I’ve been finding some pretty awesome films that were never popular in the States. If you’re a fan of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon… (as I am). You should check out “Hero” with Jet Li and the same girl that was from CTHD. The film was produced for Chinese, by Chinese, so you better be ready to read subs. The atmosphere, colors, and graceful choreography are astounding. With each path in the storyline, there are subtle changes in coloring that take place. The pace moves a bit quicker than CTHD, but is not a straight up fighting movie. What drew me in were the beautiful perspectives, the intense emotions and tragedy, and the way a brutal fight scene can somehow become an elegant piece of filmmaking.

It is simply a reminder to Hollywood to step back and learn from some of the Asian directors. Many followers of The Matrix fell in love with the fight scene choreography, and should realize that the fight scene choreographer Yuen Wo-Ping produced them. If you’re not familiar with him, here’s an interesting article about his work. In fact, much of the camera work and perspectives from Matrix were inspired by Asian films. It’s fascinating to witness some of the same techniques threading through popular modern films.

So what did you think of Matrix Reloaded? I won’t get into that right now… everyone has their own theories and opinions. Needless to say it wasn’t as brilliant as the first, but hey, when are sequels often better?