Next Mini-Review: “Waterboys”, the Japanese film about a male high-school synchronised swimming team. It is essentially an entirely predictable goofball comedy with a (for western tastes) slightly skewed sense of humour. I needed the first half of the film to get used to this sort of humour and up until that point was quite unsure whether I would like the film or not, but after that point turned out to be very good fun and had me laughing out loud plenty of times. Props to the actors who have put an awful lot of work into their final performance (as can be witnessed in the “Making Of”). Should be taken with a pinch of salt as the humour will not be everyone’s cup of tea (salt and tea? yuck!), otherwise very enjoyable.
The quality of the (again anamorphic) Korean 2-disc release is very good but as always only the main feature is subtitled, included audio tracks are Dolby 5.1 and 2.0

Mini-Review of “Hero”, directed by Zhang Yimou: Very, very impressive. Incredible scenery, nicely choreographed fights, intensive colours and quite surprisingly a touching dilemma on many levels. I’ve heard many people think it’s “too much like ‘Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon'”, but I strongly disagree with that statement; although there are undeniable similarities (e.g. Zhang Ziyi and similar music by Tan Dun). Not for people in a hurry, otherwise well recommended!
The (anamorphic) picture of the 2-disc Hong Kong (Region 3) release is awesome (and it needs to be to fully appreciate the awesome cinematography), available audio tracks consist of DTS and Dolby 5.1 (add the EX-suffix if you believe in marketing); the English subtitles are good and well-timed, although the translated names take a minute of getting used to.