Poor me! Sometimes I get so desperate for company that my left brain asks my right brain for a date – or vice versa. Trouble is that righty always wants to go dancing but lefty wants to stay home and play with the calculator. Last night, though, lefty and righty agreed to watch a movie together. Sometimes they even find one they both like. Righty had heard good things about Hero and it was his turn to choose, so Hero it would be. Righty came out of the theater exuding, "What magnificent swirls of color, what choreography, what stirring music!" Righty was nonplused, grumbling, "What utter nonsense. Everyone in China seems to be of two minds! It's enough to make one contemplate Hara Kari (oh, wait, that's Japanese)! And remember, lefty, when I go, you go. Just like Flying Snow and Broken Arrow, skewered on the same sword!" Lefty was too busy frolicking in mock swordplay to listen. "Next time, I'll just stay home and watch 60 Minutes," said Lefty.

Historical Background: Zhang Yimou has his own bipartite thing going. He's made thirteen films, now, and they split pretty evenly into two career phases. All of his first seven films were made with actress Gong Li, who was also his paramour in those years, from 1987-1995. Six of those seven films are rightly famous and critically acclaimed: Red Sorghum (1987), Ju Dou (1989), Raise the Red Lantern (1991), The Story of Qiu Ju (1992), To Live (1994), and Shanghai Triad (1995). Since 1995, Zhang has made another half-dozen films without Gong Li: Keep Cool (1997), Not One Less (1999), Road Home (1999), Happy Times (2000), Hero (2002), and House of Flying Daggers (2004). Hero was Zhang Yimou's first effort in the martial arts genre. His intent was to combine martial arts action with emotional depth.

The Story: The story, set in the third century B.C. when China consisted of seven distinct provinces, is really pretty straight forward. A warrior named "Nameless" (Jet Li) has been summoned before the King of Qin (Daoming Chen). Qin is much despised because he strives to unite forcibly the seven kingdoms under his rule, ostensibly to end warfare forever. This noble sounding endeavor is, however, "soaked in the blood of his enemies." Many have died as a result of Qin's obsessive quest. Several formidable assassins have dedicated their lives to killing Qin, so he warily allows no visitors closer than one hundred paces to where he sits. Nameless has been invited to the imperial palace because he has single-handedly killed the three most skilled and dreaded assassins who were after Qin: Sky (Donnie Yen), Broken Sword (Rony Leung), and Flying Snow (Maggie Cheung). Nameless brings evidence of his triumphs in the form of the swords of each assassin. Qin's own men witnessed two of the battles. Qin's seven most elite palace guards had watched Nameless defeat Sky and hundreds of his soldiers had watched his battle with Flying Snow.

Qin asks Nameless to recount the battles and explain how he could defeat three such skilled warriors, especially since Nameless is a hitherto unknown minor official. Qin explains how he used psychological and investigative tactics (jealousy, close study of Broken Sword's calligraphy to reveal his wrist movements) to discover and exploit a weakness of each opponent. At the end of each story, Nameless is rewarded with great riches and allowed to move closer to the throne – to within twenty paces, and then ten.

Qin begins to doubt the veracity of the accounts by Nameless. He offers his own account of each story, as he believes they really occurred. The three great assassins must have agreed to let Nameless defeat them. The King reasons that they must have believed that Nameless could complete the assassination if they were willing to sacrifice their lives in order to ensure that Nameless would get close enough to the King. Nameless must have some infallible "move" from ten paces against which there is no defense. Qin reasons that he is as good as dead already.

From here to the end of the film, several twists and developments occur that are best left for viewers to discover on their own. Since some of the "stories" related by either Qin or Nameless are untrue, I give nothing away by commenting, here and there, on one or another of the events.

Themes: Let's face it! Very few viewers are watching this film for its thematic content. That's a good thing, in a way, because thematically it's something of a mess. The basic idea suggested by the film is that forcible unification of disparate groups by conquest into larger and larger units eliminates warfare and is for the good of all. Anyone standing in the way of that idea needs to die! History is full of examples on both sides of that argument, but if we assume that unification under one central authority is a good thing, there's a few inferences to be drawn that some will find difficult. Hitler, for example, probably would have liked nothing better than to unify the entire world under the benevolent leadership of the Aryan master race. Let's also not forget the valiant efforts of Napoleon, Alexander, the Caesars, and Genghis Khan. Italy and Germany were both made stronger by the unification of small city-states into larger nations, except that neither abandoned expansionism at existing national boundaries. The Italians turned their attention to Albania and Ethiopia and the Germans to Hungary, Czechoslovakia and Poland. Saddam Hussein maintained peace of a kind in Iraq, suppressing the ethnic conflicts that had existed for centuries between the Shiites, Sunnis, and Kurds, but only by the expedients of murder, torture, and political dominance of one group over the other two. With Saddam gone, there's a real risk that civil war will erupt in Iraq, sooner or later, once America tires of its destined-to-fail attempt to transplant democracy. The Soviet Union was a forcible "unification" of a whole slew of disparate peoples, many of whom are a whole lot happier now that the old conglomerate has collapsed. In Yugoslavia, Tito did all that he could to generate a unified country out of a variety of ethnic groups, even trying to force all to speak one language, but the Croats and Bosnians were always dominated and exploited by the Serbian majority. So, unification is far from an unmixed blessing. One European reviewer called this film "beautifully filmed fascism." On the other hand, Qin's determination led to the country we now call China and which the Chinese call simply "Our Land."

An a humanist, I support a one world view to the extent of international cooperation, strengthening the role of the United Nations, acting in concert with allies rather than unilaterally, and avoiding exploitation of other nations or national groups in the name of "national interest," but at this stage in human development, I don't believe that world peace is best served by any increases in hegemony of one group over another.

