Hero (2002 film)

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Hero
Directed by Zhang Yimou
Produced by Zhang Yimou
Written by Feng Li
Bin Wang
Zhang Yimou
Starring Jet Li
Tony Leung Chiu Wai
Maggie Cheung
Zhang Ziyi
Chen Daoming
Donnie Yen
Music by Tan Dun
Cinematography Christopher Doyle
Editing by Angie Lam
Distributed by Miramax Films (U.S./UK)
Release date(s) Flag of the People's Republic of China October 19, 2002
Flag of Hong Kong October 19, 2002
Flag of Thailand January 24, 2003
Flag of South Korea January 24, 2003
Flag of Japan August 16, 2003
Flag of the United States August 27, 2004
Flag of the United Kingdom September 24, 2004
Running time 99 min.
107 min. (Extended version)
Country China
Language Mandarin
Budget $30,000,000
Allmovie profile
IMDb profile

Hero (Chinese: 英雄; pinyin: Yīngxióng) is a Chinese wuxia film, directed by Zhang Yimou with music by Tan Dun. Starring Jet Li as the nameless protagonist, the movie is loosely based on the legendary Jing Ke.

A group of assassins: Flying Snow (飛雪) (Maggie Cheung), Broken Sword (殘劍) (Tony Leung Chiu Wai), and Long Sky (長空) (Donnie Yen), have sworn to kill the King of Qin (秦王) (Chen Daoming), and Nameless (無名) (Jet Li) comes to the royal capital to claim the reward offered for their defeat. The movie tells the story of his conversation with the King of Qin, and through a series of flashbacks depicts the journey he took to earn the honor of sitting before the emperor. Zhang Ziyi stars as Broken Sword's servant Moon (如月).

Hero was first released in China on October 24, 2002. At that time, it was both the most expensive and the highest-grossing motion picture in Chinese film history. Miramax owned the American market distribution rights, but had delayed the release of the film for nearly two years. It was finally presented by Quentin Tarantino to American theaters on August 27, 2004.

The flying fight scene between Nameless and Broken Sword was filmed above the waters of Arrow Bamboo Lake in the Jiuzhaigou Valley of northern Sichuan.

Contents

[edit] Plot

In Ancient China, the nameless prefect of a small jurisdiction (Jet Li) arrives at the Qin Emperor's palace. Following a meticulous search for weapons, he is granted an audience with the Emperor (Chen Daoming), who following an assassination attempt lives alone in his palace, always wearing his battle armor and forbidding visitors from coming within 100 paces of his throne. As Nameless kneels before the Emperor, he displays the weapons of legendary assassins Flying Snow (Maggie Cheung), Broken Sword (Tony Leung) and Long Sky (Donnie Yen). The Emperor, impressed with Nameless having killed three of his most feared enemies, invites him to sit within ten paces of his throne and tell his story.

Nameless recalls approaching Sky at a Go parlor where in front of witnesses, he dueled and slayed the assassin. After retrieving Sky's spear, Nameless traveled to a small calligraphy school in the enemy state of Zhao. Here in the calligraphy school lovers Flying Snow and Broken Sword had their residence, as Nameless suspected. After commissioning a scroll from Broken Sword for the word "Sword," Nameless informed both Sword and Snow of Sky's death and of Sky's dying wish for Snow, his illicit mistress, to avenge him. In retaliation, the heartbroken Sword slept with his servant, Moon (Zhang Ziyi), right before Snow's eyes, to make her suffer as he had. In a fit of silent rage, Snow killed Sword, which prompted Moon to try to avenge her Master by killing Snow. Snow at first refuses to fight Moon; however, after narrowly lose several hairs to Moon's blades, she decided that killing Moon would be exactly what Moon wanted. She allows Moon to accidentally impale herself on her blade. Before Moon died, however, she insightfully remarked that Snow was very "foolish" for losing her temper and killing Sword. The next day, her focus disrupted by the deaths of her close ones, Snow dueled and was killed by Nameless. Nameless' stories are illustrated by scenes dominated by red costuming and yellow scenery, featuring action that makes extensive use of wire techniques to allow the actors to make fantastic leaps and flights through the air.

