Real Hero Review!

Zhang Yimou pleased audiences worldwide as well as the Chinese government when he released his artistic creation, Hero, in 2002. Hero is not just a film—it is a true work of art with each scene flowing with beautiful Chinese music, drenched in vivid hues of color, and even incorporating elements of dance. Although the storyline is a simple one, Zhang Yimou captivates his audience by using elaborate techniques to tell it.

Hero presents the art of storytelling through Zhang Yimou’s use of smaller stories in combination with artistic elements to tell the larger, main story of the film. In the opening scene, the protagonist, Nameless (Jet Li), is seated in front of the King of Qin (Daoming Chen) and must explain how he assassinated some of the greatest swordsman masters that were after the emperor and what his motives were to do so. The following scenes are a series of stories, each painted in its own specific color of red, blue, white, and green—with each color representing a different aspect or emotion. The fabricated story in red that Nameless tells draws feelings of lust and anger; the story in blue that the Qin emperor tells is full of romantic ideals, sadness, and loss; the story in white tells of truth and death; and lastly the story in green told by Broken Sword (Tony Leung Chiu Wai), represents the past as well as life, which the king’s is spared. After the audience, along with the King of Qin, discerns which story is the real one, we learn the moral of Hero’s story— that a hero is not necessarily one that slays the antagonist, or the “bad guy” so to speak, but that can change his ways for the better without violence and through the power of stories to reach a person’s emotions and humanity.

Nameless’ use of stories and words to fight his ultimate battle with the King of Qin attests to the idea of perception throughout this film. If you delve deeper beyond the surface level of physical swordplay you discover that the film is not so much a battle of swords but rather a battle of minds. The several fight scenes that occur only in the mind are physical representations of the psychological battle that is occurring between Nameless and the King of Qin. Fooling the audience as he fools the king, Nameless seems as if he has physically stabbed and murdered the king until the camera zooms into his sword, revealing that he had only frightened the king with the handle end of sword. In addition, we initially perceive that Nameless has selfishly killed all the other assassins who were supposedly his friends until we learn he has only put pressure points on them as an illusion that they have been killed. With this, Zhang Yimou is showing us that not everything is as it seems and it is important to sort through the stories to find the truth.

Furthermore, like in his earlier film, To Live, Zhang Yimou seems to like the use of irony by juxtaposing opposites. In one of the opening scenes, there is a period without dialogue but rather a brilliant swordplay fight between Nameless and Sky (Donnie Yen) that follows the rhythm and flow of the traditional Chinese piano (Guqin) being played in the background. In a later swordplay scene involving Nameless and Broken Sword, the two characters fly effortlessly through the air and dance on water as they battle each other in a serene mountain landscape. The images are beautiful but ironic because fighting and battle are usually depicted as violent and suspenseful, not graceful and elegant like they are in Hero. All the battle scenes are portrayed almost as a dance—on beat, to a rhythm, and with a continuous flow.

As artistic and beautiful as the film is, there are some subtle political undertones per usual for Zhang Yimou’s films. Hero presents the idea that a good ruler should rule for the people and have his people’s best interests in mind rather than his own. The King of Qin learns the three achievements of swordsmanship, where the ultimate achievement is “the absence of sword in both hand and heart, the swordsman is at peace with the rest of the world; he vows not to kill and to bring peace to mankind.” Nameless helps the king discover that he is the ultimate swordsman and must commit to these ideals: to stop the chaos and killing and to “unite all under Heaven.”

Hero: An example of preserving culture or homogenizing it?

In his epic martial arts film Hero (2002), Zhang Yimou utilizes a broad variety of lush colors to paint a portrait of Chinese culture and history. Set at the tail end of the Warring States Period (c. 475 BCE – 221 BCE), Hero begins with intimidating scenes of the palace and of the various cleansing rites the protagonist Nameless must undergo before being received at the court of the Qin king, who becomes the future emperor of united China, otherwise known as the Qin Shihuangdi (the First August Emperor). Such extravagance calls to attention the large-scale nature of the film, with hundreds upon hundreds of officials lining the courtyard of the palace. The very scale of production gives the film a glossy, almost Hollywood-ized feel, but it is contrasted with flashes of an ancient Chinese culture that is likely quite foreign for the Western viewer.

The film is told in the provocative style of a frame-story, with Nameless and the King trading vastly different renditions of the same basic events. This calls attention to China’s long history of oral tradition, an interesting paradox of using such a visual media as film to portray an oratory custom. The style of narrative also emphasizes the theme of reality versus representation. In its very essence, the basic situation is that Nameless has somehow acquired the weapons of three famed assassins, which thus enables him to come within ten paces of the king. What makes all the difference however, is the “how” this comes about. Nameless and the Qin king’s exchange shows the dubious nature of “reality,” that it can be constructed and reconstructed in any number of ways without changing the core nature of the situation.

