Marks

Obtained

ART401: APPRECIATING FAR-EASTERN CINEMA

Instructor: Dr. Ritwij Bhowmik
Winter Semester (July 2016 November 2016)

2nd WRITTEN ASSIGNMENT

FILM NAME: HERO

STUDENT INFORMATION

Name: AVINASH ANAND

Roll No. 12817180; Department: MTH; E-mail: kavinash@iitk.ac.in

MOVIE DETAILS:

Title Hero
Original Title - "Ying xiong"
Director - Zhang Yimou
Producer - Zhang Yimou
Writer - Feng Li Bin Wang Zhang Yimou
Starring Jet Li,
Tony Leung
Maggie Daoming
Zhang Ziyi
Doonie Yen
Country - China, Hong-Kong
Language Mandarin
Release Date 2002
Running Time 99 Minute

INTRODUCTION:
Hero is a 2002 Chinese wuxia film directed by Zhang Yimou. It is a very beautiful
and beguiling, a martial arts extravaganza defining the styles and lives of its
fighters within Chinese tradition. It is also, like "Rashomon," a mystery told from
more than one point of view; we hear several stories which all could be true, or
false. The movie opens, like many folk legends, with a storyteller before the
throne of an imperious ruler, counting on his wits to protect his life. 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.

HISTORICAL CONTEXT:
Two thousand year ago at the height of china's warring states period, the whole
country was divided into several kingdoms. For years, the separates kingdoms
fought ruthlessly for supremacy. As a result the populace endured decades of
death. The Qin king was obsessed with conquering all of china and becoming her
first emperor. So, we can say The film took us to the Warring States period of
ancient China.

DIRECTORS PROFILE:
Zhang Yimou was a Chinese film director
and producer who was born in Xian, the
capital of Shaanxi province, on 14th Nov,
1951.
His directorial debut was with Red
Sorghum in 1987.
Since his family members had been actively followed the National army of china,
Zhang faced difficulties in his early life. During the Cultural Revolution of the
1960s and 1970s, Zhang left his school studies and went to work, first as a farm
laborer for 3 years, and later at a cotton textile mill for 7 years in the city of
Xianyang. In 1978, he went to Beijing Film Academy and majored in photography.
He has an Honorary Doctorate Degree from Boston University and also one from
Harvard University. In university Zhang and his co-graduates were assigned to
small regional studios, and Zhang was sent to work for the Guangxi Film Studio as
a cinematographer. Though originally intended to work as director's assistants,
This led to the production of Zhang Junzhao's One and Eight, on which Zhang
Yimou worked as director of photography, and Chen Kaige's Yellow Earth, in 1984.
These two films were successes at the Hong Kong Film Festival and helped to

bring the new Chinese cinema to the attention of worldwide audiences. In 1985,
after moving back to his home town of Xi'an, Zhang was engaged as
cinematographer and lead actor for film Old Well, which was subsequently
released in 1987. The lead role won Zhang a Best Actor award at the Tokyo
International Film Festival.
Zhang has won numerous awards with Best Foreign Film nominations for Ju Dou
in 1990 and Raise the Red Lantern in 1991, Silver Lion and Golden Lion prizes at
the Venice Film Festival, Grand Jury Prize at the Cannes Film. Zhang directed the
opening and closing ceremonies of the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympic Games.

FILM GENRE:
The word "wu xia" is a compound composed of the elements wu ("Martial",
"military", or "armed") and Xia ("honorable", "chivalrous", or "hero").
Wu xia, which literally means "martial hero", is a broad genre of Chinese fiction
concerning the adventures of martial artists. Although wuxia is traditionally a
form of literature, its popularity has caused it to spread to diverse art forms such
as Chinese opera, manhua, films, television series and video games.
A martial artist who follows the code of Xia is often referred to as a xiake
(literally: "follower of xia") or youxia (literally: "wandering xia").
Heros in waxia fiction often originate from the lower social classes of ancient
Chinese society. They do not serve a lord, wield military power or belong to the
aristocratic class. A code of chivalry usually requires wuxia heroes to right wrongs,
fight for righteousness, remove an oppressor, redress wrongs and bring
retribution for past misdeeds.
Wu xia stories have their roots in some early youxia tales from 300200 BCE. The
Legalist philosopher Han Fei spoke disparagingly of youxia in his book Han Feizi in
the chapter On Five 'Maggot' Classes about the five social classes in the spring
and Autumn Period. Some well-known stories include Zhuan Zhu's assassination

of King Liao of Wu, and most notably, Jing Ke's attempt on the life of the King of
Qin (who became Qin Shi Huang later).

