Sarraounia

Sarranouia is a historical drama about a sorcerer queen who used martial arts and clever witchcraft war tactics to defend her tribe in resistance to France. Directed by Med Hondo, this film incorporated a little bit of political documentary style filming as well as historical musicals. This film was different than I had expected to be, first walking into the theater. Filled with a lot of mise-en-scene throughout the film impacted its visual content. The costumes were very detailed and gave me a good image of this time period and African life. It is obvious the director did a lot of historical research and has a strong background of this happening and of Sarraounia, the queen of the Azna tribe. Assisting the tribe, it is entertaining, watching the whites be a minority, trying to lead a pack of hundreds of Africans in this war. This movie has a lot of good singing as well. Their singing and music gave me a feel of life in Africa. Adding to the mise-en-scene, there also is a lot of action throughout the movie. Coming in not knowing too much to expect from an African film, I really appreciated the detail and choreography of the film; from the fighting scenes to the costume, organization of scenes, and plot. The acting was better than I had thought as well. Thinking it would be a cheap documentary style film, Sarrounia shocked me walking out of the theater.Watching this film gave me a better understanding of white influence in Africa and of the french column and African culture.

Hero

A story of stories, this film "Hero", directed by Zhang Yimou is about an assassin, known as Nameless, and his mission. Thousands of years ago,before China was one country it was divided up in 6 states. In the Kingdom of Qin, the ruler had a destiny to unite them all together s one. There was a difficulty in doing so with divided opinions from the different states. Jet Li, the starring actor in this film, founds a way to plot out deaths of the rulers top three assassins, to be able to step ten paces away from the King of Qin. Before this time, no one was allowed to be within 100 paces from him because of the attempted assassinations of Sky and Broken Sword, who ended up killing thousands of King's guards alone. This movie tells the stories of Nameless's conversation with the King by using techniques such as flashbacks. Within these flashbacks were editing techniques I have never seen before. With the use of colors to coordinate scenes such as the color constantly changing on the leaves from one color to another after the duel of Moon and Snow, Zhang Yimou has defiantly brought in many unique aspects to this film. He details each specific story told with different colors such as green, red, blue, and white. With great organization within his style, his color coordination makes it easier for the viewers to follow. With detail in sound, he articulately expressed each swift of the sword and motion of the feet. This film ends with somewhat a twist in the end. Finally approached within the ten paces from the King, Nameless listens to the wise words of Broken Sword, and walks away for this chance of unity. In doing so, the King sends his guards for his death. In the end, it is notices that many lives were given up and killed more reasons of love, friendship and ideals.

Review for Hero. By Hen Pauker
Hero is an art film that made in china in the year 2004. The plot starts at the King of Qin’s palace where warrior with the name (or without the name) “Nameless” (Jet Li) getting a lot of respect from Qin’s citizens, palace worship and from the king himself. Nameless claim that he killed three assassinates who willing for the king’s death; the three assassinates were Broken Sword, Flying Snow and Sky. Those three warriors were known for years as the king’s enemies and as a reward for their death, Nameless got the chance to get closer to the king and tell his story about the battles against those assassinates. The director (Zhang Yimou) presents to us the special stories about Nameless finding Broken Sword, Flying Snow and Sky; he shows us the way Nameless chose to kill them or the way he helped them to be killed. The more Nameless ascribe to the end of his story he is allowed to get closer to the king and the more he get closer to him, the king find a lot of “holes” in his story. Eventually, the King guessed what really happened and realized that Nameless is assassinates too who wants his death. When Nameless is only ten steps from the king he can finally kill him and complete his, sky, Broken Sword and Flying Snow plain. The director with amazing effects shows us the fights and the battles between Nameless with the other assassinates and then the true story about the group. The film’s fights, art direction, acting, choreography cinematography and all of the camera angles, shots and editing are amazing. It is unbelievable what a cameras and a bunch of smart people can create.