Home / A Close Look At... / Hero

Hero (2002)

Following in the success and popularity of Ang Lee's Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, Hero is destined to be endlessly compared to the Oscar winning film of 2000. The fact that they were the first martial arts films from these directors and are both visually stunning is the only common denominator between them as they are completely different pictures. While Crouching Tiger is a contemplative love story, Hero bears more of a resemblance to Kurosawa's Rashomon in its retelling of tales of honour and valour and sets out to explain the Chinese concept of a hero, exploring the preconceptions and misinterpretation of heroism and heroes.

Three years were spent developing the story of Hero, which is not just a martial arts film but a legend of what happened in ancient China before the country was unified into what would become the first dynasty of China or, as the Emperor of Qin called it, 'unifying all under heaven'. This remarkable story is the first attempt at a martial arts film from award winning director and actor Zhang Yimou (Raise the Red Lantern) and with this epic tale he proves, in his direction of Hero, that he is a master film maker, it is his mastery of composition and colour that makes the film a masterpiece in its genre. Zhang was reared on wuxia novels since childhood and had always hoped to make a martial arts film but rejected the idea of adapting from available literature because he did not want the plot to be hinged on revenge, as is standard in these stories. Instead, he steered away from the cliche in an attempt to down play violence, stating that 'The heart is far more important than the sword'.

Bringing together an outstanding cast that reads like a who's who of Asian cinema, Hero stars Jet Li (Nameless), Donnie Yen (Sky), Tony Leung Chiu Wai (Broken Sword), Maggei Cheung (Flying Snow), Zhang Ziyi (Moon) and Cheng Daoming as the evil King of Qin. Yimour puts them in magical environments that captivate you every step of the way. The characters were all tremendously portrayed with Flying Snow's romance with Broken Sword well presented without the need to show any background of how they fell in love. With little dialogue between the two they convey their emotions through Maggie Cheung and Tony Leung's superb acting skills, reminiscent of their previous collaboration on In The Mood For Love.

Having previously starred as the Emperor in the TV series The Last Emperor, Chen Daoming has an unmistakable screen presence and is perfect as the King, exuding an authoritative air which makes you believe in his imperial character. Main star Jet Li as Nameless, is suitably expressionless for most of the film which adds to the mystery of his character and allows him to distance himself from the other characters, giving nothing away. Li is far more at home in these film roles as an actor and as a martial artist than he has displayed in his recent US hit Cradle 2 the Grave which, although a good film, stands nowhere near the marvel of Hero. Zhang Yimou had his first telephone conversation with Jet Li while on his way to the premiere of the ballet version of Raise the Red Lantern. He told Li "There is a big problem with Chinese wuxia movies - they are basically just fight, kill and revenge. I think we should raise it to the level of moral courage and prestige." This was just the film Jet Li was looking to do, as he too has recently expressed to move away from the mindless violence and work on films with a more moral tone to fit in with his Buddhist religion. Asia's biggest female star, Zhang Ziyi, plays a minor role as Broken Sowrd's apprentice who harbours affections for her master. In an irrelevant role she is used as eye candy and you can't help feeling more could have been done with her character. That said, her acting and presence cannot be faulted and she appears in some of the most visually-appealing scenes.

Each character is given sufficient time on screen, with the exception of Donnie Yen who appears for the first fifteen minutes. These minutes are some of the best in the movie though, as it sees Jet and Donnie in a duel that surpasses that of their earlier face off in Once Upon a Time in China 2. Donnie was brought into Hero at the request of Jet once he had read the scripted fight. Envisaging the fight taking place 2000 years ago Li knew Donnie was the perfect opponent. Modern films are all about killing one's opponent as fast as possible. In the old days, fighters had more respect for each other and there was a dignity in the way they fought. This respect is displayed perfectly in the rain soaked fight scene between the two stars. Instead of a full on bloody battle, their minds clash as much as their swords, quite literally to the strings of an old man playing in the courtyard and the drum of the rain on surrounding obstacles.

When Wang Bin and Li Feng originally began to pen the story it was with superstar Jackie Chan in mind, as Jackie had expressed an interest in working with Zhang Yimou. Hearing about the flavor of the story Jackie later decided it was not his type and the project was shelved. Years later, just as Ang Lee was starting to make Crouching Tiger, the writers went back to the project. Originally, like Crouching Tiger, the film was going to be an adaption of of a wuxia novel but after much thought and a suggestion by Zhang Yimou, they decided to concoct a story of their own. Hero takes its inspiration from the story of General Fan Yuji and Jing Ke's attempted assassination of the King of Qin. Fan Yuji was a general of the kingdom whom Qin exiled to the kingdom of Zhao. According to some historians, he commited suicide in order to let Jing Ke use his head as a gift to the King of Qin to gain the king's trust and get close enough to kill him. The assassination failed and Jing Ke was killed by the King at the scene.

