Hero (2002)
Hero is a 2002 wuxia film directed, co-written, and produced by Zhang Yimou, and starring Jet Li, Tony Leung Chiu-wai, Maggie Cheung, Zhang Ziyi, Donnie Yen and Chen Daoming. The historical background of the film refers to the Warring States Period in ancient China, when China was divided into 7 countries. In 227-221 BC, the Qin state was about to unify the other six states, and many patriots from other states assassinated the king of Qin when they were about to commit suicide. One of the most famous incidents was Jing Ke’s assassination of the King of Qin. The cinematography was by Christopher Doyle, and the musical score composed by Tan Dun.
Hero was first released in China on 24 October 2002. At that time, it was the most expensive project and one of the highest-grossing motion pictures in China. Miramax acquired American market distribution rights, but delayed the release of the film for nearly two years. Quentin Tarantino eventually convinced Miramax to open the film in American theaters on 27 August 2004.
The film received positive reviews from critics. It became the first Chinese-language movie to top the American box office, where it stayed for two consecutive weeks, and went on to earn $53.7 million in the United States and $177 million worldwide. It was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Foreign-Language Film, but lost to Nowhere in Africa.
Plot.
In ancient China during the Warring States period, Nameless, a Qin prefect, arrives at the Qin capital city to meet the king of Qin, who has survived multiple attempts on his life by the assassins Long Sky, Flying Snow, and Broken Sword. As a result, the king has implemented extreme security measures: no visitors are allowed to approach the king within 100 paces. Nameless claims that he has slain the three assassins, and their weapons are displayed before the king, who allows the former to approach within ten paces and tell him his story. Nameless recounts first killing Long Sky at a gaming house, before traveling to meet Flying Snow and Broken Sword, who have taken refuge at a calligraphy school in the Zhao state, which the Qin army besieges. He tells Sword that he is there to commission a calligraphy scroll with the character for “Sword” (劍), secretly seeking to learn Sword’s skill through his calligraphy. Nameless also learns that once-lovers Snow and Sword have grown distant.RELATED:
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Once the scroll is complete, Nameless reveals his identity and reveals that Snow and Sky had been together as lovers. Saying that Sky was certain Snow would avenge him, Nameless challenges Snow to a duel the next day. A heartbroken and angry Sword has sex with his pupil Moon. Snow kills Sword in revenge, and later Moon when she attempts to seek vengeance. The next day, Nameless kills an emotionally unstable Snow before the Qin army, and claims her sword.
As the tale concludes, the king expresses disbelief and accuses Nameless of staging the duels with the assassins; he had, in the previous assassination attempt, perceived Sword as an honourable man who would not betray Snow in that manner. The king then suggests that what really happened was that the assassins volunteered their lives so that Nameless could gain the king’s trust, which would allow Nameless to get close enough to the king to kill him.
In the king’s hypothetical version of the story, Nameless seeks out Snow and Sword after staging the battle with Sky, telling them that he has perfected a technique that allows him to kill any target that is within ten paces. Nameless explains that he can use this to kill the king, but to get close enough he must present one of their weapons to the king; he further explains that he only needs to kill one of them in public in order to do this. Snow and Sword argue over who should be the one to die, resulting in a short fight in which Snow injures Sword. She meets Nameless before the Qin army; the recovering Sword watches helplessly as Snow is defeated. Moon later gives Nameless her master’s sword, telling him that the swords of Snow and Sword should remain together in death as they had in life.
Production.
Director Zhang Yimou collaborated with Australian cinematographer Christopher Doyle to help realize his plan to divide the film visually into five sections, each dominated by a particular color. Zhang had initially wanted to use different cinematographers and shooting styles, but that proved impractical. Doyle compared their story to Rashomon, as it has an unreliable narrator and stories within stories. The film tells different version of the story of how an anonymous hero in ancient China overcomes three rivals. The stories are dominated by the colors red, blue, and white. Red represents desire, possessiveness and jealousy. Blue represents reason and friendship. White represents the balance of reason and desire, the ultimate truth. The overall framing story is darker with shades of black, and flashbacks are shown in vibrant greens. The colors were chosen for their aesthetic reasons, and not symbolic ones, and the colors orange and pink were not considered as options, and Doyle was dismissive of universal theories of color such as those put forward by Italian cinematographer Vittorio Storaro. The lake sequences were filmed in the Jiuzhaigou national park in northern Sichuan, China. The desert sequences were shot near the border with Kazakhstan.
Release.
Hero was first released in China on 24 October 2002. Miramax 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. The movie was finally released in American theaters on 27 August 2004 after intervention by Disney executives, Government of China and Quentin Tarantino, who helped secure an English-subtitled release. Tarantino 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”. 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 30 November 2004. In the United Kingdom, it was 2013’s sixth most-watched foreign-language film on television, with 150,100 viewers on Channel 4.