The film makes several interesting commentaries on the nature of Chinese culture. During the scene in which the Qin’s artillery rains down arrows on the calligraphy school, the old servant rebukes the students for their anxious flurry. Rather, he calls them to stand their ground, saying: “You must remember! Strong as the arrows Of Qin may be; though they will shatter our cities and destroy our nation, they shall never extinguish Zhao's written word. Today, I shall teach you the true spirit of our culture! ” In light of history, this statement is heavily ironic. Historically, Qin goes on to dominate all the other states to create a unified China. One of the reforms that the Qin emperor employs to ensure the unity of an as-of-then fractured China is that of a unified writing system. There is something rather ironic about the notion that cultural synthesis in a necessary facet to creating a new unified China.

The very process of making this film proves to be another instance of homogenization of culture, only this time it is through the instrument of commercialization rather than totalitarianism. Just as the Qin emperor implemented a unified language system, so too have the demands of popular culture and entertainment demanded the display of a synthesized Chinese culture. Similar to Ang Lee’s Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, many of the actors and actresses of Hero are not native Mandarin speakers (e.g. Jet Li, Tony Leung, Maggie Cheung, Donnie Yen) but for the sake of entertainment, it is necessary to create a false sense of unification of culture. This holds especially true for movies such as Hero which are directed partly—if not mostly—toward a Western audience. It would be easier for non-Chinese audiences to accept and internalize, over the course of a two or three hour film, a simplified and synthesized Chinese culture than to have to face the vast multitude of cultural variety that is actually present in China.

This is where Hero both finds itself catering to Western audiences while also revealing aspects of Chinese culture that are not the conventional “Chinese” that people may think of. Zhang satisfies the Western desire for sensationalism with its extended martial arts scenes, which style, while not quite as art-like as those found in Hidden Dragon, nonetheless are not at all like conventional martial arts dramas. Indeed, perhaps after the sensation that was The Matrix, no movie using martial arts can escape the shadow of imitating it some way, especially the extravagantly dramatic flares and sudden slow-motion scenes. At the same time, the music that sometimes plays in the background—especially that during the fighting scenes in which a man is heard dramatically yelling in operatic form—is perhaps a little too Chinese to appeal to Western sensibilities.

Of course, any review of Hero would be complete without a mention of the proliferate use of color in the film. Each section of the narrative is marked using a different color, which on one hand makes it easier to follow the story, but also transforms Hero from a normal martial arts epic to something rather fantastical. It gives the narrative a storybook quality that makes the film more fairy-tale than realistic. Indeed, were it not for the setting in the Qin court, it could have easily been an epic fantasy rather than an adaptation of a historical story.

In short, Hero provides an interesting contrast in utilizing Western techniques and scales of production while touching on issues of cultural homogenization by nation-state unification. Ultimately, the question that must be kept in mind is this: to what degree is it necessary to sacrifice aspects of cultural diversification for the sake of national unity? Undoubtedly, as growth rate of the minority population continues to exceed that of the dominating Han population, this question will grow increasingly important and difficult to answer.

Hero movie review

During the Warring States period in China, there were many assassination attempts to murder Qin Shihuang, the eventual first emperor of China. Zhang Yimou’s Hero tells a story about an assassin, named Nameless, getting within 10 paces of Qin only to not follow through on his initial goal of avenging the death of his family by Qin soldiers. After many years of perfecting his special tactic, Nameless realizes that the eventual peace that would take place under a united China was more important than the satisfaction of killing the leader of the most powerful state. With Qin leading the most powerful army in China, he lives to unite China and bring an end to the Warring States period. What stood out to me is that it is unlike any martial arts movie I've seen and that maybe there is a political message behind the film, though I believe that the message is more universal than one specific about China.

The movie did have many fight scenes to qualify as a martial arts film, but the real battle took place in the minds of Nameless and Qin. This can be seen at the end of the movie where Qin actually throws his sword to Nameless, giving Nameless the decision making power of which idea is more important. The idea of peace under a unified China would not be that easy for Nameless to accept because it required many bloody conflicts and, as a result, destruction of an opposing states’ culture. The scene in which Qin soldiers attack a calligraphy school in the Zhao state is a good example. A barrage of arrows comes raining down on the school, killing many students. The Qin army could be seen as destroying a state’s culture by removing the main mode of transmission, the students at the calligraphy school. The idea of eventual peace wins out because the benefits will affect all the people in China, while the desire of killing Qin may benefit a few people or states.

Some have criticized the movie from a political standpoint that the idea of peace and harmony justified the Tiananmen Square massacre. It is clear how the movie and the events at Tiananmen Square could be similar and the fact that the film is made with the Chinese government’s approval does not make things better. However, I feel like it this could apply to most situations in international politics, not just China. But since it is a Chinese film, Tiananmen Square will probably be the first thing that comes to mind, especially for those outside China. It just seems the message in the movie is more universal than critics make it out to be.

The movie did very well in the box office due to the storytelling done by Zhang Yimou, despite having some tension on a political level. He uses the colors of red, blue, white, and green to differentiate the story told by Nameless, what Qin actually thought had happened, and the true events. This is blended well the fighting scenes based in the wuxia genre of martial arts. Zhang, also, mixes the style of Hollywood films with computer graphics with Chinese elements presented in zoomed-out shots that make the actors very small when compared to the surroundings. Overall, these qualities made his movie a success in the box office.

