the new China's "hero"

Rating: 3/10 (1 September 2004)

The movie Hero has all the elements to appeal to two types of audience--some of the new Chinese middle class who are actually proud to be Chinese because of their nationalistic education and new wealth, and the sinophilles in the western world that surged in numbers post-crouching tiger hidden dragon, who either seeks thrill in Kungfu movies or in the exoticism of oriental culture/girls/customs or all of the above. As a poor student from Hongkong I do not qualify to be part of the target audience, and am quite disappointed by the filmmaker's misuse of a kickass cast, a large budget, and many interesting aspects of Chinese culture/history.
There are many cool concepts that were put into the movie, but are almost always mishandled: For example, the crossbowmen scene--the interesting posture the archers use to tighten their crossbow string was actually depicted in ancient military illustrations. Yet it was immediately marred by the horrible special effects showing the arrows flying into the city--which was too much exaggerated and definitely not nicely done. The use of different monotonal color schemes for different sections of the movie is also a very cool idea, but some of the monotonous building interior are simply ugly. The custom design is extravagant but have neither originality nor historic accuracy. The Qin soldiers rather looks like they are borrowing customs from the roman infantry in the "Gladiator".
Extolling the "hero" (Jet Li), who gave up the chance to kill the tyrant of Qin as he was convinced that Qin Dynasty would unite the whole China (which it did, if only for a few decades) and give the people peace (which it did not, nor was it likely the emperor's intention), director Zhang Yimou unnecessarily sings along with the political agenda of the Chinese government--to unite Taiwan with the People's Republic. The movie lauds the role of the Qin dynasty in uniting China, while ignoring the fact that Emperor Yinzheng was without doubt a tyrant--he enslaves people for his vast building projects, burnt books and buried intellectuals who disagree. Such things are of course encouraged to be forgotten in the new China, because analogous crimes are still being committed by the current government.
Hero's strong nationalistic sentiment and lack of taste might not be felt by the average western film-goer seeking a good kungfu fight scene or some artsy cinematography in an oriental setting. For everybody else
the earlier film "the Emperor and the Assassin" offers far superior treatment of the same story and is in every aspect (plot, customs, acting, cinematography, customs, sets--and the characters are actually human beings with emotions, not robots talking about building empires or fighting for humanity) a far better movie.
Were "hero" mainland China's answer to Ang Lee's "Crouching tiger", it is a very pathetic one. Sadly, though the film hardly gets any enthusiastic response from Chinese communities inside/outside mainland china, it is still a reflection of a force in contemporary Chinese culture that is rather twisted: a tendency to de-emphasize human conditions while glorifying national greatness and material wealth.