Dir. Yimou Zhang, 2002, Hong Kong, 107 mins
Cast: Jet Li, Tony Leung Chiu Wai , Maggie Cheung, Ziyi Zhang , Daoming Chen, Donnie Yen
Martial arts films have been a dime a dozen since the genre enjoyed major western mainstream success in 1999 with the release of The Matrix and in 2000, with Ang Lee's Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. Westernised 'wire-fu' atrocities flooded the world market (Romeo Must Die, Cradle to the Grave, Invincible) and it seemed that audiences couldn't get enough of them. In 2004, audience appetites appear unabated and after two years (and rather unnecessarily under the auspicious banner of 'Quentin Tarantino presents.') US distributor Miramax has seen fit to finally release to western audiences one of the finest martial arts films to be made in recent years, Yimou Zhang's Hero.
Hero is set in ancient China, when the country was divided into six kingdoms: Qin, Zhao, Han Wei, Yan, Chu and Qi. The Kingdom of Qin is governed by a megalomaniac Emperor (Chen) whose desire for dominance over all of China poses a major threat to the other five kingdoms. Subsequently many assassins have been dispatched and have tried (and failed) to dispose of the Emperor. Of them all, the three deadliest assassins' remain alive and as a result, the Emperor lives in fear of his own demise. He decrees that anyone who defeats the three assassins will be rewarded with gold, land and the privilege of sitting within ten paces of him (one hundred paces being the minimum for mere mortals). The story begins as Nameless, (Li) a mysterious county sheriff, enters the palace to report of his defeat of all three of the rogue assassins. Displaying the trio's beloved weapons as proof, he sits solemnly before the Emperor and in deference to Kurosawa's Rashomon , tells of how he vanquished the master killer's: Long Sky (Yen), Flying Snow (Cheung) and Broken Sword (Infernal Affairs' Leung Chiu Wai)
The Emperor questions Nameless in order to uncover a suspected deception and offers his own theory of how Nameless came to defeat the three great assassins.
It's in these flashbacks that the film takes full flight and leads to an unexpectedly intricate tale of sacrifice, love and loyalty.
Director Zhang (Raise the Red Lantern, The Road Home, Not One Less) Yimou presents each of Nameless' confrontations in strikingly vivid primary colours and incorporates a variety of elements (water, wind) to stunning effect, most notably Nameless' battle with Long Sky which propels forward to the sound of metal on metal, dripping rain and an old man's thrumming of an ancient Chinese lute. It is here also that the brilliance of Tan Dun's & Itzak Perlman's music comes to the fore, permeating the atmosphere with the spare, lonely strains of a Chinese violin. Christopher Doyle's sublime cinematography lends fluidity and grace to the films dynamism and in combination with the superlative costume and production design, creates an intoxicating visual tour-de-force .
The fact-based story of Emperor Qin and his would-be assassins was given a more realistic (but just as visually sumptuous) treatment in 1999 by an equally great Chinese filmmaker: Kaige (Farewell my Concubine) Chen.
Nevertheless, Hero's interpretation of this age-old story is vastly different in atmosphere, tone and aesthetic and ultimately this films inherent unreality is its greatest asset. The gentle stillness of the character interplay, the exquisite choreography and ferocity of battle, the seamless melding of the otherworldly wire work and the beautifully integrated computer effects create a spell that once cast, will hold the audience till its wonderfully unexpected conclusion.
Jarrod Walker
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