Hero Review by Stanley

"Hero" is a film talking about the story of four warriors assassinating Qin Shihuang-the emperor of Qin in the Warring States Period in ancient China. The reason why these assassinator wanted to kill Qin Shihuang was mainly protecting their kingdoms by eliminating the threat of Qin, some wanted to take revenge for their families killed in the wars. The main chracter Nameless spent ten years to practice and planned a way to successfully assassinate Qin Shihuang, however, he gave up the chance and at last because he realized Qin couldn’t be killed, as he was the only one powerful enough to unite China and brought the war period to an ending.


"Hero" also mentioned the importance of loyalties of people to their emperor and kingdoms and obeying the rules and laws in the ancient Chinese culture. In the final theme that Nameless chose not to kill Qin, even Qin didn't want to execute Nameless, but he had to order the soldiers to do so because strictly enforcing the law established was essential and critical for a ruler to sustain his prestige in order to maintain the social orders and nation's power which lead him to the success of uniting China.


The four main characters Sky, Broken Sword and Flying Snow chose to gave up their reputation, love or even their life to support Nameless' assassination plan for their kingdom. This showed that sometimes we have to give up our personal will or benefits if that could achieve a larger will or benefits of the whole society. Considering the personal and the kingdom's perspective, the kingdom should come first.


Broken Sword and Nameless did not kill Qin Shihuang because they realized that Qin is the only one who could stop the war, even though Qin is the one who killed nameless' family. considering the kingdoms' and the world's perspective, the world have to come first.


I believe "Hero" was trying to mention that being the true hero does not mean to be the best or the most powerful person, but a true hero should always have considered the world and the people before anything in the personal perspective. Which is corresponding to the highest stage of jiandao "劍道" mentioned in the movie, the peace of the world.


It is great to see that China has such a long history which contain that many legends that could be transform into an amazing and meaningful movies like "Hero", in addition to the rich history background and storyline, we could also learned the ancient Chinese culture from the movie. Several fighting themes illustrated that using weapons wasn't the only way in fighting a battle, the interactions of ideas in our mind is even more important, therefore, jiandao is interrelated with music and the art of writing that the ideas in our mind is significant.

Hero

Zhang Yimou’s 2002 film Hero was truly a masterpiece in the realm of artistry. It was a film that featured incredible cinematography that highlighted the elements of the natural environment through graphic enhancements. It was delicately decorated with intricate costume and fluid combat choreography that seem to flow in movement. Hero is a like a big firework display that dazzled the audience both native and foreign with its elaborate mixture of wuxai martial arts, Chinese traditional culture and high-end Hollywood graphics.

Hero can hardly be categorized as a martial arts film. Although the film did portray an adequate amount of fighting scenes, the audience is repeatedly drawn into the surrounding of the scene through graphic techniques. During the first fighting scene with Long Sky, the viewer is distracted with the element of rain, the movement of droplets, and the sound of it. It’s almost as if the natural elements overpower the fighting scene, leading to viewer to take in the surrounding and appreciated it. This is shown repeatedly in other fight scenes such as the Flying Snow and Moon’s battle, and Nameless and Broken Sword’s battle amidst the river. Overall, this incorporation and presences of the natural elements throughout the film really captures some kind of essence of Chinese traditional culture. It also portrayed cultural arts such as calligraphy, instruments, and Chinese chess.

The plot was somewhat mediocre. It was a very typical storyline of assassins and their mission to eliminate an unfavorable ruler. However, tragically ends with the death and sacrifice of the assassins for peace and unity. The sequence of the narratives proved to be quite complex, fascinating, and unpredictable but yet again confusing at the same time.

Although, some critics have claimed that the film’s plot represent that political situation of modern China, harboring messages of Communist propaganda. This argument was constructed through the analogy that the Nameless’ sacrifice was necessary to ensure the nation’s unity which can be translated to the notion that individual sacrifices must be made for the greater good which clearly reflects Communistic ideology. However, this idea seems a bit far-fetch. The film profoundly focuses more on the artistic cinematography and graphics making the plot seem very minuscule part of the film to even make that standpoint. In addition, its popularity in China and American itself proves that political message, if any, fails to translate on big screen because it is not the film’s selling point.

The diverse production crew without a doubt did a phenomenon job in transforming a wuxai film into an artistic Hollywood blockbuster film. It presented the wuxai film in a different and maybe more advance platform in the Hollywood industry, in comparison to Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon. Hero is a perfect example of integrating Hollywood elements into wuxai films or vice versa for a more global audience. Its mixture of traditional culture embedded in the wuxai genre appeals to the foreign audience, whereas the big and flashing graphics of western films astonishes natives as well. It was a film that was heavy funded and popularized through computer graphics and artistic footage that presented wuxai film with a Hollywood twist that wow-ed the global audience.

Hero

China was once a country divided into seven kingdoms, but the Qin dynasty had a lot of power and was obsessed with conquering all of China and becoming her first Emperor. The Qin Emperor became the target of assassins from all the other kingdoms including the three legendary assassins, Nameless (Jet Li), Broken Sword (Tony Leung Chiu Wa), and Flying Snow (Maggie Cheung). The protagonist Nameless somehow gets close to the king by telling him that he has killed the three assassins by presenting their swords before the king. However the king finds out that Nameless’s defeats were all thoughtfully planned out in an attempt to get closer to him and kill him. In the end, all three powerful and skilled assassins sacrifice their life in their attempts to have a peaceful China. The king is deeply moved by their passion and story, and eventually unified all the kingdoms in China, and honoured the deaths of the three assassins.

