Hero by Zhang Yimou

On the eighth day of the eighth month of 2008, billions of TV viewers were treated to an unforgettable spectacle at the opening ceremonies of the Beijing Olympic Games. Behind it all was the creative genius of Chinese film director Zhang Yimou. He is an internationally acclaimed Chinese filmmaker and former cinematographer, and one of the best known of the Fifth Generation of the Cinema of China.

Hero is one of the wuxia films directed by Zhang Yimou which is based on the story of Jing Ke's assassination attempt on the King of Qin in 227 BC. As we known, after unifying China, Qin Shi Huang became the first emperor of China in 221 BC and passed a series of major economic and political reforms, including the first version of the Great Wall of China and the famous city-sized mausoleum in Xi’an. In Hero, a swordsman named Nameless (Jet Li) arrives at Qin city to meet the king of Qin. He claims that he had killed three assassins, Long Sky (Donnie Yen), Broken Sword (Tony Leung) and Flying Snow (Maggie Cheung), and displays their weapons before the king who allows Nameless to sit 10 steps closer to him by killing each assassin and tells him the tales.

Not only Hero is a martial film, but also it displays ancient China cultures. The story of the film structures around a “Sword” which represents those weapons attained by assassins as well as a spirit of Zhuang Zi (庄子). There are two well-known chapters in his writing called “Shuo Jian (说剑)” and “ Tian Xia (天下)” by which Zhang Yimou plots his film and highlights Zhuangzi anti-war wishes through the “Sword” scroll. In the last scene, the king of Qin understands the universal peace principle from the scroll---the highest swordplay status is supposed to be "no sword in hands, no sword in heart."

Moreover, Zhang Yimou expresses his love to Chinese cultures. When Qin army is shooting blizzards of arrows to Zhao state, the teacher tells his students that “Zhao could be lost, but the culture of Zhao state can’t be abandoned.” According to China ancient history, Qin Shihuang had outlawed and burned many books except Qin’s. Thus, Zhang Yimou shoots the above scene to criticize the destruction of various cultures by Qin Shihuang.

Hero supports a ironic point of sacrifice of a few for the greater benefit of all. Nameless is a native of the Zhao state and his family were killed by Qin soldiers. In order to kill the king of Qin, Nameless takes 10 years to practice his swordplay technique which allows him to strike target accurately and rapidly within ten steps. However, he eventually gives up the mission because Nameless realizes the wisdom of Broken Sword’s words, who ever persuades him that the only way to achieving peace within China is to unify all the other six states. Meanwhile, the king of Qin is the only man capable of completing this task eventhough he has to achive peace by killing. Nevertheless, assassinating him will only cause China to disintegrate into anarchy and civil war. Most of Zhang Yimou’s films connect a political issue, so does Hero. Under the control of CCP in China now, values of the nation are higher than any ones of individual. When personal value conflicts with the nation’s, we are taught to sacrifice own profit. However, people’s equal rights are deprived. CCP are happly to extend this Chinese "selfless patriotic" spirits generation by generation, yet we already realize that it doesn't deserve our reputation because Chinese are sacrificing of a lot for the benefit of none from the government.