Alternate version of Jet Li & Donnie Yen’s duel in “Hero”

Zhang Yimou’s Hero is one of my favorite movies of all time, and it’s definitely one of my favorite martial arts movies of all time (read my review). One of the film’s highlights is the meditative, atmospheric duel between martial arts legends Jet Li and Donnie Yen, who play two warriors so skilled that they need only fight each other in their minds to determine the victor (you’ll see what I mean). And they do so with the aid of some truly stunning action choreography courtesy of Ching Siu-tung.

Martial arts cinema expert Bey Logan recently uploaded an alternate version of the fight scene, which places more emphasis on the events leading up to Li and Yen’s duel. It’s worth watching if only for the moment around the 2:00 mark when Yen returns two swords to their defeated owners.

(More “unreleased and never seen before clips from Asian cinema” can be found on Logan’s “Reel East” YouTube channel.)

Via Twitch