I feel like I have been waiting a long time to behold this movie and that the trailer for “Hero” (”Ying xiong”) has been teasing us for at least a year. I have to admit that I fully expected to study an record fat of battle scenes and massed armies of men. My mistake. This film from China is a pointed yarn, distilled from epic that may well be legend, and with a point that may well be lost on Western audiences. This is definite from those viewers who are unwilling to catch the conventions of wire work in Chinese martial art pictures and whose standard of realism refuses to allow for the poetic ballet of combat.
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The prologue makes it distinct that this myth takes status in China before it was China, when the land was made up of seven warring provinces and the King of Qin (Chen Dao Ming) dreamt of conquering the other six provinces and uniting the land. For years the king has been unable to have a level-headed night of sleep because there are three assassins who are out to ruin him. Now comes a nameless warrior (Jet Li), who has approach to the imperial court to be rewarded for killing the three unbeatable assassins. He is warned that he may not near within 100 paces of the king or he will be killed. But because he has bested the assassin Sky (Donnie Yen) in combat, he is allowed with 20 paces to mutter his tale.
Most of the fable of “Hero” is told in flashback as Nameless tells his stories and the king questions him. We also learn of the fates of Broken Sword (Tony Leung) and Flying Snow (Maggie Cheung), two assassins who were also a pair of lovers. But there is more than one truth and more than one narrative to be told in this film. Director Zhang Yimou, improving on the artistry we first enjoyed in “Raise the Red Lantern,” color codes the stories that we seek. First the account is told in lush shades of red, then in chilly blue, again in white, and finally in green. Drops of water and swirling yellow leaves all become parts of the dances of death during the fight sequences, captured by cinematographer Christopher Doyle. “Hero” is a elegant film that uses its saturated colors better than any film of unusual memory. There is a code to the colors, but that is something you need to arrive to terms with on your occupy.
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Another strength of this film is that the fighting (choreographed by Wei Tung) and special effects do not overwhelm the actors who are required to play what is on some level the same scene as slightly different characters. I know there are computer generated effects in this film, especially since there are more arrows shot in “Hero” than any film in history, but for once I did not rep the feel that what I was seeing was not exact. That is become this film keeps coming attend to questions of aesthetics, from the breathtaking exercise of color to the eloquent conception that swordsmanship and calligraphy are intrinsically awaited.
Special mention has to be made of the music, calm by Dun Tan and featuring violin solos and fiddling by Itzhak Perlman along with drumming by the Japanese group Kodo. I have never really seen one of those Hong Kong kung fu movies where everyone screams while they fight and I might never acquire around to it given the calm eloquence of the fights in movies like “Hero” (not to mention “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon”), where the moments are underscored by the sound of clashing swords, pounding drums, and a violin. “Hero” is an art film, albeit one made on a larger and more luminous canvas.
“Hero” may be sold as being a gigantic film but it is really about something relatively tiring, and simple. I disagree with the conception that either the style or substance of the film is beyond our Western sensibilities. Apparently the reason the film has the “Quentin Tarantino Presents” imprint at the inaugurate was so that Miramax would not reduce 20 minutes of the film out on the pretext that it too Asian/confusing for Western audiences. Indeed, I have seen some critics who professes to be confused about the complex state and I can only wonder if they were equally confused by “Rashomon,” an clear reference point to this one (in many ways Yimou owes more to Akira Kurosawa’s classic film than to Ang Lee’s “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon”) . Certainly after a century of cinema we are noble to looking at the same thing from multiple perspectives and enjoying this gem of a film that has finally made its plot to our shores.
Much as Ang Lee demonstrated his directorial virtuosity in CROUCHING TIGER, HIDDEN DRAGON, Zhang Yimou has applied his fine talents to the martial arts genre with HERO. This is movie not only worth seeing, but worth watching two or three times, or more. Each viewing unveils original appreciation for Zhang’s artistic direction, Chris Doyle’s cinematography, Tan Dun’s musical come by, and Itzhak Perlman’s violin performance, not to mention unusual insights into the sage line and character interrelationships.
The sage line is simple enough on its surface, based loosely on Chinese historical fact. The king of the Qin set seeks to unify the Seven Kingdoms some 2,000 years ago, and three assassins from the defeated Zhao site wish to ruin him. An unknown warrior named Nameless, from the Qin residence, succeeds in killing the three assassins and returns to derive his reward in an audience with the King. As we understanding segments of Nameless’s explanation of how he defeated three such fearsome opponents, a battle of wits ensues with the skeptical King until the truth emerges. Their verbal sparring beautifully parallels the feints, thrusts, and parries of the martial arts scenes.
Within this chronicle line, we are treated to astounding, ballet-like martial arts contests between Nameless and the three assassins. Each scene is dominated by one vital color, from the opening desert white to the reds of the calligraphy school to the yellows of autumn leaves whose wind-swept swirls become weapons in themselves. A sword fight between Broken Sword and the King of Qin is cloaked in flowing green cloth, reminiscent of Zhang’s exhaust of colored cloth in JU DOU.
While HERO evokes memories of RASHOMON, this is not the same motif. The three “versions” of the assassins’ reported deaths are rather more like the leisurely unfolding of a Sherlock Holmes mystery. As the memoir reveals itself, the relationship of the four assassins (including Nameless) moves from enemies to spurned lovers to companions working together and finally to a genuinely tragic (if seemingly platonic) appreciate between two of them.
Several less recognized aspects of HERO are particularly beneficial of mark. First, anyone who saw Tony Leung and Maggie Cheung in IN THE MOOD FOR Adore will win it powerful that the same two actors could pull off the characters of Broken Sword and Flying Snow so successfully. Second, the game of Go played by the assassin Sky at the beginning of the movie magnificently foreshadows Nameless’s successive movements in the King’s presence from 100 to 20 to 10 paces. Third, the ballet movements in unison of the candle flames burning before the King are not only radiant in opinion, they mirror the closing scene’s behavior of the King’s faceless advisors calling for Nameless’s execution. Finally, the juxtaposition of calligraphy brushes with swords and flying arrows is a dramatic visual rendition of the pen and sword adage.
A last comment. Criticism of HERO as Communist Party propaganda is laughably absurd and demonstrates a severe lack of belief of Chinese history. Qin Shihuang was a product of his times, no more or less tyrannical than the Egyptian pharaohs, Alexander the Astronomical, Julius Caesar, William the Conqueror, Suleiman, or the American generals who “cleared” the Wild West of Indians. Regardless of his methods, Qin Shihuang accomplished a colossal unification (All under heaven) that continues two millennia after his death. HERO evokes the founding of a nation and one unknown man’s ultimate decision to sublimate his desire for revenge to the greater first-rate of his country. That makes it no more propagandist than stories of Abraham Lincoln’s struggle to re-unify the North and the South at the cost of countless thousands of lives, and far less pathetically propagandist than the unique “American hero” movies celebrating Jessica Lynch or Ronald Reagan. Americans need to hold a long, hard survey in the mirror more often before screaming propaganda about the cultural work of other countries.
HERO is not a perfect movie. The sword fight over the lake goes a bit over the top, the calligraphy/sword connection is overplayed, and Zhang Ziyi’s character Moon too often feels extraneous. Nevertheless, HERO is a Must Perceive for anyone who loves tremendous story-telling and colossal movie-making.
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