Chan plays a veteran hotshot police detective whose bravado led to the death of his previous team and his own descent into shame and abject alcoholism. Now he finds himself facing the same master criminals with a new, smaller group.

Nicholas Tse is a less dominant presence than Jackie Chan, and the other co-stars are less prominent still. That is the weakness of much late-period Jackie Chan cinema: he is much too large an eminence for the balance of the films. When the spotlight leaves him, it finds very little of interest.

This is not a film to approach literally: it is Noodles Aaronson's (Robert De Niro's character) story told as he knows it, remembers it, or thinks it was. I can't say what "really" happened. Neither can Noodles. Do not step away from the picture or turn it off before the final image: it is important. I think I may know what really happened, but maybe not.

Hey, it has Ti Lung. That's enough to counteract a large number of flaws.

If one can tolerate the extremity of the violence and pain depicted in "Martyrs", it is possible a lesson may be learned: it may be something about the psychological/moral/theological/mystical results of torture, or it may be nothing more than "I am NEVER going to France, as long as I live. What's WRONG with those people!?" I'm undecided.

No one can be forced to understand or appreciate a work of art, and any piece's value may remain invisible to certain viewers--that does not indicate that it is not art or has no value--merely that it is not intelligible to those people. I get nothing from Robert Rauschenberg or Andy Warhol. Others get quite a bit. My incomprehension does not invalidate their insights.

If you don't usually enjoy Kitamura, you'll probably like this anyway.

If you do usually enjoy Kitamura, you will find this entirely up to his standards.

[Significant Spoilers Here.]

What was the villains' intent? Who was really their target? Do any know how to fire a gun accurately? Was Tae-jin any part of the criminal plot? Most importantly, If Tae-jin was a police officer in South Korea, why was it so difficult for the private investigator to locate him?

The costumes and acting are a little bit better than in the same director's "The Calamari Wrestler," but the spiritual/theological/karmic message is worse developed and explained than in that film. After watching the film, many practical questions remain: what really happened in the hero's past? Who was conspiring against him, who were his allies, and - most of all - were the people in his home village telling the truth or were they part of someone else's plot? Not only are the answers not given, it appears the writer and director had no clear answer themselves.

This isn't a continuation of, or in competition with, the original series. It is itself, and it is quite pleasing.

This isn't like anything else: it does a fine job of being itself, and I enjoyed it tremendously.

I'm going to put it back in the DVD player again right now.

To the degree there is any criticism of "Hero," the plot can be construed as an apologia for a brutal central dictatorship: "Only one under Heaven." This is particularly troublesome coming from a director of Zhang Yimou's credentials--he made his name on small films delving the anguish of the peasant class under the Communist government. Is this a surrender to the central committee? I don't know, but this film's artistry forgives many faults.

This force of nature destroys the evil that he sees, along with some of the good. The series is excellent from start to finish, and both more comprehensible and more socially responsible than the dubbed, re-edited "Shogun Assassin" and "Lightning Sword of Death".

It's not the obscenity of violence, but violence as a response to the obscenity of corruption.

"Spirited Killer" is better acted than most of his films--although that is very faint praise--but it is far better plotted and written. While many of Rittikrai's starring films are too amateurish for most Western viewers, this should hold the attention of anyone seeking Tony Jaa's influences and lineage.