PLOT SUMMARY:
The movie opens with a brief history saying that China was once divided into
seven kingdoms that warred with each other constantly. It took one man to
conquer all the kingdoms and unite the land into what is now China. The opening
captions also introduce the theme of the movie: "people die for all sorts of
reasons, for friendship, for love, for an ideal...and people kill for these same
reasons also."
During the peak of their Warring States period, China was divided into seven
kingdoms all fighting for supremacy. Most determined to dominate China was the
kingdom of Qin, whose king (Chen Daoming) was wholly obsessed with becoming
the first emperor of China. Though he was an assassination target for many, none
of his would-be killers inspired as much fear as the legendary assassins Broken
Sword (Tony Leung), Flying Snow (Maggie Cheung), and Sky (Donnie Yen).
In hopes of thwarting his death, the king has promised endless wealth and power
to anyone who defeats his would-be murderers. No results come until ten years
later, when a man called Nameless (Jet Li) brings the weapons of the three
assassins to the Qin king's palace. Nameless claims to be an expert swordsman
who had defeated Sky and destroyed the famed duo of Flying Snow and Broken
Sword by using their love for one another against them. Once Nameless comes
face to face with the king, the King hung on every detail of this curious story told
by nameless. But then something most unexpected happened - the King has a
different story to tell of how Nameless really came to sit there, face to face with
the King! It appears that everything was not so simple. In the center of the
intrigue sits Nameless -a solitary ranger and the King of Qin - the ruler of the
Kingdom, with only ten steps between them. Within those ten steps holds an
earth-shattering tale of love, honor and duty, a story that moves beyond the
reaches of history. A story about what it means to be a HERO.As the film ends,
Nameless receives a hero's funeral and a closing text identifies the king as Qin Shi
Huang.

CRITICAL ANALYSIS AND SPECIAL OBSERVATION:

The real author here is the Chinese director Zhang Yimou, who until now has been
known for far more modestly scaled features such as ''Raise the Red Lantern'' and
''The Story of Qiu Ju.'' ''Hero,'' which opens nationwide today, shows Mr. Zhang
working in a new genre and on a new scale, and handling the demands of both
with relative ease, which partly explains why the movie stands as the most
successful release in China.
Opening scenes are visually spectacular. Nameless approaches the royal residence
past ranks of countless thousands of soldiers, passes through entrance rooms of
great depth and richness, and is allowed to kneel within 100 paces of the king -which is closer than anyone has been allowed to approach in many years. One
pace closer, he is warned, and he will be killed.
Nameless explains to king that his martial arts skill by itself was not enough to
defeat such formidable enemies. Instead, he used psychological methods to
discover their weak points.
The incoming-arrows thing is one of Zhang's specialty numbers: He gives us a
flying-arrow's-eye view as the projectiles (looking like a swarm of insects) descend
on Broken Sword and Flying Snow's calligraphy school. The old master exhorts his
pupils to keep painting rather than dive under their desks, explaining, "Their
arrows can never obliterate our culture." The heroism of Hero revolves around
self-sacrifice, not the fashionable vengeance of our own action genre. It seeks a
higher unity.

Consider the narrative structure of the movie. Hero uses the narrative device
known as a flashback. The film starts in the present (a present 2,200 years ago)

and then Nameless begins to tell his story, allowing narrative time to be rewound. But there is a twist since it becomes apparent that Nameless may not be
a reliable narrator. He is prompted by the King to remember things differently, so
that we experience some of the same events twice with different outcomes as the
stories are re-told. Towards the end of the film, the narrative returns to the
present and in this final sequence we experience events in parallel what is
happening to Nameless in the palace and what is happening to Broken Sword and
Flying Snow in the mountains. This kind of narrative structure is not unique,
although it is unusual.

Zhang Yimou established a reputation as a director with enormous visual flair and
in particular, the use of colour. All the films of this director are very carefully
composed and controlled, so that each image is almost like an art photograph.
The score uses traditional instruments and chants, but is also carefully mixed with
sound effects, e.g. in the fight between Nameless and Sky, the sound of rain, the
clatter of the blind musicians stick, the clash of metal when sword meets spear
etc.

Colors in this films design will in some way have a political message. There are
five sequences where a color either predominates or is made significant in a
scene:
The King of Qins palace is grey/black, enlivened only by splashes of red.
This forms the beginning and the end of the story and the overall feel of
this sequence extends into the first fight between Nameless and Sky;
RED dominates the first version of the story by Nameless in which he
describes the calligraphy school, the attack by the Qin army, the stabbing
of Broken Sword and the subsequent fight between Flying Snow and
Moon;

BLUE the climax of the second story on a magnificent lake in the

Jiuzhaigou cq region of China, and the color of the water, they say,
inspired them to make this section blue.

 GREEN is the color for the story that Nameless doesnt necessarily know
since it covers the first meeting of Broken Sword and Flying Snow and also
the failed assassination attempt;

WHITE is the final color, dominating the deaths of Flying Snow and Broken
Sword and alternating with the black sequences back in the palace.

However, as the filmmakers have indicated, Hero is not a pure or traditional wu

xia. There are other elements that are important. The romance between Broken
Sword and Flying Snow is essential to an understanding of the narrative. The
questioning of the love of one for the other, the tests of love, the anger and
jealousy at suspected betrayal etc. are all elements from the love story. These
elements dont invalidate an approach to the film as wu xia, instead they make it

a richer and more complex text because they are essential in any reading of the
narrative.
The film received extremely favorable reviews. Roger Ebert called it "beautiful
and beguiling, a martial arts extravaganza defining the styles and lives of its
fighters within Chinese tradition." Richard Corliss of Time described this film 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." 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.

REFERENCES:
Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Hero (2002 film) - Wikipedia, the free
encyclopedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hero_(2002_film)
IMDb - Movies, TV and Celebrities. IMDb. Hero (2002)- IMDB
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0299977/
Teo, Stephen (2009). Chinese Martial Arts Cinema: The Wuxia Tradition.
Edinburgh University Press.
http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.3366/j.ctt1r2c7r
Farquhar, Mary (May 2002). "Zhang Yimou". Sense of Cinema. Retrieved
2010-09-27. http://www.nytimes.com/2004/08/27/movies/film-reviewcrouching-tiger-hidden-truths-court-king-who-would-be-emperor.html