Sunday, July 25, 2010

Hero

Zhamg Yimou’s 'Hero' is probably the most famous Chinese martial arts film all over the world. The historical background of this movie is king of the Qin dynasty who conquered all the kingdoms in China and united them. Many people tried to kill him to get back their own land. And many innocent people were killed by king Qin's soldiers during the wars. Therefore, the king Qin ordered all people 100 paces away from him and only the person who killed three most dangerous assassins could come closer. Nameless, one of the main characters, could approach to the king of Qin, because he claimed that he did kill the three assassins- Sky, Flying Snow and Broken Sword. Nameless brought swords of assassins as proof that he killed them and got rewarded a lot of gold, lands. Also he was able to meet the king within twenty paces because the king wanted to hear how nameless could kill the assassins.

Nameless claimed that he used the emotions of Broken Sword and Flying Snow to kill them. The color red used in the flashback of Nameless. Broken Sword and Flying Snow wore red clothes, showed calligraphy in red color, and fought under the beautiful yellow leaves then it turned to red after the battle. Red color showed their emotions of betrayal, jealousy, strong and violent temper toward each other. After nameless described how he killed Broken Swords and Flying Snow, the king did not believe his story and accuse him of lying. In the flashback of the king, the color blue lead the story. The cold color showed Broken Swords and Flying Snow's painful heart and sorrow love story. They had to choose which one should be dead in order to help nameless to kill the king. Later nameless confessed what really happened to them and why he came to the king. He came to the king to murder him but changed his mind after he remembered two words that Broken Sword wrote on the sand "天下= under heaven". In the Broken Sword's flashback, the color green used to describe how he met flying snow and the moment they attempted to kill the king of Qin but failed. At that time, Broken Sword was aware of what he had to do for the better future. The real story was described with the color white which represent their pure love and death. Nameless could run away from the palace but waited the king's order to execute him. The color black used in the most of scenes taken in the palace. When all the colors combined it became a black, the color red, blue, white, green combined into black which represent the king of Qin. Zhang Yimou used color in the scenes beautifully that explained each plot.

What was the meaning of the two words 'under heaven' and why Broken Sword did not want to kill the king of Qin and why Nameless chose to death rather than revenge. In the history, China was divided into many different kingdoms and they all wanted unification under the name of their kingdom. People suffered from countless wars for several years and they knew that the battle would be done only after the unification. The king of Qin had the strongest and most powerful kingdom and army troops. Broken Sword and Nameless really loved their nation and realized that the king of Qin was the only one who was able to unify broken kingdoms into one nation. That's why two assassins did not want to kill him. In the history, people only remember the king of Qin as a hero who united the land but there's hidden people who sacrificed their lives for their country. Like the king of Qin, Mao Zedong and Don Xiaping had successful economic growth of China in their own ways but there's perhaps more unknown heroes who sacrificed. Zhang yimou wants to describe that the great China was not built by one man but the lives of many hidden heroes.



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