"Hero" is one of those films that fall into the category of art-house action films. The movie is filled with dazzling fight sequences similar to Ang Lee's "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon." The film, however, is imbued with scenes of quiet beauty. Describing them is futile. These are scenes you must see for yourself.
Of all films in Chinese cinematic history, no film has traveled a rockier path than Zhang Yimou's "Hero." The movie required unprecedented China-trotting, and ended as the most expensive Chinese film ever made. After its release it received several nominations in various Asian film awards, but lost almost all of them to another film. Miramax purchased the rights to "Hero" in the largest film auction in Chinese history, but largely ignored the film. Fearing that the combination of art-house qualities and a large amount of Chinese history would drive moviegoers away, Miramax will give the film a very limited release.
"Hero" was nominated for Best Foreign Language Film at the 2004 Oscars, but Miramax preferred to focus its campaigning powers on "Chicago," and "Hero" lost the Oscar to the German "Nowhere in Africa." The movie languished in the vaults for a year without any word of an American release.
Miramax was considering shredding "Hero" before throwing it into limited release, but before going ahead with this plan, executives at the company asked their star director Quentin Tarantino if he would like to have his name associated in the movie title to draw audiences. Tarantino, ever the lover of Asian culture, agreed, and "Hero" became "Quentin Tarantino Presents: Hero."
In reality, Quentin Tarantino had nothing to do with the production of the film, but that hardly changes things. But people who go to see "Hero" expecting to see a Tarantino film will be disappointed; "Hero" is nothing like a typical Tarantino movie. Nevertheless, there is a good chance that they well be pleasantly surprised.
The music, from Academy-Award winning composer Tan Dun, is also deeply inspiring, although at many points the music sounds almost identical to the "Crouching Tiger" score.
However, it is in the pursuit of beauty that the film suffers the most. A couple of shots were so ambitious that they were impossible to pull off without the use of computer graphics. While those astounding images were brought to the screen, they seem painfully artificial. You will, unfortunately, be able to tell that the producers enlisted the aid of computers.
The film's plot is in many ways similar to Kurosawa's "Rashomon," presenting the same story in many different ways. Set during the Warring States period of the Zhou dynasty, "Hero" tells a story of passion, deceit and betrayal during the Qin King's rise to power.
Nameless (Jet Li) is a minor Qin official that earns the privilege of a meeting with the King of Qin (Chen Daoming) after defeating three deadly assassins from the rival nation Zhao. At the request of the King, Nameless tells his story -- how he defeated Long Sky (Donnie Yen) after a lengthy battle that he played out mentally, how he used the passions and jealousies of former lovers Broken Sword (Tony Leung) and Flying Snow (Maggie Cheung) against them.
The King does not believe Nameless's story. He suspects, no, he knows that Nameless is in reality an assassin working with the other three to kill the King. He suggests that Broken Sword and Flying Snow are still devoted lovers and willing to sacrifice their lives and each other to eliminate the Qin King. The truth, of course, is never that simple.
For nitpicking's sake, the entire premise of the movie is completely absurd. Although this is a work of fiction, some things that could have been based on historical fact seem highly unrealistic. Nevertheless, since this is a movie, we can hardly criticize the movie on this point.
"Hero" is also a deeply philosophical film. The connection between swordplay and calligraphy are discussed constantly. Understanding this connection is already difficult for those fluent in Mandarin Chinese. The American audiences that would rely on subtitles for their understanding of the film's dialogue would indeed suffer. This non-understanding may become frustrating to the non-Chinese speaking audiences.
Even so, "Hero" is still a highly entertaining romp in the amazing genre made famous by films like "Crouching Tiger" and "Once Upon a Time in China." It has the potential to delight both action film fans and movie purists. It's tragic that it took so long for it to get here.
"Hero" opens in theaters on August 20, and we can only hope it will be screened at a theater here in Charlottesville.
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