Hero (2002)

The truth of a story often depends on who's telling it, and why. Zhang Yimou's "Hero" brings the lush visual style of his earlier films, like "Raise the Red Lantern," to the high-flying martial arts epic. Set in ancient China during the Warring States period, it stars Jet Li as Nameless, a humble official who arrives at the palace of the powerful King of Qin (Chen Daoming), the ruler who will unite China and become its first emperor. Nameless brings the weapons of three legendary assassins who had sworn to kill the king, Long Sky (Donnie Yen), Broken Sword (Tony Leung) and Flying Snow (Maggie Cheung), and claims he defeated them all. For each victory, the grateful king allows him to sit a little closer to the throne. As he spins his tale, and the suspicious king offers his own version of what really happened, each account is bathed in a dominant color, from fiery red to icy blue to pure white. The stunning battles include a rain-soaked duel in a chess house, a clash between two women in a whirlwind of golden autumn leaves and a desert calligraphy school under a storm of arrows. At the heart of it all is the troubled love between Broken Sword and Flying Snow. Zhang Ziyi co-stars as a devoted young servant. With Christopher Doyle's sweeping cinematography, Tan Dun's haunting score featuring violinist Itzhak Perlman and superb performances from some of China's greatest stars, it's a dazzling action film with an emotional richness that deepens at every turn. It earned an Oscar nomination for Best Foreign Language Film.