Why Hero Is So Short
Submitted by jim on Tue, 03/04/2003 - 10:55
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For the three of you that don't know, I'm a big Zhang Yimou fan and have been looking forward to his first martial arts epic, Hero, for quite some time. There were rumors that Miramax, a company notorious for butchering Asian movies, would cut the film drastically and scuttle it's Oscar hopes. When it was released in China at 98 minutes long, it didn't look like the movie was long enough to cut! Unfortunately, it looks like Miramax wasn't content with screwing US fans. Here's the story Perhaps it's just a rumor, but I suspect it's true.
As for the Oscar hopes, Miramax really blew that one, as I'm pretty sure it's ineligible for next year's Best Picture having gotten nominated THIS year for Best Foreign Film.
Actually, it is eligable in every category EXCEPT foreign language film. You see, a film isn't eligable in all the major categories until it is released in America. Hero hasn't been, but it will be later this year. It's happened before, for instance, The Immigrants did it in the 70's, and The Umbrellas of Cherbourg did it in the 60's.
That's good news, at least! Thanks AAA! Of course, I have no idea if it's good enough to be considered, but I'm looking forward to finding out. But I have a hard time believing a 98-minute martial arts epic has a snowballs chance in hell. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon was allowed to invest considerably more time in stuff like character development.