[KFCC] Hero Review

Story: Brother Ma leaves for Shanghai to start a new life along with his brother. Once in Shanghai they find only hard manual labor that does not really pay much. Ma wishes to have a better life, hearing of Mr. See a triad boss that owns the pier he goes to see him. After an extensive Kung Fu fight with Mr. See boss they become friends. Mr. See offers money and a job to Ma but he refuses because he wants to make is own money and get his own territory by himself. Eventually he claims one establishments which the other triads don't want and from there he builds an empire.

Review: This is a Kung Fu movie set at the turn of the century in Shanghai, the city is corrupt and is run by various Triad groups. The movie manages to bring to life the early 1930`s in Shanghai. The story starts off simple with a guy trying to make a simple living but half way through the movie the complexities start to pick up, where you'll find a couple of interesting twists but unfortunatly the movie has a simple end.

There are quite a few characters in this movie, most of the focus is placed on brother Ma (Takeshi Kaneshiro), also this character has the most detailed development out of all the others. The other main characters are good too, it does not take long to get to know them and there are not too many so you wont be confused. The acting is also of a a good quality.

This is a true Kung Fu movie, you have plenty of action and plenty of really elaborate scenes. The amount of fights is perfectly balanced out in this movie, and you wont really find any parts of the movie long. As for the elaborate Kung Fu fights scenes you have some really nice ones with really incredible stunts and moves. The Kung Fu is very realistically looking, nothing is exaggerated but with a fair amount of blood. Another thing in the movie is the large scale triad style action which is also well done, you will find a very diverse blend of action in this movie.

The subtitles are clear but they scroll really fast so sometimes you will miss some dialogs. So far the review says this movie is pretty good but there is a catch, on the Universe DVD version of the movie the editing is absolutely terrible!!! Many scenes were cut due to violence but with the bad editing some parts of the movie just seem missing. The end of the movie is completely ruined, its like a really big piece in the fight was cut out and it was over and we did not even see what happened. If the end of the movie was intact the bad editing in the movie would be passable but with an ending like this, it really bring the movie down. Don't get us wrong this movie is great but the way it is presented it ruins the experience. To anyone who enjoys a good Kung Fu movie this would be a great film to watch as long as you keep in mind the bad editing. Maybe one day a good version of the film will be released.