Hero is one of the most expensive Chinese film up to date. The director, Zhang Yimou really tried to show off his skills in the movie which is done by romanticizing the scenes in the movie. There are many superhero moments in the film with unrealistic sword fighting and archery battles. Also, the dramatic sword fighting is always set in a staged setting such as the desert, forest, and lake. Not only do they float on water, have leaves turning into red, unison ripples of green drapery, and swirling sword pieces flying through the air during fighting scenes, but Zhang also uses many close ups of facial expressions, and dreamy visions of Flying Snow and Moon’s (Zhang Zi Yi) hair flowing in the air. According to ancient Chinese culture, Chinese women always had their hair up and were not able to put it down. Thus, Zhang’s overall effects are exaggerated and clearly romanticized in order to boast the traditions of ancient Chinese culture for a mostly foreign based audience. Nonetheless, this big budget movie really portrays China’s vast landscapes, and utilizes a lot of actors especially in army scenes to create the sense of a mighty China.

Yet, Zhang also really emphasizes the ancient Chinese arts and culture. The camera often focuses on the armour wear, swords designs, hair bun tying, sword fighting, calligraphy, and archery skills. Also, the characters speak in an ancient Chinese language that sounds poetic and intelligible. Similarly, the main characters have lyrical names such as Flying Snow, Broken Sword, Sky, and Moon, which are elements that are important to the Chinese culture.

The techniques of calligraphy and sword fighting skills are important in this movie. The skill of calligraphy was a way to determine the sword skills of a person, which relied on strength and spirit. Broken Sword was asked to write calligraphy of the word ‘sword’ that is presented for the King which revealed a hidden message. The Qing Emperor figured out that the message was peace. Thus peace is an important element that Zhang Yimou highlights in the film. In order for the country to achieve peace, heroes like the three assassins had to come forward to create change. In the end, they sacrificed their lives for the greater good of China, and instead of killing the king they decide that it is unmoral to take his life away and persuade him to unify China instead. Most importantly, the movie reveals that it is important for individuals to step up and not be afraid to stand before a higher power in order to obtain justice for yourself or the community. And so, with having individuality, being a ‘good person’ with good deeds, everyone can be a ‘hero’.

Hero

When another famous Chinese director An Lee succeed with his classy fighting movie "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon," it encouraged traditional Chinese director Zhang Yimou to finance an artistic fighting movie of his dream. Zhang Yimou’s pervious movies were often banned in China. But this time “Hero” has the full support from the Chinese government.

"Hero" is abstractedly based on an assassination attempt on the cruel King of Qin. He controlled the most aggressive of the seven States in China at the time. Nameless (played by Jet Li) has approached to the King in the distance of ten steps which has never been achieved before. Many assassins have failed such as three famous assassins from enemy state Zhao. But Nameless chooses not to kill the king because of the king’s achievement as unifying China.

Hero is really a martial arts poem painted in colors. He identify the colors that shape the major parts: Red, blue, white and green. Red suggests passionate, deception and compulsion. Blue suggests explanation and intelligence. White suggests purity and spotless. Green suggests enlightenment and wisdom. Nameless’ wears black, which suggests death. With Australian cinematographer Christopher Doyle and the role of digital special effects, Zhang Yimou assembles different sections from the screenplay, which evolves from unreliable to reliable narration, using isolated color schemes.

Another unique cinematic part of Hero is its use of theatrical sound. Strings of traditional Chinese Guzheng and dynamic drums may be integral to the film’s tone, but sounds of martial arts action sequences capture the poetry of complicated characters. Like opera vocal performance in To Live by Zhang Yimou in 1994 , it is a similar type of “expressive singing” overlays the scenes which Nameless struggles with Sky to a harp and in Broken Sword’s ritualistic encounter with Nameless on water. The film has a serious tone from the very start with the distant poundings of deep drums.

Hero is a symbolic movie. Every symbols point to one identity: “MADE IN CHINA.” Chinese chess, calligraphy, sword, koto, landscapes, bamboo, bows and arrows, palaces, sandy climate, red walls and green tiles, Heroes is a highly artistic Chinese paintings. With its massive special visual effects, actors’ performance has been weakened. Characters’ personality and expressions are no longer as important as Zhang Yimou’s other movies. Changes of clothing colors, sceneries, props, represents loyalty, justices, love and time frames, visual language play more important roles in this movie than acting instead. The cinematography with its extraordinary lighting effects and expressively saturated color create a surrealistic “Hero”.

Hero

Zhang Yimou’s 2002 film Hero’s main character Nameless goes to the kingdom of Qin during the Warring States era in an attempt to assassinate Qin Shihuang, the king of the Qin state. As he fabricates a story for Qin Shihuang about how he killed off the king’s enemies, he is able to step closer and closer to the king, ultimately allowing him to get within the necessary distance to successfully kill the king. Zhang uses this main storyline to continually distinguish between representation and reality, and utilizes every main character in the film to show his audience that there is a huge difference between the two.