The main fascination of Hero is the beautiful cinematography, courtesy of Christopher Doyle (the virtuoso who shot all of Wong Kar-Wai's films). Attention to detail is what makes this film so special, every shot, every hair, every leaf, every movement is meticulously planned using luscious colours to paint the world surrounding the characters. From the lakes of Jiuzhaigou to the forests of Inner Mongolia, the mix of spectacular natural scenery and stunning effects make each scene a visual work of art.

In the scene where we first encounter Broken Sword, we find him at work in a room inside his school, creating stunning calligraphy, concentrating as he swishes his brush with the same skill he applies to his swordplay. Outside the school, an army moves in for the attack and launches a plethora of arrows towards the school. One arrow shoots inside Broken Sword's room and slices the end of the stick he is using as his brush. In an instant another arrow flies into the room, which he catches and converts into his new brush as he swiftly returns to his calligraphy. This scene encapsules the speed and style of the action with the computer generated magic and graceful fluidity of the film. What only takes a few minutes to watch has obviously been planned to the last detail and has taken days, possibly weeks to achieve.

Great efforts were achieved by Zhang and his crew in order to assure perfection in every scene. For one fight sequence, which takes place in a yellow forest, director Zhang organised a crew member to observe the colour of the leaves in the forest and send him video footage documenting the leaves' progress. As soon as the leaves turned golden, the crew rushed to the ancient oak grove in Inner Mongolia to shoot the fight scene between Maggie Cheung and Zhang Ziyi at the height of the fall foliage. Using three or four cameras simultaneously at different angles the leaves had to be perfectly yellow. They even implemented a leaf classification system with special class leaves being blown in the actors' faces, first-class in front of them, second-class behind them and third-class were scattered on the ground. A mat gathered leaves as they fell so that the crew could collect, clean and re-classify them, then gently send them drifting back down again.For the forrest fight scene the special effects crew, Animal Logic, animated an enchanted leafy yellow whirlwind as Flying Snow fends off attacks from her opponent, Moon. At the conclusion of the battle, a droplet of Moon's blood touches the ground and the forest turns a symbolic wash of blood red. Achieving this fine balance between the natural and the magical in the animation was technical challenge for the company as the computer generated leaves still had to act like natural leaves, be believable and match their almost supernatural colour, creating a poetic yet potent vision. Being the first time Yimou has used visual effects he was sceptical at the prospect of handling over responibility for the visual effects elements to a special effects team but once he understood the process he revelled in it and pushed the production value in a number of sequences and shots, creating the visual power to sweep audiences away to the mystical setting of long ago.

Another example of the extent to which Zhang would go to create the perfect scene is when it came to shooting a scene which featuring tens of thousands of black Qin cavalry. To get the correct colour Zhang dyed the hair of five hundred horses. A meticulous film maker, Zhang payed special attention to light and colours, always shooting parts involving actresses in the late afternoon because he thinks women's faces tend to look swollen in the morning. To seperate the four flashback stories being narrated by Nameless, the movie is divided into four colour-coded segments: red, blue, white and green. For each story the clothes, sets, props and background are awash with colour, effectiveoly seperating each story from the next. The first story is red, symbolising passion and jealousy; the second is blue, symbolising love; the third white, symbolising truth; and the fourth is green, symbolising youth. Designer Emi Wada's (Academy Award winner in 1985 for her work on Kurosawa's Ran) costumes play an important part in the different versions utilising no less than thirty colours, hand dying each individual sample. So meticulous was Wada's control of the design that the red costumes were created using fifty-four shades of colour. Using different textures to characterise the individuals in the story, Wada sought inspiration from ancient costumes in China, Korea and Japan. The shape of the costume is an ancient style but as this is an action movie, it also has to be as light as a ballet costume.

Straight from the roaring success of Shaolin Soccer, the stunning martial arts set pieces are choreographed by action director Tony Ching Siu Tung (also the action director for Spiderman) who gives each character their own unique weapon and fighting style. In 1990, Zhang Yimou acted as the lead role in Terracotta Warrior, which was directed by Ching Siu Tung. Twelve years later, the two of them got to collaborate with each other again, this time Ching Siu Tung is working under the direction of Zhang Yimou. The style of action in Hero is refreshingly different from Terracotta Warrior. Hero adopts a classic painting style and utilises beautiful, rhythmic actions in the choreography conveying a dance-like beauty; more romantic and aesthetic than Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. Since there are four stories in Hero you see most of the fight scenes more than once and you see the main characters battle each other at least once throughout the film, blending specific action scenes with specific environments, creating a unique mood for each fight scene. A perfect mix of fighting styles, the action goes from raw and ferocious to elegant and beautiful. Wire work has become a standard for every major martial arts release recently and is an overplayed effect that is becoming tired and often ridiculous but it does sit nicely in the style and feel of Hero. I would go so far to say that the fight sequences are enhanced by the use of wires and add to the magical comic book style of the fight choreography. With your attention drawn to the elements surrounding the actors during the fight scenes, a lot of the action is at such a pace that it is sometimes like watching a highly visualised Manga cartoon.

