Although many viewers of the film “Hero” by Zhang Yimou expected an action-packed Chinese Kung Fu film, their expectations were exceeded given the deeper, underlying meaning that is portrayed in the film. I had the luxury of viewing this film in 2002 before it was released in the States via bootleg and I must say I was extremely disappointed. I was closed-minded at that age and all I was expecting were fight scenes showcasing martial arts, and ultimately, I did not care about what the film was trying to convey. In a more attentive approach to this film, I realized that the true battling in the film was not the actual fight scenes, but it was the battle between the minds.
Hero is based on the assassination attempts of the King of Qin, Jing Ke, in 227 BC. The main character that is known as Nameless (Jet Li) is in the presence of the king and is seated exactly ten paces away from him, which is within Nameless’s accurate striking range that was acquired through a decade of training. The king was impressed in Nameless’s elimination of the previous attempted assassins in Long Sky, Broken Sword, and Flying Snow, thus allowing Nameless to engage in this conversation with him. Nameless initially planned on assassinating the King once he got his 10 paces in order to seek revenge for the death of his family at the hands of Qin soldiers, but he was forced to reconsider after hearing the views of Broken Sword. According to Broken Sword, the only way to achieve national peace in China is to unify all of China under one ruler, one dynasty. Essentially, Nameless abandons his mission although his goal was only ten paces of being accomplished. He knows that his repercussion would be death but he knowingly sacrifices his life in order to preserve the greater good, which is peace in China through unification. When delving into whether or not this has any political implications, the concept of communism in China quickly comes to mind. The fact that Nameless sacrifice his own political gains to the point of giving his own life for the greater good of achieving peace in China, shows strong correlation with the concepts of communism in the PRC. On the contrary, an argument in rebuttal to this notion of sacrifice for national peace refers to American films portraying military personnel who sacrifice their lives for the greater good of their nation.
Another issue that is surprisingly critical is as simple as the English translation of the word “Tianxia.” The literal translation to this is “everything and everyone under heaven” but in American cinema, it was translated as “Our nation.” This clearly distinguishes a difference between China as a sole nation and the world which essentially causes controversy questioning Zhang Yimou’s political implications. When asked about it, Zhang Yimou clarifies that he intended the film to portray a universal world peace. Zhang Yimou also insists that he did not intend to make a political stance through this film but the talks of politics continue.
I believe for the purpose of the film, it was used as Our Nation but maybe it was just a metaphor for Our Nation as a whole. Again, looking at the bigger picture rather than what it shown at hand in front of us. Nonetheless, I found your last paragraph to be informative, since I didn't know what Tianxia meant.
ReplyDeleteI made a mistakem it was actually translated as "Our Land" in American cinema which essentially retains the same notion. And I do agree with you as well Daniel. Although this controversy of its translation existed, based off of Zhang Yimou's responses when questioned about it, I do agree that this notion was a general reference.
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