Zhang incorporates several historical themes into the movie, including calligraphy and the disunity of China before the unification that would take place under Qin Shihuang. He uses these to establish the historical authenticity of the film. He portrays the representation of Qin Shihuang as a cold-hearted ruthless king who would go to any extent to destroy his enemies and to take over the world. Zhang, nevertheless, clearly integrates a more open interpretation of the king’s character. At the end of the movie, we see the king extremely reluctant to kill off Nameless. This seems to contradict his usual representation as a merciless leader. In fact, his reluctance and temporary compassion towards Nameless helps the audience see that “reality” may not always be the same as what is represented.

Since no one who was present at the time of Qin Shihuang is still alive today, there is essentially no way to be absolutely certain of what he was actually like. We do have records which may indicate factual information, such as the number of people he killed, but that by no means gives us the complete picture of what his emotions were, nor tells us completely how or why he made the decision. In the film, it is clear that it is Qin Shihuang’s followers who end up persuading him to kill Nameless. It will remain uncertain how accurate the representation of Qin Shihuang, or any other historical figure, actually is in reality.

Zhang also utilizes the different color schemes to unfold the different versions of the story of what truly happened. There is the version where everybody wore red, essentially the fabricated version. The blue version seems to be the ideal story version that the king suggested, while the white version represents the real story behind what happened. Zhang again gives us two interpretations from two different perspectives, and then compares it with the truth of what really happens. The real version naturally is similar but not exactly the same as either Nameless’s version or the king’s version. Again, Zhang shows a clear distinction between reality itself and what’s being represented as “reality.”

Through his comparison of factual history versus the representation of history, Zhang uses Hero to relay an underlying message of differentiating between facts and assumptions. It causes us to reflect upon our tendency to jump to conclusions when we face unknown people, events, or things.

Hero by Zhang Yimou

Following the popularity of Chinese martial arts in what is known as the wuxia genre of cinema, the film Hero was released in 2002. This film was directed by acclaimed 5^th generation filmmaker Zhang Yimou. One of his first projects was as a cinematographer for Yellow Earth, directed by Chiang Kaige. It was only later with the movie Red Sorghum that he debuted as a director and became known worldwide.

After the success of Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, Yimou decided to explore this new genre which was increasing in popularity. His film Hero narrates the meeting between a nameless warrior, played by Jet Li, and the Qin Emperor, played by Chen Daoming. Nameless is able to meet the emperor because he defeated three of the deadliest bandits in that time: Sky (Donnie Yen), Flying Snow (Maggie Cheung), and Broken Sword (Tony Leung.) The movie develops the story behind the encounter between Nameless and the bandits. The director uncovers the truth through different narratives in which different colors are predominantly used to differentiate one story from another and express the characters’ feelings in each situation, and causing the audience to feel the same.

Although it is not very obvious in the first scenes of the film, the audience can quickly catch on that a specific color dominates each anecdote, with the details slightly changed each time. The movie particularly focuses on the scene surrounding Nameless, Flying Snow and Broken Sword since it carries most the emotions of the story. The first color accentuated and often applied in their encounter is red. By itself, this color represents determination, strength, power, desire and love. This color is perfectly used in this first narrative scene to reveal the passionate relationship between the characters. Their attitude and words hurt each other. It was easy to notice that they loved one another; however, their pride did not allow them to be honest about it, and misunderstanding caused them to doubt their feelings. At one point, Broken Sword slept with his assistant Moon (Zhang Ziyi) in order to make Flying Snow jealous and feel bad about her betrayal. She responds by stabbing him and eventually goes to meet Nameless for a fight. The characters followed their feelings above rational thinking, and acted under the influence of their emotions of love and hate. In the end, their inability to control their emotions became their own enemy, causing them to be defeated.

This story is immediately found false by the Emperor. He rejects the story and instead he gives his own take on it. In here, blue is the color that is most seen. His perception of the encounter is very different from what Nameless told him. It is interesting to see the more humanistic approach of the emperor. He provides a plot in which its characters are less impulsive in their reaction. Therefore, blue was a suitable color since it represents calmness. The characters depicted peace in mind, in actions and in their decisions. Because of their true love for each other, the theme of sacrifice is portrayed a lot. The audience is touched when watching Flying Snow injure Broken Sword because she does not want him to die when fighting Nameless. Later on, after Flying Snow is defeated, Broken Sword and Nameless have a mental fight. The scenery is surrounded by the blue color of the river where they fight on, the trees in the background and even the air. This effect conveys the feeling of sadness, which is provoked in the audience after realizing that Flying Snow and Broken Sword could not be together forever. When a drop of water hits Flying Snow’s cheek, Broken Sword diverges his direction from the fight to her. In this part of the movie, the audience joins Broken Sword in the mourning of Flying Snow’s death.

