Hero
Directed by: Zhang Yimou
Written by: Feng Li, Bin Wang, Zhang Yimou
Starring: Jet Li, Ziyi Zhang, Maggie Cheung, Donnie Yen

The last decade has seen a huge influx of Eastern culture over here in the Western hemisphere, from the surge in popularity of anime, to the success of action stars like Jackie Chan and Chow Yun-Fat, to a collective newfound love of sushi (okay, maybe that one’s still in the works). Although a lot of Eastern culture has been misrepresented over the years, there has also been a gradual movement towards true appreciation and understanding of it. Hollywood studios would seem to be doing their part by importing all the Asian cinema they can get their hands on, but unfortunately their lazy and ignorant methods of distributing foreign films have sometimes been doing more harm than good. Miramax in particular has developed a bad reputation for buying up popular movies from overseas and then getting cold feet, shelving them until they can figure out how to market them to mainstream audiences (or even worse, editing them down into unrecognizable scraps and further demeaning them with atrocious English language dubbing).

Zhang Yimou’s “Hero” was one movie that hung in limbo for a number of years after Miramax acquired the rights. It was released in China in 2002, became the highest grossing movie of all-time there, and was nominated for the Best Foreign Film Oscar. And yet it took another 2 years for it to arrive in North America, thanks to Quentin Tarantino who finally persuaded Harvey Weinstein to release it (but only with Tarantino’s name on the posters to sell it of course). Many imported bootleg DVDs had already helped spread the word of this beautiful film by the time it arrived here, but now finally North American audiences have a chance to see it on the big screen. What’s more, it is uncut (as far as I can tell) and has decent subtitles too.

But really, I don’t see why this movie shouldn’t achieve some degree of success here. It stars Jet Li, an action star that Westerners are familiar with, and it has numerous connections to Ang Lee’s “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon”, the movie that first brought credibility and acceptance of wire-fu martial arts to the West. Crouching Tiger is probably a good gauge for whether or not you’ll like Hero; if you thought it was silly and unrealistic to see sword fights with opponents prancing across tree tops and defying the laws of gravity, you’ll probably want to stay far away.

However, Hero’s story is more straightforward and less muddled than Crouching Tiger’s, although it isn’t without some interesting twists. Hero has also been compared to the classic Japanese film Rashomon because it presents multiple perspectives of one story. In feudal China, a nameless warrior defeats 3 assassins and as a reward he is allowed to sit in with the king of the most powerful warring nation. When the king asks him to tell of how he defeated these warriors, the events are retold in flashbacks. As the king becomes suspicious and challenges his story, we learn about a love between two of the assassins, and slowly uncover the truth.

The main reason why you must see Hero is for the visuals. Director Zhang Yimou has truly used the screen as a canvas here, mixing together cinematography, choreography and set/costume design to paint a dazzling array of pictures. The use of colour in this movie is unprecedented, with each segment of the story seen through a different thematic hue. The pacing of the movie is fairly laidback, with plenty of slow-mo and contemplative camera work (even many of the fight sequences aren’t adrenaline-pumping set pieces), and it allows you to soak up all of the marvelous images at your leisure. It also helps showcase the true “art” in martial arts, emphasizing the fluidity and gracefulness of the actors’ movements.

Like many Eastern movies, Hero can be criticized for being a bit too pretentious and overblown at times. There are scenes that drag on too long, and there are moments of honour and integrity that seem forced and unnatural. There are points where the suspension of disbelief hangs by a thread. However, some of the awkwardness here can probably be attributed to cultural differences, and the fact that the movie is a fantastical one.

Perhaps the most enigmatic thing about this movie for Western audiences is not the plot or the language barrier, but rather the message of the movie. Yimou hammers home a decidedly un-American theme of sacrificing individual desires in order to benefit the good of all. And while it is undoubtedly a communist idea at heart — a potentially frightening one — it’s also something we could all learn from. In the U.S. we don’t often hear someone being called a hero for willingly falling in line and preserving the status quo… but maybe every now and then we should.

To be realistic though, Hero will probably not change your outlook on life, but it will remind you that there are some extremely talented people making movies outside of North America. Hollywood couldn’t come up with a movie like this in a million years. Don’t dismiss this film because it’s subtitled or because you’re tired of hearing about kung fu movies. There’s a lot more at work here, and this one is worth seeing. — Sean