New Dimension within Old History

Rating: Null/10 (1 February 2003)

Hero (Zhang Yimou)
If you love big, dull, empty no-brainers, you may find Zhang Yimou's HERO too self-indulgent in a kind of Oriental fantasy. If you come to look for hand-to-hand fight in the mortal-combat style, you will surely be disappointed. It requires understanding of Chinese culture in order to appreciate the fictional world in HERO.
The plot is about some assassins who are out to kill a real emperor in history, who finally build the Great Wall. The director can not change the history, but he adds so many dimensions in this supposedly predictable plot. There are several symbolic persons in HERO. Among them, Flawed Sword and Flying Snow are played respectively by Tony Leung Chiu Wai and Maggie Cheung. Leung plays a role somewhat reminiscent of his role in the charming Tian Xia Wu Shuang. Cheung apparently ripens with age and really lights up the screen. The dialogue (the translation's rather bad) between these persons makes clear that reality doesn't matter in this film, but philosophical and aesthetical details do.
I wonder what kind of message a Westerner would get from HERO. The Qin Emperor wants unchallenged leadership, not unlike what Bush's after. He is a powerful bully in history; Bush has been described the same way. His armies look frightening; Bush's armies will not be any less. When Jet Li has a chance to finish off the emperor, he spares his life because personal opinions and feelings should be set aside for the greater purpose; that is what Bush's been telling us. The Qin Emperor wants people to believe that wars are necessary to bring peace; that again reminds us of Bush. In this sense, Noam Chomsky's "Rogue States" may serve better to accompany the movie than the original novel.