Although the Emperor was right at guessing that Nameless’ story was a lie, the true anecdote reveals a completely different story. After being uncovered, Nameless decides to tell the truth. This time, the color that was highlighted was white. We usually relate white with the truth because it represents purity and light. Just like the idea of enlightenment, Broken Sword, the Emperor and Nameless understood that the highest of all knowledge is not fighting at all. This perspective was related to the Daoist idea of “wuwei,” or non-doing. Doing nothing to change the natural orders is the perfect state. Broken Sword understood it through prolonged meditation, and therefore he does not kill the Emperor when he had the opportunity to. Flying Snow, the girl he loves, ends up being resentful towards him because of this decision. Even Nameless, who planned to kill the Emperor, understood it after being in front of him and does not continue with his scheme. We find that death is also an important theme in this section. For Chinese culture, white is the color that represents death. In the end, with disappointment, Flying Snow kills Broken Sword, blaming him for the second failure of the Emperor’s homicide. Nonetheless, she realized that she was blinded by her desire for revenge and forgot her ultimate goal, which was to live with Broken Sword happily forever. In the end, she realized her mistake and kills herself while holding her lovers body, giving the audience a tragic ending.

In this story surrounded by the truth and death, the director adds a flashback that has green as its primary color. This flashback explains how the couple met and how they once tried to kill the Emperor but did not succeed. It was also meant to represent the harmony in life they had when they had a mutual goal, which was to kill the Emperor. After gaining an understanding of the meaning of life and the order of nature, that flashback became a dream and illusion for both of them.

In conclusion, the director’s artistic creation utilizes colors like red, blue, white and green to express emotions of the characters and the story. Through these colors, the audience is able to understand the feelings they had and allows them to be part of the plot. It was also used as a means to divide the different stories developed throughout the film. It helped in the organization of the audience’s understanding and kept them attentive. Eventually, the film Hero became a new land of experiment for the internationally known filmmaker, Zhang Yimou.

Hero

The story took place during the warring period in China when it was divided into seven different kingdoms and the emperor of the Qin Dynasty wanted to conquer them all. However, the emperor is constantly plagued by the assassination attempts of three elite assassins, Sky, Flying Snow, and Broken Sword. A fourth assassin, Nameless, is given access to being able to stand 10 paces from the emperor for his efforts in killing the other three assassins, and thus begins the tale.

As others have already mentioned, Zhang Yimou does a good job of incorporating colors into his setting and using it to portray the themes of deceit, betrayal, love, peace, and war. The first color, red, was used when Nameless told the fake story of how he killed Sky, Sword, and Snow and appear as the color of the costumes characters wore. I feel that Zhang is using red to display deceit and betrayal. Red is also the color of blood, so in a sense Zhang is saying that deceit and betrayal usually lead to blood and death or something around those lines. Also, the color of the falling leaves during the scene when Moon tries to kill Snow was also leaning towards a very red-orange. Red can also be thought of as stop. The king of the Qin Dynasty then gives his impression of what he thinks was the real story, and this time costume colors change to blue. Blue can also be tied to the color of the sky or the sea, both which are natural existences, so it is as if Zhang is saying that what the king thinks should be considered the same way and people should abide by the king’s orders regardless. Also, Nameless said that Sword left him the two words “Tian Xia” (Under the sky), as if saying that anything under the sky is like the domain of the king. Finally, we have the actual story of what went on, with this time characters wearing white. White can be thought of as purity or pure as snow, lacking color and devoid of being tampered or tarnished, and that is a good description befitting truth. Another thing I noticed was that up until now, the colors being used have been red, blue, and white, which are exactly the colors of the American flag, so it is possible that Zhang meant to aim at an American audience with this movie, similar to the efforts of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. There is another color, green, that is used when Sword talks about the incident of the failed assassination attempt on the king three years ago. I figured Zhang used green to show this part of the flashback because green is the color of most vegetables and plants and is the symbol of life, and the failed assassination attempt meant the king was not killed, so green is an optimal choice.

Other than that, this movie is went very deep into the roots of Chinese culture, with its portrayal of Chinese calligraphy and combining it with swordsmanship to create a single state of mind, something similar to ancient Chinese philosophy (not sure if it has to do with Dao or not?). Another lesson from the movie is the idea that the one person’s suffering cannot compete with the suffering of tens of millions of citizens and so therefore if suppressing one’s suffering can allow for tens of millions of people to obtain peace, that one person should follow through for the “greater good” of the people. This is used in the movie since at the end we find that the king cannot be killed to satisfy one’s plan of revenge if that king can unite China and bring peace to all of the people.

Zhang Yimou's Hero

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.

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.

Hero

One can almost automatically pick up on director Zhang Yimou’s attraction to vibrant colors and scenic settings in his film, Hero. Zhang creates structure in his film by using different colors. Each “story” and the description of order of events depending on the different perspectives had its own identifying color. Although, Zhang claims that there is no meaning to the different colors he uses, in my opinion his use of color sets the mood to each scene and influences the way the audience relates to the characters and the story itself. For instance, in the first version of the story told by Nameless, there is betrayal, passion, and deceit and these emotions are magnified by Zhang’s use of the color red. Next, the second version told by the King shows a more planning and scheming involved in Nameless’ attempt to kill the king and this businesslike approach is reflected through Zhang’s use of a more subdued and serious color – blue. In reality, all the characters made a lot of sacrifices and both Broken Sword and Flying Snow end up dying, and this reality is portrayed with the use of white. White signifying the purity of each individual and like Pauline Chen said – the color of mourning and death.