The luscious visual effects are accentuated by Tan Dun's musical score, which is not dissimilar to the compositions for his award winning Crouching Tiger score. Comprising louder percussions and chanting this is a far harder affair. Employing the skill of award winning violinist Itzhak Perlman's solos for the more emotional scenes and the energetic drumming of the Kodo Drummers for the action sequences, this palette of sounds complement the film perfectly. Itzhak Perlman recently expressed how much he loved the film and added that its music is even more fascinating. When he received Tan Dun's invitation, he agreed without hesitation. Showing great approval for Tan Dun's score and Yo Yo Ma's cello rendition of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, Tan Dun returned the compliment by praising Perlman's outstanding violin performance in Schindler's List. As such, the two worked together on Hero, producing what Perlamn describes as a high pitched ancient Chinese music, he even had his violin re-tuned, so that it would emit tones of Chinese flavour.

As well as the score complementing the film, great effort has gone into capturing the sound effects used in Hero. When you hear the fearsome whoosh of Qin arrows cutting the air, the sound you hear was created by mixing over fifty different sounds, ranging from zooming planes to squealing pigs and when you hear the footsteps of Nameless skipping across the lake, the sounds were captured by placing a condom over the microphone and submerging it in the water of the very same lake to record every angle of sound.

Praised by the Chinese government, which is a rare occurence for a Zhang Yimou film, Hero has received mixed reviews from the Chinese press. It has come under fire for taking liberties with the country's history in the same way Hollywood interpretations have done previously with Scottish history in Braveheart and American history in Pearl Harbour. The Emperor of Qin and his bloody legacy remains a raw wound in today's China. During his reign he introduced a number of initiatives including standardisation of the written language, currency and weights and measures, it was also during the King of Qin's rule that the Great Wall of China was constructed. A ruthless ruler, the Emperor imposed absolute order to hold onto his power, including burning political writings and executing those who disagreed with his policies. What had started with good intentions (unifying 'all under heaven') became corrupted by his strive for absolute power. Today, Qin's rule is not a forbidden subject but it remains sensitive, partly because Mao Zedong saw the emperor as an inspiration. In reality, the historical Emperor Qin left little evidence of his compassion, unlike the semi-sympathetic characterisation Zhang depicts in Hero. Zhang's interpretation sees the King as a misunderstood leader who, after slaughtering his neighbours, shows remorse at the pain he must inflict for the good of the country and his quest. Zhang's depiction and the lack of scenes showing the pain and the suffering the emperor truly caused has given the media reason to attack what is an enjoyable and entertaining film. Director Zhang is used to controversy surrounding his films, which have mostly been banned domestically for his damning portrayal of pre-Communist China, and has taken the criticism in his stride. Universally, the good press far outweighs the bad.

With a budget of $30 million, Hero is one of the most costly Chinese films but a viewing shows it is money well spent and money that it should recoup in box office receipts as it has proved to be an Eastern hit and should crossover well into the West, if given the promotion it deserves from distributor Miramax. Every aspect of this film combines some of the most talented people in the industry and this proves to be a powerful driving force behind the emotion and powerful message. Although I have endlessly compared Hero to Crouching Tiger, I feel that Hero is the better film and to call it a masterpiece is not premature. It does owe a debt to Crouching Tiger because, without the latter's success and acclaim an incredible story such as Hero may not have been attempted. This is a landmark film for rising star Jet Li too and is truly a role he can take pride in. When asked about his role in Hero, Jet Li replied "Hero is my dream movie, when I read the script, I cried twice. In my twenty-two year career of making movies, this is the first script that made me weep. It is an incredible story and an important question about what kind of a person we can call a hero."

Every now and again a film comes along that makes you sit up and take notice, Hero is certainly one of those films. This is the new movie that wuxia films will be compared to. It is a travesty that it did not claim an Oscar at this year's ceremony. Both captivating and beautiful to watch, Hero is a film I can't praise enough. It goes to the top of my list of must see movies of 2003.

Filmed from under water.

Written on August 8th 2003

<< back

Copyright © 2005 FULLTIME REVIEWS - Hussain Abdullah