A rare post studio closure kung fu spectacular from the Shaw Brothers. Even Mona Fong is involved. Longtime kung fu actor and director, Corey Yuen, has the reins.

The plot follows the exploits of a refugee from Shangdong province, Ma Wing Ching, and his brother as they try to climb the ladder of success in the chaos of colonial Shanghai in the 1930's. Ma Wing Ching is a super kung fu fighter although it's never explained how he got so good. He gets involved with the local king pin Tam See, played by Yuen Biao and falls in love with a beautiful singer at one of Tam See's nightclubs. After fighting off a rival gang, Ma Wing Ching is given a chance to work for Tam See but he refuses and proceeds to build a criminal empire of his own. But it's a nice criminal empire as Ma is sympathetic to the plight of the exploited Shanghai coolies! All doesn't go well as Ma becomes the target of the rival gangs.

The first thing I noticed was the excellent recreation of Shanghai and all the period trappings. This is a well designed film. The martial arts are as expected from Corey Yuen and well done. When the action is going it's very entertaining. Unfortunately Mr. Yuen's cartoonish style seems at odds with the very realistic sets. The fights are absolutely fantastic in both senses of the word. Things happen that are completely unrealistic and that sort of hurts the film. Mr. Yuen also has no sense of epic scale and many of the great sets are never shown very well. The camera-work is good but not anything to raise the film up above a dozen other martial art films of the last twenty years. The story treats the characters very superficially and that causes boredom to set in at times.

Fun but not among the greats.

Well, I must say that this 1997 Hong Kong movie from director Corey Yuen actually turned out to be more enjoyable and entertaining that I had initially expected it to be. I mean, the setting of the movie wasn't really one that was overly appealing to me, as it is something that has been seen countless times before in Asian cinema.

But still, I was given the chance to sit down and watch this movie, so of course I did. I am, after all, a big fan of Asian cinema.

While the movie does have Takeshi Kaneshiro on the leading role, I think that the movie was actually more adequately carried by the performances of Biao Yuen and Wah Yuen.

"Hero" (aka "Ma Yong Zhen") was a nice mixture of gangster movie mixed with elements of drama and martial arts. There was a good abundance of everything throughout the movie. And the storyline was actually rather good, with an intersting story and good characters.

The movie does, however, have that archetypical late 1990s action movie from Hong Kong feel to it - in terms of action sequences and the sounds during the fight scenes. So for better or worse, keep that in mind when you watch the movie.

My rating of "Hero" is a six out of ten stars. It is an enjoyable movie, although it is not among the top of the line of Hong Kong cinema.

Ostensibly a remake of the '70s Shaw Brothers flick BOXER FROM SHANTUNG, HERO doesn't really follow that film too closely, instead going off in its own direction. Thankfully it is a lot better because of that. The film is nothing new, yet another variant on the old and tired YOJIMBO plot line, but it succeeds through the sheer talent involved in the production. Not only are superb actors involved in front of the camera, but sure hand director Corey Yuen – whose martial arts scenes always bring excitement – keeps things moving along at a fine pace and with plenty of excellent action scenes to keep the momentum going. The film is set during the same type of period as Jackie Chan's MIRACLES although things are kept relatively low key, because the budget doesn't seem so big on this one.

The lead is taken by the young, occasionally charming Takeshi Kaneshiro in one of his biggest early roles and he does an okay job with it. However, Kaneshiro is overshadowed by genre veteran Yuen Biao who is definitely the real star of the show in this one. Biao takes the role of a mob boss by the name of Tam See; despite his high status as a gangster, he's an honourable man who quickly strikes up a friendship with our youthful hero. Biao is excellent in this film and it's a wonder he isn't more used in recent Hong Kong flicks. Once again he creates an immensely likable persona while at the same time excelling in the fight scenes.

As for the battles, they're plentiful and always fun, although sometimes the speedy camera-work gets a little headache-inducing. An early fight for a watch atop a galloping horse really pushes the laws of gravity to their extremes and it's amazing to see how the cameramen manage to film all the different angles so well. Things then quieten down before becoming really violent in the last half hour. A staged assassination attempt on Kaneshiro is one of the most painful things I've witnessed in Chinese cinema (especially the horse – poor horse) and recalls the ending of BOXER OF SHANTUNG as our hero is impaled, blinded, and burnt. However the film goes on for another twenty minutes, offering a nice twist ending and a massive gun battle at the movie's climax which is top-notch stuff. The image of a machine gun-toting Yuen Biao rising from a coffin has to be one of the most iconic cinematic images of all time.

Finally, things move to a yard full of bamboo-scaffolding for a three-way battle which is so gorily over-the-top, you'll think you're watching a horror film instead. Eyes are gouged out, bodies repeatedly impaled and blood sprays all over the place in this splatter battle which really has to be seen to be believed; as a horror fan I loved it and it certainly succeeds in being dramatic. Megavillain Yuen Tak – whose appearance seems to be styled on Jet Li in ONCE UPON A TIME IN CHINA 3 – doesn't really get a look in in the martial arts scenes until this last battle but he's really phenomenal and it's the best action of the film. To add to the entertainment value, Yuen Wah is also on hand, and anybody who's seen DRAGONS FOREVER and EASTERN CONDORS will remember this little moustachioed guy as a real ass-kicker. Unfortunately he's relegated to a comic role here and doesn't get to do any actual fighting, but it's great to see him nonetheless, especially in the sympathetic part he has. With lots of twists and turns and innovation and style, HERO is a highly enjoyable film that certainly blows the Jet Li-starrer of the same name right out of the water.