As the tale concludes, the emperor expresses disbelief at Nameless's story based on his knowledge of Sword's and Snow's honorable character, which he knows from having faced them three years before. He accuses Nameless of having staged the duel with Sky, who surrendered his life to give Nameless the opportunity to enter the Emperor's palace. The Emperor theorizes that Nameless traveled to the calligraphy school and asked Sword and Snow to be publicly defeated by him, surrendering their weapons and allowing Nameless to further gain the Emperor's trust and assassinate him. Snow and Sword spent a final night together before meeting Nameless, when Snow wounded Sword and offered herself to Nameless as the sacrifice. Nameless killed her before a group of Qin soldiers acting as witnesses and while preparing Sky and Snow's weapons for the palace visit, was approached by Moon who offered Sword's weapon to him, declaring that the two lovers' swords, like their souls, should never be apart. Concluding his tale, the Emperor theorizes that the brave and loyal assassins would only have invested their lives in an unstoppable assassination technique that would guarantee a kill. The Emperor's suppositions are illustrated using cinematography dominated by blue, again featuring extensive use of wire scenes.

Nameless admits to being a man of Zhao whose family was killed by the Qin army and describes his unstoppable technique, a strike capable of inflicting a wound on the victim that bypasses vital organs while appearing to kill the victim. Nameless confesses that he collaborated with Sky and used this technique in the duel at the Go parlor and proposed it to Snow and Sword at the calligraphy school. During their discussions however, Sword expressed reservations about assassinating the Emperor, much to the chagrin of Snow, who harbors the deepest vendetta. Snow agreed to fake her death at Nameless's hands, and wounded Sword to prevent him from interfering. The next day in front of Qin soldiers, Nameless dueled Snow, who succumbed to his technique and was defeated. As Nameless set off for the Emperor's palace, Broken Sword approached him and told the story of how he met Snow, the daughter of a Zhao general killed by Qin forces, and how they fought their way to the Emperor's palace in an assassination attempt three years before. Sword explains, however, that despite being a man of Zhou, he came to realize that killing the Emperor would plunge fragmented China into further war and shatter all hopes for the universal peace that would follow the Emperor's conquest of China. When Nameless refuses to put aside his plan, Sword writes "Our Land" in the sand and asks him to reconsider. These scenes use white costuming - green for Sword's recollections - and make minimal use of wire techniques.

The Emperor, deeply moved by the tale and Sword's understanding of his true intentions, throws his sword to Nameless and turns his back on the assassin. Unafraid of death, he examines Broken Sword's scroll hanging behind his throne and realizes that the scroll explains the ideal warrior, who paradoxically should have no desire to kill. As Nameless realizes the wisdom of these words, he leaves the Emperor alive, and marches from the palace and down the steps the courtyard. Snow, after witnessing the yellow flag raised by her returning servant, concludes correctly that Sword had convinced Nameless to forego the assassination. She denounces Sword as a traitor and attacks him. Sword allows her to slay him in hopes that she will understand his love for her, as well as his hopes for true peace for all. Shocked by Sword's non-violence, Snow loses all her hatred for Sword and is consumed by grief at his death. Wanting to join her lover in death, she impales the sword she used to killed Sword through herself as well. At the palace, Nameless exits into the courtyard and stands at the locked perimeter doors, awaiting his fate while the Emperor, to set an example and uphold his laws, reluctantly orders Nameless's execution, striking him down in a hail of arrows. As Nameless receives a hero's burial, the closing text declares that the Emperor of Qin unites the Middle Kingdom under one rule, unifying the Chinese language, its weights and measures system, completing the Great Wall of China and ushering in the Qin Dynasty.

[edit] Cast

Jet Li — Nameless
An unknown prefect of a small province, Nameless is orphaned at an early age by the Emperor's invading forces. Forged into a master swordsman over years of training, Nameless possesses a number of specialized moves, one that can inflict harmless-yet-convincing wounds, and another that can kill an opponent within 10 paces. He is the primary conspirator behind the elaborate plan to assassinate the Emperor, but ultimately decides that China's unification and peace are far more important than vengeance. Hero is the first Jet Li movie made in mainland China in the more than 20 years since his debut as a leading actor, in Shaolin Temple in 1982.


Tony Leung Chiu Wai — Broken Sword
An accomplished swordsman and assassin, Broken Sword and Flying Snow are the only assassins to ever infiltrate the Emperor's palace, killing hundreds of his personal guard and very nearly the Emperor himself before halting his attack at the last moment. Sword views the unification of China and the possibility of peace over his personal objectives, views that put him at odds with his lover, Flying Snow.