In addition to Zhang’s attention to color, there were also several panoramic scenes that were similar to those of Yellow Earth. For example, both the scenes where Nameless walks up the stairs to the palace and where Broken Sword and Flying Snow die together reflect the Daoist practice of having tiny people surrounded by an enormous shot of nature. When Broken Sword and Flying Snow die, they are on a small cliff and surrounded by miles and miles of a canyon. All of Zhang’s aesthetic techniques dramatize the film and make it more memorable and entertaining. This is also the case for the martial arts in this movie. The martial arts aspect adds intensity and action to the film. During fights, the characters defy the laws of gravity by flying around and performing impossible moves. All of these factors contribute to the entertainment aspect of the film, and show how Zhang incorporated both traditional Chinese techniques, such as the panoramic scenes, as well as Western influences, such as the theme of martial arts and the magnification of sounds and sights (blood and water) to attract a larger audience and compete with modern Hollywood films. Viewers must be careful, however, to realize the underlying currents of political commentary.

The film seems to be strongly reminiscent of the past and of the Mao era in which collectivism prevailed and people were conditioned to think about the greater good. The protagonist of the film, the king, was the individual working to unite China, whereas the antagonists were the 4 individuals who had broken away from society and were trying to assassinate the king. This portrayal in and of itself sheds a negative light on individuals. Also, there are many scenes in which groups of soldiers are shown marching together. In one of the first scenes were Nameless arrives at the palace; there are rows and rows of people awaiting him outside of the palace. As the movie progresses, we learn how Broken Sword abandoned the first plan for the greater good. He educates Nameless on the principles of calligraphy and gives him two characters meaning “All Under Heaven.” This message furthers the idea that we should all be united and that all of China needs protection by the king. In the end, Nameless also abandons the plan because he realizes that killing the king would only satisfy his own goals, but by sparing the king, he would be doing something for the greater good. All in all, it seems as if this film highlights the positive aspects of socialism and the collective. It sends the message that the greater good should prevail over individual desires.

Ultimately, the cinematography of this film was excellent and the storyline was definitely engaging. Regardless of the controversial theme of utopian socialistic ideals, this film was overall very entertaining and it sent out a good message of being selfless.

Hero

Zhang Yimou’s Hero tells us a story during warring states period that lasted from 475 BC until the unification of China in 221 BC when ancient China was divided into seven kingdoms all battling for supremacy. There isn’t much dialogue in this film, but its conflicts give insight to the Chinese people’s frame of mind. The film tells us about Chinese philosophy that enabled the people who lived during warring states period to sacrifice their lives for their kingdoms and accept their death at any time.


The film illustrates how people in ancient China accepted everything that happened to them as their fate or destiny. In addition, the film also depicts how the mandate of heaven’s concept strongly influenced people’s thoughts during the warring states period. According to the mandate of heaven, the heaven, also known as Tian, decides everything happening in the world. Believing in heaven, many people dedicated their entire lives to their own rulers. They were so loyal to their own rulers that they even fought a losing battle. We have an instinct to protect our own lives to survive, but none of the characters in the film hesitated to give up their lives for their kingdoms or rulers. The people back then seemed to try to accept everything including their own death as their fate, which is determined by heaven.


Besides, the characters’ thinking tells us how collectivism’s influence ingrains first priority to the kingdoms over individual’s own will or precious life. When Qin people started shooting countless arrows at a calligraphy school where Zhou people were writing calligraphy, the Zhou people stopped writing calligraphy and ran to an old man to get his opinion. But then again, the old man told them that they should remember that although Qin people’s arrows might destroy their town and topple their kingdom, the Qin people can never obliterate their culture. After he said so, he started writing calligraphy and all the other people calmed down, understood his words, and started writing calligraphy while thousands of arrows kept on shooting them. The people were shot by the arrows but they proudly continued to write calligraphy until they died. If I were there, I bet I would have given up writing calligraphy and ran away from the school to save my life. However, the people in the film tried to protect their own culture until the last minute. Their refusal to run away portrays their strong will that no one can take away even if their homeland is being invaded; their honor overcomes their fear of death. The kingdoms that fought against each other during the warring states period is now the united country of China. The film made me realize that different kingdoms in ancient China used to have their own unique culture and identities that they tried to preserve at the risk of their lives.


The film also shows that just like in the movie, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, the characters don’t confess their feelings to others, especially those who they truly love, except the very last minute when they are about to die. Many people were inspired or encouraged to hold back their personal emotions or feelings probably because of collectivism and traditional Chinese philosophy that had been embraced by the people in ancient China. They seemed to have been strongly encouraged to think about their own kingdom, rulers or masters as their first priority. Conquering other kingdoms of China must have required not only lots of time and effort but also sacrifices of many people’s lives. No one probably knew how long it would take to conquer other kingdoms and finally start living in peace and harmony. Therefore, the traditional Chinese philosophy such as the concept of heaven seemed to have inspired the people who had no choice in deciding their own lives. The concept of fate helped reassure people living in such unpredictable times that gave their lives meaning.


