Hero's Mise en scene

With films like Hero, one can only sit back and stare. The movie is filled with dazzling whirlwinds of leaves, flying arrows, amazing, almost overwhelming, color schemes and flowing garments. In the Red Leaves Scene, you can see how intricately shot the movie was and the extreme attention to detail. There are yellow leaves surrounding the two leading females in the film as they begin to fight. It is the most graceful battle scene that one can watch where leaves flow with swords and bloodshed changes the color of the leaves.


In addition to the grace of the movie, the scenic design in impeccable. According to cinematographer Christopher Doyle, the movie is anallegory of truth and perception. He enjoyed the color red being used, because in his mind, it represented the Chinese. He wanted to move the camera as each character willed it with their movements. Each color meant something specific to Doyle and represented a character. For example, blue meant unreal amounts of sky and a lot of movement as you can see in the gif below.

Green is the most characteristic according to Doyle and is calm, serene, and less complex than the red and blues.

The incredible job done by Christopher Doyle influenced his nomination for an Academy Award for cinematography for the film Hero. He helped the film transcend the idea of just another action-packed martial arts film and brought out the true meaning of the film, which was the essence of martial arts itself.

Carlita, "The Interview"

The Interview, a film about a talk show host and show producer going on a journey to North Korea to kill Kim Jong-Un, was just what I expected from Seth Rogen and James Franco. There is nothing particularly interesting about the film other than the racist and homophobic undertones throughout. It seemed as though this movie had been written by a sex depraved, ignorant, teenage American boy. In all honesty, it wasn’t bad and it was, in fact, the epitome of Seth Rogen and James Franco’s work. If you are usually entertained by Rogen’s crude humor and lack of political correctness, this movie will be the best comedy of the year.

When the film began with a young North Korean girl singing a violent song about America’s downfall, I just knew this would be the most ridiculous film I’ve seen to date. James Franco’s “Asian” accent and Eminem’s big confession began long-running gay and Asian jokes. The whole movie was just that, a long running gay and race joke. It is definitely a must-see, because of how taboo it was with the whole “Sony Pictures and North Korea scandal” (which was, in my opinion, a farce). This film is definitely not for the serious or the easily offended.

Rating: 2/5