'Hero' finally opening in U.S. after being held for 3 years

Zhang Yimou's highly acclaimed martial-arts film "Hero" is finally opening in U.S. theaters today, after nearly three years in limbo.

It's the first martial-arts action-adventure for Zhang; the Chinese filmmaker is better known for such artsy dramas as "Raise the Red Lantern" and "The Road Home."

Since its 2001 completion, "Hero" has broken box-office records in its home country (under the title "Ying xiong") and was even nominated for the 2003 Academy Award for Best Foreign Feature (losing to "Nowhere in Africa").

In fact, since then, Zhang has even made a sequel to "Hero" — "House of Flying Daggers," which will be released in the United States early next year.

Zhang says he is just happy that "Hero" is finally seeing the light of day.

"It was not an easy film to get made," he said through a translator (Zhang speaks some English but prefers the languages in which he is more fluent, Mandarin Chinese and Cantonese). "I am not a martial-arts filmmaker. So I had to convince people to take a chance on me and on the movie."

But the finished product has impressed the film industry, inside and outside of its home country. Even before the Academy Award nomination, the U.S. distribution rights were purchased by Miramax Films. Studio chief Harvey Weinstein opted to delay its release because of perceived similarities to the 2000 Academy Award-winning "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon."

"It has been a very long wait. I can only hope that my movie has gotten better in that time. I hope it has become a better film than (the Oscar-winner) now," Zhang joked.

He admits that "Hero" has some things in common with "Crouching Tiger." Both employed the same action choreographer (the legendary Yuen Wo-ping) and the same soundtrack composer (Tan Dun) — and they both co-star rising actress Zhang Ziyi, who also worked with Zhang Yimou on the 2001 drama "The Road Home."

"I have tremendous admiration for what (director Ang Lee) was able to do with ('Crouching Tiger')," Zhang Yimou said. "He managed to transcend the genre and make an artistic statement, which is what we as filmmakers are trying to do."

One of the many things that separate the two films is factual elements. While "Crouching Tiger" was based on a series of fantasy novels, "Hero" is based on the legendary accounts of the real-life King of Qin, who apparently had an almost superhuman ability to survive assassination attempts.