Maggie Cheung — Flying Snow
A skilled assassin, Flying Snow is Broken Sword's lover and his equal as a swordsman. The daughter of a prominent Zhao general who fell in battle against the Emperor, Snow swears revenge against the Emperor, drafting Broken Sword to her cause. Unlike Broken Sword, she harbors the deepest grudge against the Emperor.


Chen Daoming — King of Qin
An ambitious leader who desires to become the first Emperor of China, the King of Qin, following a devastating assassination attempt, and always wears his battle armor and withdraws into his reinforced palace, which he vacates of all but his most trusted advisors. The King of Qin used an ancient way of saying 'I', 寡人 (pinyin: guǎ rén), which literally means 'lonely person'. This way of referring to himself in the third person has a parallel in the Western notion of the "Royal 'We'" or Pluralis majestatis.


Donnie Yen — Sky
Legendary outlaw and accomplished spearman, Sky is the first to be "defeated" by Nameless, who takes Sky's broken spear as proof of his defeat to the Emperor.


Zhang Ziyi — Moon
Broken Sword's loyal apprentice.


[edit] Reception and interpretation

[edit] Political meaning and criticism

This film has faced criticism from abroad at a perceived pro-totalitarian and pro-Chinese reunification subtext. Critics also cited as evidence the approval that had been given to the film by the government of the People's Republic of China. These critics argued that the ulterior meaning of the film was triumph of security and stability over liberty and human rights, analogous to the "Asian values" concept that gained brief popularity in the 1990s. It was also argued by some that the concept of "all under heaven" (translated in the English-subtitled release as "Our land") was being used to justify the incorporation of areas such as Tibet and Xinjiang within the People's Republic of China and to promote the reunification of Taiwan with China.[who?]

The film's director, Zhang Yimou, purportedly withdrew from the 1999 Cannes Film Festival to protest similar criticism,[1] though some believed that Zhang had other reasons. Defenders of Zhang Yimou and his film argued that the Chinese government's approval of Hero was no different from the U.S. military providing support to films such as Top Gun and Black Hawk Down, in which certain filmmakers portrayed the U.S. armed forces in a positive light. Others have rejected entirely that Zhang Yimou had any political motives in his making of the film. Zhang Yimou himself had maintained that he had absolutely no political points to make.[2]

[edit] Criticism of translation

There has been some criticism of the film for its American-release translation of one of the central ideas in the film: 天下 (tiān xià). It literally means "under heaven" or "under the firmament", and is a Chinese phrase to mean "The World". The translation "Our land" seems to denote just the nation of China rather than the whole world. Whether Zhang Yimou intended the film to also have meaning with regard to the world and world unity was difficult to say — but had later been changed in television-release versions of the film. Zhang Yimou was asked[3] about the change at a screening in Massachusetts and said it was a problem of translation. "If you ask me if 'Our land' is a good translation, I can't tell you. All translations are handicapped. Every word has different meanings in different cultures," he said. However, in Cause: The Birth of Hero - a documentary on the making of 'Hero' - Zhang mentions that he hopes the film will have some contemporary relevance, and that, in the aftermath of the 9-11 attacks (which took place just before the movie was filmed) the themes of universal brotherhood and "peace under heaven" may indeed be interpreted more globally, and taken to refer to peace in "the world."[4]

[edit] Miramax release

Miramax, the film studio, owned the American-market distribution rights, but delayed the release of the film a total of six times. Import DVDs of the film were sold online and Miramax demanded that the sites cease selling the DVD.[5] The movie was finally released in American theaters on August 27, 2004 after intervention by Disney executives and Quentin Tarantino, who helped secure an uncut English-subtitled release. He also offered to lend his name to promotional material for the film in order to attract box office attention to it; his name was attached to the credits as "Quentin Tarantino Presents".[6] In addition, a Chinese sword held by Jet Li's character was replaced by a katana, a Japanese weapon, in the promotional poster.

The United States version of the DVD, with Mandarin, English, and French soundtracks, was released on November 30, 2004. However the American release had the English translation altered to a more Westernized manner of speaking (for example, "our land" in the American version as opposed to the direct translation "all under heaven").

