| Hero | |
|---|---|
| Traditional | 英雄 |
| Simplified | 英雄 |
| Mandarin | Yīngxióng |
| Cantonese | Jing1 Hung4 |
| Directed by | Zhang Yimou |
| Produced by | Zhang Yimou |
| Written by | Feng Li Bin Wang Zhang Yimou |
| Starring | Jet Li Tony Leung Maggie Cheung Chen Daoming Zhang Ziyi Donnie Yen |
| Music by | Tan Dun |
| Cinematography | Christopher Doyle |
| Editing by | Angie Lam |
| Studio | Sil-Metropole Organisation China Film Co-Production Corporation Elite Group Enterprises Inc. Zhang Yimou Studio Beijing New Picture Film Co., Ltd. |
| Distributed by | Beijing New Picture Film Co. China EDKO Film Hong Kong |
| Release date(s) | October 24, 2002 (China) December 21, 2002 (Hong Kong) |
| Running time | 99 minutes |
| Country | China Hong Kong |
| Language | Mandarin |
| Budget | $31 million[1] |
| Gross revenue | $177,394,432[1] |
Hero is a 2002 wuxia film directed by Zhang Yimou. Starring Jet Li as the nameless protagonist, the film is based on the story of Jing Ke's assassination attempt on the King of Qin in 227 BC.
Hero was first released in China on October 24, 2002. At that time, it was the most expensive project[2] and the highest-grossing motion picture in Chinese film history. Miramax Films owned the American market distribution rights, but delayed the release of the film for nearly two years. It was finally presented by Quentin Tarantino to American theaters on August 27, 2004.
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In ancient China during the Warring States Period, a nameless prefect of a small jurisdiction arrives at the Qin state's capital city to meet the king of Qin, who has survived an attempt on his life by the assassins Long Sky, Flying Snow, and Broken Sword, and therefore forbidden visitors closer than 100 paces to his throne. 'Nameless' claims that he had slain the three assassins and he displays their weapons before the king, who allows Nameless to sit closer to him and tell him his story.
Nameless recounts killing Long Sky at a xiangqi parlor; later to meet Flying Snow and Broken Sword at a calligraphy school in the Zhao state, where he set them against each other until Snow killed Sword and was herself slain by Nameless. As the tale concludes, the king expresses disbelief and accuses Nameless of staging the duels with the assassins, who surrendered their lives to allow him to gain the king's trust and take the king's life.
Nameless admits that he is a native of the Zhao state and that his family was killed by Qin soldiers, and confesses that he defeated Sky without killing him and had proposed co-operation to Snow and Sword. After Snow's apparent death, Sword approached Nameless and told him that the only way to achieve peace was to unite the states under a common dynasty; namely that of Qin, which alone has the ability to do so.
The king, affected by the tale and by Sword's understanding of his dream to unify China, ceases to fear Nameless. Meanwhile, Snow learns that Sword had convinced Nameless to forgo the assassination, kills Sword, and later kills herself. At the Qin palace, the king reluctantly orders Nameless killed, being urged thereto by his officers. As the film ends, Nameless receives a hero's funeral and a closing text identifies the king as Qin Shi Huang.
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; only The Passion of the Christ has opened to a better reception.[3] 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.[4] The total worldwide box office gross was US $177,394,432.
The film received extremely favorable reviews, scoring 95% at Rotten Tomatoes[5] and 84 at Metacritic.[6] Roger Ebert called it "beautiful and beguiling, a martial arts extravaganza defining the styles and lives of its fighters within Chinese tradition."[2] Richard Corliss of Time described it as "the masterpiece", adding that "it employs unparalleled visual splendor to show why men must make war to secure the peace and how warriors may find their true destiny as lovers."[7] Chicago Tribune's Michael Wilmington called it "swooningly beautiful, furious and thrilling" and "an action movie for the ages."[8] Charles Taylor of Salon.com took an especially positive stance, deeming it "one of the most ravishing spectacles the movies have given us".[9] Nevertheless, there were several film critics who felt the film had advocated autocracy and reacted with discomfort. The Village Voice's reviewer deemed it to have a "cartoon ideology" and justification for ruthless leadership comparable to Triumph of the Will.[10]
This film has faced criticism, as well as praise from abroad as 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.
The film's director, Zhang Yimou, purportedly withdrew from the 1999 Cannes Film Festival to protest similar criticism,[11]. Zhang Yimou himself had maintained that he had absolutely no political points to make.[12]
There has been some criticism of the film for its American-release translation of one of the central ideas in the film: 天下 (Tiānxià). It literally means "all (everything and everyone) under heaven", and is a phrase to mean "the World". In fact, for its release in Belgium, some two years before the U.S. release, the subtitled translation was indeed "all under heaven". However, the version shown in American cinemas was localized as the two-word phrase "Our land" instead, which 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 at that time difficult to say. Zhang Yimou was asked[13] 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 September 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."[14] The phrase was later changed in television-release versions of the film.
Miramax, the film studio, owned the American-market distribution rights, but delayed the release of the film, a record total of six times. Import DVDs of the film were sold online and Miramax demanded that the sites cease selling the DVD.[15] 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".[16] In addition, a sword held by Jet Li's character in the original promotional poster was replaced by weapon resembling a katana, a Japanese weapon, in the North American promotional poster, which was both anachronistic and culturally misplaced. The United States version of the DVD, with Mandarin, English, and French soundtracks, was released on November 30, 2004.
An extended edition with eight minutes of additional footage was released in China. However, it was rumored that the original film was slated to be some 20 minutes longer, with critical character building of the five main characters (Nameless, Broken Sword, Flying Snow, Long Sky and the future Emperor of Qin). It features minor differences in story, music, and fight sequences from 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.
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