Chinese history and legend made real in imagery and action

Rating: 9/10 (27 September 2004)

I enjoyed Hero (Ying xiong) on many levels, first and foremost as a lover of cinema, for it is a work of visual and kinetic art. The cinematography, art direction, costumes, and music all set the stage beautifully for the actors to bring these legendary characters to life. Zhang Yimou's directorial touch was felt in every exquisite camera angle and saturated color. The movement of objects and people, the juxtaposition of events and viewpoints, was brilliantly done. I still see imagery and lengthy snippets of the action in my mind's eye when I least expect it and I am drawn to the imagery again and again.
As a former student of Chinese language and culture who has lived in Asia, I also enjoyed seeing many things I'd only read about brought vividly to the screen. The tea house in which No Name and Sky fight their duel, the old man playing the Zheng on his lap, the music and the remembered duel in the two warriors' minds, all of that brought my time in Hong Kong and Taiwan back to me - not because modern HK and Taiwan are like that at all, but because living in a Chinese environment (if you are immersed in the language and culture) means sharing the present with the past, reality with legend, and living people with ghosts. These things are an integral and tangible part of everyday life. The calligraphy school brought back my years of studying and practicing 'grass writing' and took me to the core of the reasons behind it visually and emotionally in the scenes set there.
As a student of internal martial arts, the film put into visible form the essence of their motivation. The stillness, the concentration, the philosophy melded inseparably to the act. The meditation, thought and movement as one. It was thrillingly done.
As a woman, it was good to see women and men in lead roles dealing with similar levels of conflict, both internal and external. The only thing I would have done differently would have been to have one woman at least 'get' the holistic concept, one nation out of many. It seems unlikely that women would be less able to grasp the concept than the men. But, that is a small criticism.
I will try to see it again on the big screen and will definitely buy it on DVD when it's available. I think it's a film which will bear repeated viewing.