Film: Hero
Release date: 21st February 2005
Certificate: 12
Running time: 95 mins
Director: Yimou Zhang
Starring: Jet Li, Tony Leung Chiu Wai, Maggie Cheung, Ziyi Zhang, Donnie Yen
Genre: Action/Adventure/Martial Arts
Studio: Miramax
Format: DVD
Country: Hong Kong/China
Finally, two years after its creation, and as a result of severe petitioning to Miramax Studios from Quentin Tarantino, Zhang Yimou’s Hero obtained its western cinematic and unedited DVD release. Following in the mould of its spiritual predecessor Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, Hero is a succession of sweeping landscapes, vivid colours and high wire action that sees Jet Li return to his native China to assume the lead role.
Summoned by the King, an orphaned warrior, Nameless, is hurriedly ushered through the gates of the palace so as to confirm a miraculous achievement. Presenting the Prime Minister with three boxes, each containing the weapons of three powerful assassins killed by Nameless, he is permitted into the throne room to drink tea with the King.
The King is a single-minded militant who wages war on the other regions in China, yet his philosophy is to do so not for personal gain but to make the nation strong, unifying them under a single leadership and language. Eager to learn how this mysterious warrior, who held a position of nothing more than a mere local Prefect in his Kingdom of Qin, defeated these assassins, the King invites Nameless to recount his feats. Nameless states he does not possess the abilities to have defeated them collectively yet reveals by separating and confronting each assailant individually he knew he would be victorious.
While it is widely known Broken Sword and Flying Snow are lovers, Nameless reveals that the couple had not spoken to each other in three years because of an illicit encounter Snow had had with the third assassin, Sky. Shown through flashback, Nameless, having infiltrated a calligraphy school in Zhao, reveals to the remaining martial arts masters the remains of Sky’s spear, claiming that Snow's compassion would lead her to avenge his death. This revelation leads to a startling and spiraling sequence of events where Broken Sword, distraught by the actions of his paramour, engages in sexual gratification with his student Moon to earn Snow’s resentment. Snow in a fit of indignation and rage retaliates by killing her former lover. Nameless, in the hall of the King, states this emotional unsettling as a result of the cunning plan he had instigated made the disposal of Snow in combat a formality.
After pondering this lavish tale, the King of Qin announces he has been deceived by the orphaned swordsman, and professes his own entirely new account of what transpired…
With directorial projects that have earned him Golden Bear’s and the elusive Grand Jury Prize, it is unsurprising that Hero exudes the confidence of a director who is comfortable in his craft. Hero is a visual feast as Zhang sculpts beautiful, if not iconic, imagery from the shifting landscapes of Chinese deserts through to the poetic motions of his actors’ choreography. It is impossible not to underestimate the painstaking effort that went into making sure the director achieved perfection in every single scene, as not one inch of the screen is wasted or not deliberately thought out. For the fight scene in the forest, between Maggie Cheung and Ziyi Zhang, Yimou Zhang had a man spend days there purely to inform him of when the leaves began turning yellow so that the director could achieve his vision of the juxtaposed yellow and red colours. Not simply this, but the lake scene involving both Cheung and Tony Leung could only be filmed for two hours a day because this was the only time the waters in the lake would be still enough to create the mirrored effect desired.
Yimou Zhang’s dedication to faultlessness in his artistry is the primary reason Hero is undeniably hypnotic in the sheer scale of its visual palette, but he accompanies this with an interweaving sequence of stories. When Jet Li’s Nameless delineates the fits of jealousy his craftiness sent Broken Sword and Snow into, the film and the characters are awash in red. From wearing red robes through to the red calligraphy house, there is a striking statement being made. It is only, however, when the King begins his hypothesis that the colours start to resonate as being more than just bright garlands when the same characters and school are depicted in a calming blue.
Zhang’s colour coding typifies the emotional thought processes of the characters, where red symbolises passion and rage; blue is representative of sacrifice; green is the exemplification of mercy; while white, as the closing of the thematic colours, can be interpreted as truth, birth or death. While the director has been quoted as claiming the colours bear no direct correlation to any one theme, this must be taken with a pinch of salt for Zhang is undoubtedly aware of the symbolism he himself must attribute to each shade - his declination of a definitive response has created much discussed ambiguity and subsequent publicity.
At its heart, despite the kaleidoscopic opticals, Hero is a martial arts film. Thankfully the high-wire choreography does not overly bend the rules of physics so as to feel nonsensical, but does so just enough to gift his characters an ethereal and benevolently enlightened feel. Despite Jet Li and Donnie Yen being the only schooled martial artists in the primary cast, the remaining protagonists all undertook weeks of training, and the result is there as evidence to the hard work they put in. Not one scene is compromised as a result of an individual’s inability - all the actors are beautifully convincing as they glide through air, bounce off lakes and pull off remarkable feats of dance-like combat.
There are criticisms that Hero, for all its breathtaking visuals, harbours an overriding doctrine of unification, and a philosophy that supports an individual's desire to bring peace to the masses through blood thirsty conflict and totalitarian rule. There are certain parallels that can be made to modern day China leading to a school of thought that Hero is pro-communist propaganda. However, as with the meaning of colours, Yimou Zhang’s true reasoning is open to interpretation by all, and while from a certain standpoint it is difficult to ignore these observations, it is also difficult to ignore the seemingly obvious that his story is based on history, and that certain events cannot be changed. Eastern cinema has a great penchant for the philosophical, endowing the perceived antagonists with moral codes, blurring the lines between 'good' and 'bad'. Yet the reasoning in this instance may be as simple as the director choosing to implement his poetic license, but then in Hero, nothing is ever quite as it first seems to be.
While some may have an unwillingness to swallow the simple premise as a means for justifying ninety minutes worth of sword-clanging, finding it a tedious exercise in high-wire showboating, it is impossible to deny the sheer beauty which resonates throughout this sumptuously narcotic feast.
Whether it be through majestic landscapes, the vibrancy and range of striking colours on show, or the graceful movements of some of China’s finest stars, Yimou Zhang champions a case for style when done with substance. BL
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