Hero

Zhang Yimou’s “Hero,” released in 2004, is beautiful and charming, a martial arts performance demonstrating the styles and lives of its fighters inside Chinese tradition. Roger Ebert noted, “It is also, like "Rashomon," a mystery told from more than one point of view; we hear several stories which all could be true, or false.” The movie starts, like many folk legends, with a storyteller before the presence of a superior king, counting on his reasons to protect his life.

The storyteller is Nameless (Jet Li), who arrives to the imperial palace of the feared King of Qin (Chen Dao Ming). Qin dreams of uniting every fighting palace in China under his rule. His plans to end battle, the opening narration tells us, “were soaked in the blood of his enemies.” Three murderers have sworn to kill him: Broken Swart (Tony Leung), Flying Snow (Maggie Cheung) and Long Sky (Donnie Yen). Now arrives Nameless to say he has killed all three of them. He wants to become the king’s valued deposit, and collect a reward.

The beginning parts are visually breathtaking. Nameless arrives at the royal palace way high on the caste system, walks through entrance rooms of great wisdom and wealth, and is allowed to kneel within 100 paces of the king – which is closer than anyone has been allowed to approach in many years. One more step, he is warned, and he will be killed.

The king wants to hear his tales. Nameless explains that his martial arts skill alone was not enough to win against such difficult opponents. Instead, he gets inside their heads to find out their vulnerabilities. For instances, Broken Sword’s fencing method was disregarded by the style of his script. Sward and Snow were in love, so jealousy can help here. Maybe Snow could walk in on Sward sleeping with the beautiful Moon, played by Zhang Ziyi, which would separate their union. As Nameless tells, there are flashbacks to the scenes he talks about.

“Hero” was the most expensive film in Chinese history, an honest try to surpass Ang Lee’s “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon,” and the sets, costumes and special effects are completely pretty. Look at the part where Nameless and Long Sky are fighting until one gets killed during a heavy rainstorm that breaks the ceiling of the room they are fighting in, while a blind musician, played by Shou Xin Wang, plays his harp in equivalent. They sometimes pause to ask the musician to keep playing. At one part, Nameless throws himself across the room in slow motion, through a cloud of suspended raindrops which fall like jewels when he goes through them.

How about when Nameless and Broken fight while floating above a lake, sometimes making patterns in the water with their swards. Zhang even looks like he’s filming them from below the surface of the water they’re walking on. Or how about the part that is in a rain of bright red leaves. Or another where a calm master of inscription continues teaching, and his students sit obediently around him, while a rain of arrows fly through the roof of the their school. Ebert said, “Never have more archers and more arrows been seen in a movie; although I knew special effects were being used, I was not particularly aware of them.”

These stories really interest the King of Qin, and after each one is finished he allows Nameless to step a little closer to the throne, until finally there are only 10 paces that separate them. However, the king has not survived years of murder attempts by being vacuous, and after the stories, he speaks, giving his own interpretations of what might have occurred. Ebert noted, “His version is also visualized by Zhang, creating the "Rashomon" effect.”

We can easily see the king being right in his retelling of Nameless’ stories, and we think if Nameless came up with a way to get closer to the throne and kill the king himself. This hypothesis is not only thought up by the audience but, obviously, to the king, who may have a deliberate reason to allowing Nameless to come so close. The two are playing an elegant game of truth or consequence, where it really won’t matter what really happened to Sword, Sky and Snow, because everything has finally arrived at the two men in the throne room.

Ebert credited, “A film like "Hero" demonstrates how the martial arts genre transcends action and violence and moves into poetry, ballet and philosophy.” It is violent simply on purpose. Ebert mentioned, “What matters is not the manner of death, but the manner of dying: In a society that takes a Zen approach to swordplay and death, one might win by losing.” There is an old martial arts tactic where one brings the opponent closer to throw him off balance, and yields to his attacks in order to fabricate him. One might even win against their enemy by dying – not by killing him, but as a move in a larger game.

Ebert noted, “Every genre has its cadre of moviegoers who think they dislike it.” Sometimes a movie comes along that everyone has to see, regardless. If you avoided seeing every superhero movie, for instance, “Spider-Man 2” was the one to see. If you didn’t like martial arts even after “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon,” then “Hero” may be the right film. Ebert ended his review by saying, “Is it better than "Crouching Tiger"? Perhaps not, because the "Rashomon" structure undermines the resonance and even the reality of the emotional relationships. But Zhang Yimou, whose "Raise the Red Lantern" was so beautiful, once again creates a visual poem of extraordinary beauty.”

My brother and I saw this movie in theaters when it was given an international release. I liked it, but my brother didn’t seem to like it because of it feeling like Romeo & Juliet. However, after seeing the trailers and only seeing parts of “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon” at that time, I was intrigued to see this movie, and I’m glad I saw it. If you haven’t seen this movie, go see it, especially if you liked “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.” You will love this film a lot, I give you my word.

Check in next week to see another exciting entry in “Zhang Ziyi Month.”