -- Zhang Yimou's next film after Hero -- House of Daggers -- features Canto-pop star Andy Lau, who is also in Wong Kar Wai's As Years Go By and Days of Being Wild)

Getting back to Hero -- I am glad they kept the subtitles -- dubbing would have been corny, although I wasn't happy with some of the changes, at least from the DVD version I have. In the version of the DVD I have, the words that Broken Sword writes in the sand are "All Under Heaven" and in the cinematic version this is changed to "Our Land" -- which seems to lose some of the relevance. I thought "All Under Heaven" was more appropriate as the Chinese emperors were known as the "Son of Heaven". "Our Land" is a little more generic and bland if you ask me ... ah well, a minor complaint I suppose.

[Odin of Wei]

As of tonight I seen it 3 times!

[Shiyu]

WOW. I've seen it twice...I swear to buy it the day it comes out on DVD tho!

[RENEGADE_MONK]

If anyone is interested in a copy pm me

[GeneChing]

So it now has a cumulative gross of $46,090,351 at week 4, compared to CTHD $13,450,791 at week 4 (thanks Li Kao!). Of course, you'd have to calculate for inflation...

[Starchaser107]

hey guys,
does hero have more than one ending depending on the release?...
I watched the movie and the hero died in the end , but a friend of mine who has a dvd says that in his movie the hero is escorted out by the soldiers and set free?
i'm thinking he didn't watch it till the end