Hero – Ying xiong

[Lacedaemonian]

Hero – Ying xiong

"This land doesn't know a real hero. Yet.”

The Director: Yimou Zang

The Cast:

Jet Li - Nameless

Tony Leung Chiu Wai - Broken Sword

Maggie Cheung - Flying Snow

Donnie Yen - Sky

Daoming Chen - King of Qin

Ziyi Zhang - Moon



Historical Backdrop…

The story is set in feudal China (I guess somewhere between 230 BC – 210 BC) during the emergence of the eventual first emperor of China, Emperor Qin Shi Huang. Famous for his creation of the Great Wall and the Terracotta Warriors and Horses, Emperor Qin Shi Huang realised his ambition and built the first feudal and centralized empire in Chinese history in 221 BC. This was what we know as the Qin Dynasty (221 BC - 206 BC). However, in realising this ambition he had to unify and subjugate all the states such as Han, Zhao, Wei, Chu, Yan and Qi. It is in this period of subjugation that the story is placed, with Qin portrayed as the tyrannical despot.

The Story…

For almost a decade three assassins - Sky, Broken Sword and his lover Flying Snow have threatened the life of ancient China's most powerful leader Qin. When Qin hears that all three assassins have been defeated and killed by a mysterious swordsman known simply as Nameless, he summons Nameless to his palace to recount how he came to defeat the legendary warriors.

The film follows the narrative of Nameless as he sits before Qin and recounts how he defeated each of the assassins. The film then precedes in a series of flashbacks each showing how Nameless came to defeat the three Assassins all beautifully choreographed and dreamlike. We are then greeted with another series of flashbacks as Qin tells his version of events, clearly trying to weigh up the truth. Qin slowly comes to the conclusion that Nameless has come to assassinate him, and is in fact in cahoots with Sky, Broken Sword and Flying Snow.

The Review…

Hero is about motion, imagery and colours. Character development and plot were clearly a secondary thought whilst making this film. The acting is not bad, the actors do what is asked of them – ‘look beautiful don’t ruin my shot-painting’ – with limited dialogue and almost feather light floating movement the actors become a moving part within this stunning tapestry.

Colours play an important part in this film with each flashback painted in a defined vivid colour of which I am sure has some symbolic resonance, but it is lost on me. There are four distinct colour schemes: blue, red, green and white. In each flashback all the garments and much of the backdrops are washed in the same colour. Wind also seems to have some symbolic purpose from the breezes that blow draperies and curtains like threads of gossamer to the swirling whirlwind like gusts used by Flying Snow in her ballet style battles.

Make no mistake this film is no where near as good Crouching Tiger, but is far better than the run of the mill Hong Kong kung fu drivel. Martial arts fans refer to this style of film as being wire-fu due to its heavy use of wires for choreographing fight scenes. That would be fair comment if this film was merely a kung fu film. This film is of the wuxia genre, and thus walking on water, flying through the air is to be expected for the heroes of wuxia tales are knights of rare ability.

This film is all about sacrifice, particularly the sacrifice of the individual for the greater good. This message is at the core of utilitarianism and you would be naïve to ignore the obvious communist sentiment.

In a nutshell…

This film is poetry without words – music without sound. A visual master piece.

[Chimeco]

visual poetry. yes I agree completely.

[angrybuddhist]

I have to disagree with you on a few points. First, I think Hero is much better than CTHD. The story is much more realistic, even though it's filmed as a fantasy, which I prefer over the fairy tale of Crouching Tiger. Second, I don't believe the character development was overwhelmed by or secondary to the imagery. Perhaps this is due to the "colorful" retellings. Also, I must be naive, because I thought the sentiment was more universal than "communist". The title Hero could be used to describe any one of the main characters, including Qin. I think the movie is perfect visually, emotionally, and intellectually.

[Lacedaemonian]

Utilitarianism is a key element of either fascism or communism. This of course is a highly debatable point. I really enjoyed watching this film and would agree with you to a point - but this film is no where near as good as Crouching Tiger.

[Winters_Sorrow]

I enjoyed Hero more than CTHD.
Possibly because I *hated* the ending of CTHD and partially because Hero was set in a historical period with actual historical figures and I'm always a sucker for those stories.

I have to disagree about the plot being secondary to the imagery. I thought it was very well written & plotted as it had a similar approach to Rashamon of telling the same story from different viewpoints. Quite tough to pull off I'd say.

[Lacedaemonian]

Nah I would say that this is a classic device for both film and literature. It is a simple method of revelation. This film seems to be constantly compared with Rashamon, which also uses colour in a similar way. The problem with Crouching Tiger is that it is only one small part of a much larger series of books.

[I, Brian]

Started watching this a few weeks back, but only got as far as the emperor blowing the lid on everything.

A very visual film, but was disappointed with the lack of story - I'll get back to finishng watching the rest soon, though.

"Visual poetry" - probably the fairest assessment.

[Alia]

I absolutely loved both movies, CTHD and Hero! My fav between the two is CTHD. While watching both movies I looked at them as being fairy tales which made them more interesting for me.
But hey, it's just my opinion.
Alia

[Lacedaemonian]

Both movies are very much fairy tales though in the Arthurian mold. Hero is set in the period prior to the Qin Dynasty but the characters and events are purely fantastical.

[Tsujigiri]

Pretty fonts

I've seen Rashomon, I will keep half an eye ouf for this film now as well.

[Lacedaemonian]

The films share similar directional styles.

[Quokka]

A slightly strange one for me, for much of the earlier part of the movie i was fairly underwhelmed but the more the movie developed the more I enjoyed it and i was left really quite liking the movie as a whole. Overall I have to say I found the plot (once the retelling begins) and the concept of 'hero' as it applied to each character much more interesting than the fight scenes, which for me lacked something.

I should add I'm not exactly a connoisseur of asian cinema. I mean I still rate police story as a personal favourite

[Lacedaemonian]

Police Story is an awesome movie, one of Jackie Chan's best movies. I was brought up watching Jackie Chan movies and consider all of his early stuff as top notch martial arts movies.

[Zan]

I liked both movies, Hero and CTHD, I think you are rigth with Hero being more of a visual than a plot center movie. However taking that in consideration the story telled in Hero is both beatiful and sad specially for the destiny of the characters specially the fate of Broken Sword whom from my point of view as the true hero of he film in many ways

[fallenstar]

I have (as most Chinese people have) a high standard for Wuxia movies...we sort of considers the plot the most important thing in a Wuxia movie...so I didn't like Hero or CTHD that much...