Production Values: What this gorgeous martial arts extravaganza is really about is amazing production values. It is a visually sumptuous action film with graceful choreography, magnificent color schemes, and a pleasing soundtrack. The script is creative in some respects, though it also leaves quite a bit to be desired. There's clever use of the so-called "Rashômon effect," named for Kurosawa's great Japanese film Rashômon (1950), in which the same incident is told repeatedly from the vantage point of several different witnesses. Here, it is the contrast between the accounts of Nameless and Qin. On the other hand, there are some logical flaws in the script that painfully strain credulity, even given the fantasy character of the film. Several of the main characters don't seem to know their own minds. Not one but two of them come within a moment of completing an assassination to which they have dedicated their entire lives up to that point, only to suddenly change their minds at the last moment. Now I don't personally have any experience with plotting assassinations, but I have to imagine that it's best to decide whether one really wants to do it before one ends up standing next to the intended victim, weapon in hand. Such decisions ought to be made in advance, before committing oneself to such an extreme course of action. Another character seems more certain in her commitment – certain enough to kill her longtime lover and soul mate, when he poses an obstacle. Then, having killed the obstacle, she nevertheless abandons her lifelong quest to assassinate Qin, to join her lover in death. You either kill the lover/obstacle to continue the quest or you give up the quest to live happily ever after with your lover but why kill the lover and then give up the quest? These "great warriors" seem even more wishy-washy than Charlie Brown. It's not especially satisfying to encounter action heroes who just don't know what they stand for.

On the other hand, the visual qualities of this film are simply resplendent! This film was the most expensive in Chinese history and it shows. The sets, color schemes, special effects, and costumes are all magnificent. The story is told more by the visual images of cinematographer Chris Doyle than by the traditional devices of dialog, narrative, or editing. You may never encounter a more visually profound film. The exterior of the King's palace is an amazing set, detailed and fantastic. The outdoor settings depicted in the various encounters between the expert swordsmen and swordswomen are out-of-this-world. Zhang stated that the color schemes were an important part of the film. In each scene, there is a dominant color reflected in the costumes of each participant as well as the set. Some scenes are built around red, some blue, some white, some green. Black is the signature color of the King of Qin and his troops. Zhang has a long history of emphasizing color in his films, including Red Sorghum (1987), Ju Dou (1989), Raise the Red Lantern (1991). The soundtrack, composed by Academy Award winner Tan Dun and featuring Japanese Kodo drums and the genius of Itzak Perlman's violin, is full of passionate music, matched to each color scheme so that you virtually hear the color in the music. The costumes were the work of revered designer Emi Wada. Particularly magnificent are the billowing garments of Flying Snow and Moon.

Many of the scenes have a surreal quality, seemingly defying the laws of physics. In one scene, Nameless and Broken Sword engage in a sword fight on the surface of a lake, skimming above or along the surface like water bugs, sometimes carving patterns in the water with their swords. Some of the shots seem to be taken from beneath the surface of the lake. Water droplets are pierced and scattered. Flying Snow, in her battles, uses swirls of wind to disorientate her opponents. In one especially remarkable scene, Flying Snow and Moon, dressed in fiery tangerine and scarlet colored outfits, fight a heated battle to the death among a shower of brilliant golden autumnal leaves in a deciduous forest. The leaves seem to join in the battle, swirling passionately around the combatants. The choreography in all the fight scenes, the work of Hong Kong action director Tony Ching Siu-Tung, is intricate and graceful.

The performances are all very strong. Jet Li is sensational as Nameless and Maggie Cheung as Flying Snow, but I was even more taken with Tony Leung as Broken Sword and the beautiful Ziyi Zhang as Moon, an apprentice to Broken Sword. Ziyi Zhang's part was a bit less athletic and more expressive than the parts of the more seasoned warriors. I also liked martial arts expert Donnie Yen in his short stint as Sky and dramatic actor Daoming Chen as the King of Qin. Some of the scenes seemingly used hundreds of extras. The young stars are able to imbue their characters with personality, substance, and emotional depth.

Bottom-Line: This is not your ordinary martial arts film. It is a bit reminiscent of a fine ballet and rises to the level of visual poetry. It's as stylish as cinema gets. This film is definitely one to see on a big screen if at all possible. I used a video projector for my family's viewing. It loses a bit on a television screen. Hero is a not-to-be-missed film – regardless of whether you have or have not liked martial arts films in the past and regardless of whether you've liked or disliked foreign films or subtitled films in the past. The visual splendor alone is enough reason to see Hero. It may be nonsensical at times, but oh what gorgeous nonsense. Leave your left brain at home and take your right brain out for a real treat!

Hero is in Mandarin with English or Spanish subtitles. There's also the option of listening to the film dubbed into English or French, though why anyone would watch it that way is beyond me. The running time is ninety-three minutes for this American release from Miramax. There was an "extended" version released in China that was 107 minutes. The extras include an "Inside the Action" featurette consisting of a so-so conversation with Quentin Tarantino and Jet Li, a storyboard, a soundtrack spot, and an excellent featurette called "Hero defined."


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You might want to check out these other excellent films from China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan:

Chungking Express
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
Eat Drink Man Woman
The Emperor and the Assassin
Fallen Angels
Farewell My Concubine
In the Mood for Love
Raise the Red Lantern
Red Sorghum
Road Home
Shanghai Triad
The Story of Qiu Ju
Temptress Moon
Together
To Live
What Time is it There?
The Women From the Lake of Scented Souls
Yi Yi

Recommended:
Yes

Viewing Format: DVD
Video Occasion: Fit for Friday Evening
Suitability For Children: Suitable for Children Age 13 and Older