Zhang Yimou's "Hero" (R)

Apologies in advance for the long post.

I just saw a pirated copy of Zhang Yimou's epic martial arts film Hero, starring:
Jet Li
Maggie Cheung
Tony Leung
Donnie Yen and
Zhang Ziyi

Yowsa, what a cast. Add to that the director of Raise the Red Lantern, Red Sorghum, Jou Dou, etc., plunging into the martial arts genre.

The disk was clearly filmed off a screen in a theater by some dude with either a tripod or a super-humanly steady hand. But even though the colors were pretty washed out and some subtitles got lost in the white glare, I could tell it is an unbelievably gorgeous film and I can’t wait to see it in the theaters. It’s highly stylized and there are huge washes of color in the various stories or chapters.

But I doubt it will have the same bang here in the states as Crouching Tiger. More on that later.

The story, roughly, is of the first unification of China under the Qin dynasty. Or more accurately, how the King of Qin survives multiple assassination attempts to continue his campaign to conquer and unify China.

It is fairly Rashomon-esque with Jet Li relaying various exploits to the king which allow for some amazing martial arts sequences. The initial fight between Jet Li and Donnie Yen completely rocks. Unfortunately, that’s the only scene with Donnie Yen. The following fight scenes are also great, but they opt for the more grand and sweeping wire work and panoramic shots, a la Crouching Tiger.

The film is just chock full of incredible images: huge Lord of the Ring-sized armies marching and firing a hail of arrows (the people are probably real; the arrows CGI); fights on barren dunes, over huge lakes, amid brilliant yellow and red leaves and in a hall of bright green tapestries; calligraphers writing in sand amid a thousand flying arrows; and of course Maggie Cheung and Zhang Zhiyi.

And while all that’s really amazing, it ends up coming off a bit flat.

The story and the characters are just too removed and stylized. And in this case, the Rashomon aspect does not add to the complexity but rather flattens it, because the alternate stories simply aren’t true.

In addition, I don’t think it will have the same draw here as Crouching Tiger (sorry, but it’s impossible not to sharply compare the two — it is a direct response, methinks) because there are no love stories in Hero that compare to the two (or three) great love stories in Crouching Tiger. And that’s what drove a lot of that box office, I think. Tony Leung and Maggie Cheung reprise their In The Mood for Love roles a bit, but it just doesn't compare.

Then there's the film's "message."

On it’s face, it’s an openly fascist film in the strictest sense. State above the individual. Full stop. It’s very chilling to my sensibilities. And it's presented in very stark terms -- Zhang is clearly saying something. I won't presume to guess.

But I’m sure it will be held up as positive model by many. And given the social and political slant of Zhang's other films and his prickly relationship with the mainland, that’s pretty interesting.

As a counter point, Zhang’s ex, Gong Li, is in a film from a few years back that tells relatively the same story. It’s called The Emperor and the Assassin. It’s a little over the top and overly tortured, but the key difference is the portrayal of the King of Qin.

In Hero, he is a shrewd military genius who does horrible things for the greater good of ending feudal warfare, unifying China and building the Great Wall.

In Emperor and the Assassin, he’s a nutcase who once had a good idea about the greater good, but quickly snaps and turns into an amoral murderous totalitarian.

I highly recommend both films, in case that's not clear. Both flawed, imho, but both fascinating.

(Jet Li still can’t really act, by the way. But he does the stoic thing pretty well, and that’s all that’s required of him here. That and lots of flying-around ass-kicking.)

 

I don't know, but I just found this great site.

http://www.herothemovie.com/index2.htm