Word: warriors
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...ultimate destiny. A palpable pall hangs over the realm of Rohan, where King Théoden (Bernard Hill) has been bewitched by evil wizard Saruman (Christopher Lee) and his spy Gríma Worm-tongue (Brad Dourif, as a slimier Richard III). Heroic Aragorn (Viggo Mortensen) and the elf-warrior Legolas (Orlando Bloom) band with a revived Gandalf to defend Rohan against Saruman's 10,000 soldier-clones. Out in the wild, the hobbit Frodo (Elijah Wood) is on a desperate trek with his pal Sam (Sean Astin) and the creepy Gollum (Andy Serkis), a creature who once possessed...
...foreign devotees don't care. "I may never get a Vietnamese girlfriend riding this bike," says Minsk enthusiast Digby Greenhalgh. "But I can get up any mountain." Armed with a Minsk, a tool kit and a good map, few places are out of reach for the adventurous weekend warrior; those with a week can take in an astonishing array of landscapes and locations of historic and cultural interest. The "Grand Loop" first leads to Sapa, a mist-shrouded hill station 350 kilometers north of Hanoi, surrounded by hill-tribe villages. From Sapa, the route goes southwest to Dien Bien...
...plot is a series of tales told by the warrior Nameless (Jet Li) to the Qin King (Chen Daoming). Any or none of the stories may be true; this is Rashomon with a Mandarin accent. But the moral, or rather the ethic, is as clear as it is bleak: man must make war to secure the peace...
...stage the fights, Zhang chose Ching Siu-tung, a renowned choreographer who has also directed 21 features, including such Hong Kong classics as A Chinese Ghost Story, Swordsman II and The Heroic Trio?not to mention a 1989 quickie called A Terracotta Warrior, starring two kids from the mainland, Gong Li and Zhang Yimou. The very first set-to in Hero is a terrific one between Li and Yen. (Each man first imagines the fight, like a chess player visualizing his opponent's possible moves.) How swift their swords! How eloquent their body language...
...fights out on the open battlefield, far removed from innocent civilians. In Middle-earth, unlike the Middle East, you can tell an evildoer because he or she looks evil. The Lord of the Rings also plays to America's view of itself as a reluctant warrior. As Peter Jackson, director of the Rings trilogy, remarks, "On some level most of the people watching these movies regard themselves as peace-loving, gentle people who would rather stay out of trouble and who are forced to deal with situations that are out of their control." Sometimes fantasies tell us less about...