From the Hootoo archive. Originally published October 14th 2004:
Long-term readers of this column have had to put up with a lot, but they may recall my increasing despair at the inability of Jet Li to find himself a decent English-language vehicle. I’m inclined to suggest he gives up and sticks to working in China if all his movies there are as classy as Zhang Yimou’s Hero. Now apparently this is a wu shu movie, as opposed to the kung fu movies we’re all familiar with. Far be it from me to prevent anyone else from making a pretentious arse of themselves, but – please.
Anyway, Jet plays a fearsome warrior named Nameless (something Bertrand Russell would doubtless have approved of) living in what is now China during the third century BC. At the time the country was divided into several warring states. One of these is Qin, whose king plans to conquer all the rest and unify the land. The other states aren’t quite so keen on this idea, particularly Zhao, whose population appears to consist entirely of calligraphers and supernaturally gifted assassins. But Nameless turns up at the King’s palace claiming to have done him a big favour by eliminating his three most dangerous enemies, warriors named Sky, Flying Snow, and Broken Sword. Nameless tells the tale of how he achieved this momentous feat, but the King is unconvinced and proposes an alternate version of what went on…
Hero is being touted as mainland China’s retort to the American-backed Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, but for all that it claims to be 100% authentically Chinese, to me it seems rather influenced by foreign cinema of a different kind. The central story, built around the conceit of the characters taking it in turns to tell alternate versions of the same events, strikes me as distinctly reminiscent of the very famous Japanese film Rashomon – and the suspicion that Akira Kurosawa’s movies were a big influence is only intensified by Hero‘s fondness for big scenes of armies sweeping across plains, banners flapping in the wind.
But for all of this, Hero is a movie with its own very distinct style. This is largely due to the way that each iteration of the story is told, with a different colour dominating the sets and costumes. There doesn’t seem to me to be any explicit symbolism going on here, but the impression is still striking and it only adds to the stylisation of the picture. This is a story told in a very formal, almost rigid way, and as a result it occasionally feels a little stifled and artificial. This is partly made up for by the action, which is always impressive and in places astonishing, mixing genuine martial arts prowess with wirework and visual effects wizardry.
Even so, it’s mainly to the credit of the actors that it does grow increasingly involving as the story progresses and the true nature of the characters emerges. Li gives a cleverly neutral performance as a man whose true motives and agenda remain unclear until almost the very end of the film, and he’s supported by what’s effectively an all-star cast: Tony Leung, Maggie Cheung, Donnie Yen and Zhang Ziyi. Some of these people have, like Li, made movies in the west, but even the best of these had a faintly trashy whiff about them, while the worst (Romeo Must Die, Highlander 4) were genuinely wretched fiascos. Hero, by comparison, is a classy and clever movie, and (to western eyes at least) an exotic curiosity.
However this extends to the subtext and moral of the film, which is one that will probably seem very strange and unfamiliar to most western audiences. Exactly how much its presence is due to fact that this is a film made technically under the auspices of the Chinese government I don’t know – but it’s a message I suspect they would enthusiastically endorse. It’s probably stretching a point to describe Hero as out-and-out totalitarian propaganda, but there are elements of that there. Not enough to make the film unpalatable to watch, but a definite reminder that there are other perspectives to be had – and so, rather appropriate for a film of such moral and narrative complexity.
No Chic. Just Geek. 