5/5 Maybe just maybe you won't notice the audio difference?
  by H. Ramirez (Long Beach, CA USA)
The low scores seem to do with the mandarin track being lossy DD. Before you give a low score based on that be absolutely positive a lossless track would've benefited you(i.e., if you're one of the lucky ones to have a high end audio system that cost you thousands and have the golden ears to match it). I point to this Home Entertainment magazine article where only one of the testers was able to distinguish anything beyond 640kbps Dolby Digital.[...]

Amazon won't let me post the link just Google for 'Dolby TrueHD & DTS-HD MA vs. Uncompressed PCM' to find the article.


4/5 fantastic audio
  by o.s.
i was skeptical about purchasing this video on blu-ray because the "house of flying daggers" bd quality was so poor. to my surprise the video quality is very descent and the audio version in english (5.1 dts-hd) is excellent.

5/5 Please ignore witless reviews!
  by J. S. Bower (UK)
Some of these reviews made me laugh out loud, they were so ludicrous. Yes, I'm a techno-nerd too, with reference-quality A/V gear. But most of these hapless reviewers are really missing the point. By a mile. If I took this attitude, I'd never go to see a film again, listen to a concert or ever buy another BluRay. Get over it, guys and - by the way - FYI the vast majority of surround sound systems suck anyway- as anyone with the merest knowledge of phsychoacoustics could attest.

So, let's get down to basics and the things that do actually matter. My wife (who is Chinese) and I sat down in front of our Kuro Reference and had a great time. We listened to the 'lowly' 5.1 Putonghua track, of course, and were not bothered one whit.

This is a great wushu epic with charismatic actors, stunning locations, decent CGI and - above all- fabulous cinematography.

And the transfer to BluRay is decent. Not great, but way, way better than the ham-fisted debacle that was 'Flying Daggers'.

What more do you want?

Lighten up, guys!

4/5 Visually superb, could use some more extra features though
  by Alexander M. Walker (Chicago, IL USA)
Quentin Tarantino gets lots of credit for creating pop-culture purees with each of his films. He takes from countless sources of media old and new and combines them into something interesting. Tarantino has another talent though. He has an eye for knowing which films deserve a chance. Bring Hero into the equation and you realize just how good Tarantino's eye for aesthetic brilliance really is. The rich vibrant colors, the beautiful choreography and a magnificently told story make Hero one of the most gorgeous and luscious films to ever come across the sea from China.

Before the Great Wall of China could be built, an emperor had to conquer and unite all of the kingdoms in the land. Consequently, it's a time of great turmoil with towns being burned and many people dying in the process. For all the good such change can bring through unity, the side effects include men and women who want to overthrow those who killed their loved ones. Enter the nameless assassin (Jet Li). His family died in one of the many conflicts that ripped across China and has come to speak to the King of Qin (Daoming Chen) with a most unusual request.

Unknown in the land, Nameless boasts a story which the King must hear to believe: he has felled the three greatest assassins that ever dared attack the king. He offers proof of each victory over the assassins and in return for each story is allowed to proceed closer and closer to the King, which is a sign of honor and respect. Each story Nameless tells informs the King of a masterful fight and begins to unravel a plot that betrays the assassin's initial claim. The defeats of the assassins Sky (Donnie Yen), Flying Snow (Maggie Cheung) and Broken Sword (Tony Leung Chiu Wai) seem too perfect and gradually the King realizes that Nameless's quest wasn't as simple as he made it sound. What started as a simple exhibition of three stories becomes a tightly woven revelation of revenge and intricate plotting. The King finally sees Nameless for what he is and asks the question upon which the entire film hangs: Why?

The story has an excellently plotted non-linear structure and works as an odd one man Rashomon. Instead of varying perspectives, Nameless instead shows each story with varying levels of truth, until he stops omitting facts altogether. But what really makes the structure of the film interesting is how it's broken up into chapters by according to visual style - namely colors. Each epic battle comes strewn in a cloak of a different color and to great aesthetic effect. Each scene is stunningly filmed by prized cinematographer Christopher Doyle and choreographed by Siu-Tung Ching. The colors break the film into pieces but the narrative and the visual style running beneath the colored fault lines bring it all back together into a glorious whole.

If you've seen it before, you know the potential for beauty in Hero. If not, the Blu-ray experience will be equally rewarding. In hi-definition the colors and scenery become characters all their own and the clarity of the shots showing huge armies and clouds of arrows makes the film worthy of a slot on your shelf. Now, if you've already bought it on DVD it's hard to say whether or not you'd be content with the upscaling a Blu-ray player already does or if you'd want that extra-extra bump to full-blown awesome. How much do you value awesome?

Blu-ray Extra Features:

The extras aren't busting at the scenes but there is a really fun interview between Tarantino and Jet Li. You get to watch Tarantino ooze infatuation and curiosity in the way he's known for doing. Otherwise there're two production featurettes covering a fight scene and then all the other general aspects. The former is fun (though you find similar ones on lots of other movies) and the latter is mediocre.

4/5 Brilliant movie - disappointing audio
  by Matthias Krenzel (Chicago, IL USA)
This is a brilliant movie. Unparalleled cinematography, great direction. Colors so vibrant they jump off your screen and brilliantly staged. The list of achievements of this crew and cast is long and they are masterfully directed by Zhang Yimou who recently brought you that breathtaking opening ceremony from the Beijing Olympics Games.
The story is not complex, but offers a couple interesting twists. The score is moving and perfectly matches the video.

What really holds this movie back is the audio. Not only the terrible choice not include the original voice track in DTS, which insults the serious enthusiast but other aspects disappoint as well.

Do not watch the dubbed version. The voice acting is terrible, it destroys the flow of the movie and the speech does not match the lip movement. Granted it is difficult to match up English and Mandarin, but this version is particularly bad. The viewer with an average surround system will not hear the difference between 5.1 and DTS for most of the movie, because even the DTS track is bad as it severely underutilizes the rear channels. A very uninspired mix.

Miramax butchered so many aspects of the movie starting with the original delayed release in the US. Thanks to Quentin Tarantino for making it happen. Miramax should not be allowed to make any money on this movie ... "unfortunately" this movie is simply too beautiful to pass on.

The fight scenes with its special effects, sets and colors make this a reference movie. The audio ... not so much.