The film, Hero, shows Chinese people’s strong will that enables them to dedicate their entire lives to their rulers. The Chinese philosophy must be one of the secrets that convinced countless people in China to go into battle for their kingdom during the warring states period. If they hadn’t developed such strong will to dedicate their youth and entire lives to their own kingdoms, the warring states period may not have lasted for such a long time and China may not have united as one.

The Colors of Hero

Hero, a Wuxia film directed by Zhang Yimou, tells the story of a nameless assassin attempting to kill the King of Qin on the basis of revenge. The King of Qin at the time was fearful for his life because of three main assassins who have made attempts to murder him – Long Sky, Broken Sword, and Flying Snow. Nameless appears before the King of Qin and informs the majesty of his victory over all three assassins. Amazed at what the King of Qin has heard, asks Nameless to tell him of how his victories were gained. The film then depicts Nameless and his encounter with each character in various settings (the fabricated, the truth, and the reality), each playing an imperative role to the theme of the film as well as the story behind the truth.

Various themes and their subparts of culture, revenge, peace and war, interplay together to create this film depicted of love of nation and love of loyalty. One thing that I had noticed while watching the film was Zhang Yimou’s use of color in each of the settings of the film. In the beginning of the film, Nameless tells a story of lies to the King of Qin on how he was able to kill each assassin. In this part of the film, the color red has been utilized in the architecture, costume, as well as nature settings in a sense to portray deceit and betrayal. In this part of Nameless’ story, Nameless accuses Flying Snow to have had an affair with Long Sky, ultimately betraying her love for Broken Sword. As a result, Broken Sword takes revenge by having sex with his servant Moon right in front of Flying Snow. Because of this deceit, Flying Snow kills Broken Sword allowing Nameless to attack the emotionally agitated Flying Snow in a fight. The color red is incorporated into this fabricated story of betrayal and deceit between Broken Sword and Flying Snow, the same way Nameless is lying to the King. The King then realizes that Nameless is lying and tells his version of what really happened. This is juxtaposed with the color blue in the King’s version of the story. The juxtaposition between red and blue and Nameless and the King showed to me that red and blue may represent one side of a story – in this case Nameless and the King. The King’s version is that Snow had injured Sword to prevent him from stopping her in dueling with Nameless and sacrificing herself in order for Nameless to get 10 paces closer to the King. Blue is a representation of love and loyalty, in this case Snow’s willingness to sacrifice herself for her nation Zhao and to protect her love with Sword. Nameless then goes on by telling the reality of what actually happened in the events. This part of the film is represented by the actors wearing white, a color without color in a sense stripped of bias and only entailing truth and purity. Nameless had faked the deaths of both Sky and Snow in order to get closer to the King and accomplish his mission. Sword, in reality, does not want to kill the King of Qin because he is the only one who will be able to unite the six divided states. The color green is utilized for the portion of the film where Sword and the King are in a fight. Green is a representation of serenity and peace, elements that Broken Sword had achieved to realize while studying calligraphy and swordsmanship. This also incorporates the theme of revenge where Flying Snow was not able to achieve this enlightenment thus still filled with hatred and revenge towards the King. Ultimately, Nameless decides to not assassinate the King which further shows the failing of Snow’s wishes due to her inability to see the bigger picture. In the end, Broken Sword’s yearn for peace and unification in China is succeeded.

This film had made an impact on me visually due to its incorporation of color which allowed me to “see” emotions rather than “feel” them. Snow’s wish to take revenge on the King of Qin conclusively fails and also leads to her demise. Instead of the King of Qin dying in her hands, it was her one true love Sword who died in an attempt to show her the bigger picture. Soon after realizing it, she herself takes her own life leading to her demise. Although Nameless was executed for attempting to murder the King, he was buried as a hero. In the end, those who were able to overcome hatred and violence, found peace in them as well as for their nation.

Primary Texts Covered in this Course

Farewell My Concubine (bawang bieji 霸王别姬), a 1993 film directed by Chen Kaige 陈凯歌
To Live (huozhe 活着), a 1994 film directed by Zhang Yimou 张艺谋
Yellow Earth (huang ditu 黃土地), a 1984 film directed by Chen Kaige陈凯歌
Platform (zhantai 站台), a 2000 film directed by Jia Zhangke 贾樟柯
Music from Cui Jian 崔健
Post-Tian’anmen T-shirt Culture
Music from Teresa Teng 邓丽君
Music from Ai Jing 艾敬
Music from Jay Chou 周杰伦
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (Wu hu cang long 臥虎藏龍), a 2000 film directed by Ang Lee 李安
Beijing Bicycle (shiqisui de danche 十七岁的单车), a 2001 film directed by Wang Xiaoshuai 王小帅
Selections from Playing for Thrills (Wanr de jiushi xintiao 玩儿的就是心跳), a 1989 novel written by Wang Shuo 王朔
Candy (tang 糖), a 2000 novel written by Mian Mian 棉棉
Hero (yingxiong 英雄), a 2002 film directed by Zhang Yimou 张艺谋
Kung Fu Hustle (gongfu 功夫), a 2004 film directed by Stephen Chow 周星馳