[edit] Box office

When Hero opened in Hong Kong in December 2002, it grossed a massive HK $15,471,348 in its first week. Its final gross of HK $26 million made it one of the top films in Hong Kong that year. On August 27, 2004, after a long delay, Hero opened in 2,031 North American screens uncut and subtitled. It debuted at #1, grossing US $18,004,319 ($8,864 per screen) in its opening weekend. The total was the second highest opening weekend ever for a foreign language film[citation needed]. Its US $53,710,019 North American box office gross makes it the fourth highest-grossing foreign language film and 15th highest-grossing martial arts film in North American box office history[citation needed]. The total worldwide box office gross was US $177,394,432.

[edit] Critical response

The film received highly favorable reviews scoring 95% at Rotten Tomatoes[7] and 84 at Metacritic.[8] The reviewer for Salon.com took an especially positive stance deeming it among the most "ravishing films" ever.[9] Nevertheless there were film critics who felt the film had advocated autocracy and reacted with discomfort. Stephen Hunter gave the film a strongly positive review, but mentioned his concern that the film endorsed the views presented by Qin Shi Huang, concluding "That was the King of Qin's reasoning and it was all the other big bad ones' as well: Hitler and Stalin and most particularly that latter-day king of Qin named Mao, another great unifier who stopped the fighting and killed only between 38 million and 67 million in the process."[10] The Village Voice's reviewer deemed it to have a "cartoon ideology" and justification for ruthless leadership comparable to Triumph of the Will.[11]

[edit] Awards and recognition

[edit] DVD release

An extended edition with eight minutes of additional footage was released in China. It features minor differences in story, music, and fight sequences to those of the theatrical version. One particular difference in the extended version of 'Hero' was Moon attempting to take her life before Nameless stops her after Broken Sword left with his sword and words. Hero is one of very few titles to be released on EVD as well as DVD.

[edit] Music

  • Hero (英雄) is sung by Faye Wong. It is unavailable in the American version of both the film credits and soundtrack album. [1]
  • Wind & Sand (風沙) is a theme song inspired by the film and sung by actor Tony Leung. It is only available in his titled album.[citation needed]
  • The musical instrument used in the fight in the Weiqi courtyard scene is an ancient zither said to be a predecessor of the guqin, the Chinese seven-stringed zither. The actual music was performed by Liu Li on a modern guqin.

[edit] Other media

  • The comic book version of the story by Wing Shing Ma is faithful to the film's story for the most part, until the ending. In this version, all of the heroes survive.
  • Drum n' bass group Evol Intent have a song entitled "Broken Sword" which appears on the Dieselboy compilation album The Human Resource on both discs. The song samples the film's soundtrack.
  • R&B artist Bobby Valentino samples from the movie on the single titled "Tell Me".

[edit] See also

[edit] References

 The references in this article would be clearer with a different or consistent style of citation, footnoting, or external linking.
  1. ^ http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Zhang_Yimou_withdraws_from_Cannes
  2. ^ 'I'm not interested in politics' | Interviews | guardian.co.uk Film
  3. ^ http://www.eye.net/eye/issue/issue_09.30.04/film/mediumcool.html
  4. ^ YouTube - "Cause: The Birth Of Hero" Documentary Part 17 of 17
  5. ^ Slideshow: Studio Warns Kung Fu Site
  6. ^ Smith, Jim (2005). Tarantino. London: Virgin Books, pp. 202. ISBN 0-7535-1071-5. 
  7. ^ Hero Movie Reviews, Pictures - Rotten Tomatoes
  8. ^ Hero (2004): Reviews
  9. ^ "Hero" - Salon.com
  10. ^ 'Hero': An Ending That Falls on Its Own Sword (washingtonpost.com)
  11. ^ village voice > film > Man With No Name Tells a Story of Heroics, Color Coordination by J. Hoberman

[edit] External links

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to:
Preceded by
Exorcist: The Beginning		 Box office number-one films of 2004 (USA)
August 29, 2004 – September 5, 2004		 Succeeded by
Resident Evil: Apocalypse
v • d • e
Films directed by Zhang Yimou
Red Sorghum (1987) • Codename Cougar (1989) • Ju Dou (1990) • Raise the Red Lantern (1991) • The Story of Qiu Ju (1992) • To Live (1994) • Shanghai Triad (1995) • Keep Cool (1997) • The Road Home (1999) • Not One Less (1999) • Happy Times (2000) • Hero (2002) • House of Flying Daggers (2004) • Riding Alone for Thousands of Miles (2005) • Curse of the Golden Flower (2006)
v • d • e
Cinema of China