Hero

Hero, which takes place in ancient China, is about a nameless prefect who shows up at the King of Qin’s kingdom to tell his story of how he killed the King’s assassins, Flying Snow, Broken Sword, and Long Sky.  The prefect is respectfully named ‘Nameless.’  The emperor is so impressed with Nameless that he lets the prefect sit within ten paces of his throne while retelling his tales (something very rare because of the fear of assassination).  Nameless starts his story with his killing of Sky at a Weiqi parlor.  They dueled mentally and physically in front of an audience.  In the end, Nameless kills Sky and takes his sword to his next journey; the hunt for Flying Snow and Broken Sword.  Nameless then travels to a calligraphy school in Zhao, where Flying Snow and Broken Sword are hiding.  Upon arrival, Nameless tells the two lovers about Sky’s death and informs Flying Snow about Sky’s death wish: for Snow, who is also Sky’s mistress, to avenge him. When Broken Sword hears the news, he becomes so infuriated that he sleeps with his servant to make Snow mad.  This makes Snow so upset that she kills Breaking Sword. Moon, the mistress, becomes upset with this new tragedy and tries to kill Snow, but Snow makes Moon accidently stab and kill herself.  The next day, Nameless fights and defeats Snow because she is preoccupied with the death of Moon and Broken Sword.

The King of Qin does not believe Nameless’s story and proposes an idea that he and Sky planned the duel and its outcome. He also proposes that Nameless traveled to the calligraphy school and persuaded Sword and Snow to fight and be defeated by him.  Lastly, the King of Qin thinks that Nameless was trusted by the three assassins because he is unstoppable at killing within ten paces, and is therefore there to assassinate the King.  Nameless agrees that most of the story is correct, except that Sword did not want Nameless to kill the King, which caused Snow to injure Sword (so he could not interfere with the plans).  The King respects Nameless’s story, says some wise words and gives him the chance to kill him.  The words of wisdom affect Nameless deeply and Nameless refuses to kill the King.  He is then killed by multiple arrows, but given a heroes burial.

Hero contains a lot of slow motion shots to show the detail of the stunts the characters perform.  Although most of the jumps and fights that occur in the film are very unrealistic, they still help add to the martial arts effect.  Chinese films tend to be full of martial arts and high tech stunts.  Also, color is an important theme in the film. An example is when Moon and Snow are fighting.  When Moon is stabbed, the trees and leaves turn red, which is often used to signify blood and death. Despite the corny stunts, I enjoyed watching this movie and would recommend it to anyone who wants to watch an interesting film.

Amélie

Amélie starts with a description of her somewhat abnormal parents. They seem to have strange pet peeves and hobbies that have an effect on Amélie. She is home schooled and doesn’t friends other than her imagination. Her mother dies in a freak accident, which further alienates Amélie’s father from her. She later leaves home and gets a job as a waitress. Even as an adult, she seems to lead a simple life with simple pleasures and having the freedom to let her imagination roam. On the day Princess Diana dies, her life changes as she discovers a box with childhood memories hid by a boy who lived there many years ago. She decides to find its owner to return the box and in turn aide her in the decision to help others. After many efforts, she returns the box and finds ultimate happiness leading her to the decision to help others. She describes the things around them vividly to a blind man, becomes a matchmaker, supports Lucien by playing pranks on Mr.Collignon, and brings happiness to a wife who thought her husband never loved her. During this process, she meets an old man Raymond Dufayel who helps her discover herself. He gives her the courage to go after Nino, a man who collects passport photographs. In the end, Nino and Amélie start a relationship.
The movie uses the same bright yet old color scheme throughout the movie. More reds and light shades of green are seen in the beginning of the movie. As the movie progress brighter colors are introduced such as bright blues, reds, and greens. Amélie’s apartment shows more of the brighter colors than any other setting. The colors tend to add to the eccentric nature of the movie. Towards the end of the movie, there seems to be more sunshine emphasizing the new happiness coming into everyone’s life.
The beginning of the movie starts by describing the everyday events that were happening when the “birth” of Amélie took place. The end of the movie ends in a similar manner describing the regular events of the day while Amélie finally leads a life without solitude. Also in the beginning, the regular events seemed to be devoid of happiness while the end was full of happiness.
The global audience can somewhat relate to this movie. The eccentric nature of this movie may be something that many cannot relate to. The theme of wanting to help people, scared of expressing love, a lonely childhood, and growing up unique amongst lifeless people seem to be reoccurring themes in many movies. The eccentric manner of presenting the plot may be something that cannot be related to on a global level.

Swades

Swades follows Mohan as he searches for his "second mother", Kaveriamma. He goes from industrialized, fancy, upscale America to dirty, uneducated, un-modernized India. When he first arrives his mind set is that of a classical American; he considers India to be living in the past, he thinks that India would be better if it were more like his new found homeland, America. He slips up a few times in the beginning disassociating himself with India. He doesn't truley consider himself an Indian inhabitant. Then on his trip to India after he finds Kaveriamma he finds a beautiful girl. This girl happens to be a childhood friend of his and another "child" of Kaveriamma. This girl captures Mohan's heart and she captures his, but to win her forever he must give up his life in America to live in India.

Throughout the film Mohan learns that one should never judge two places without first seeing all of both of them. Mohan only has to go off of the top layer of India. He is sent on a trip to go pick up some rent. When he meets up with this man Mohan learns of how hard this man's life is. Mohan comes to the realization that maybe there is more to his homeland than just dirt and untrustworthy electricity. The main theme of the film is to tell the viewer to be proud of their heritage no matter what their roots. It was those values that you grew up on and it will be those values that you carry with you forever. Ther is nothing in the world that can change who you are deep down and even if you don't associate yourself with your past it will never let go of you. Even though Mohan had been gone from India for years his heart still lent a helping hand to the village. He struggled to give them a proper education, proper lighting, and the equality everyone deserves.