Hero

Synopsis

"Hero" is a 2002 wuxia blockbuster directed by Zhang Yimou, starring Jet Li, Tony Leung Chiu-wai, Maggie Cheung, Zhang Ziyi, Chen Daoming, and Donnie Yen. Set against the backdrop of assassination attempts on the King of Qin during the late Warring States period, it tells the story of an unnamed assassin who abandons his mission to kill the Qin ruler. With a Douban rating of 7.7, it was the first domestically produced film in mainland China to surpass 100 million yuan at the box office and received an Oscar nomination for Best Foreign Language Film.

Overview

Hero is a Chinese wuxia film released in 2002, directed by Zhang Yimou and written by Li Feng, Zhang Yimou, and Wang Bin. It stars Jet Li, Tony Leung Chiu-wai, Maggie Cheung, Zhang Ziyi, Chen Daoming, and Donnie Yen, with Zheng Tianyong and Zhang Ziyi also featuring. The film has a runtime of 99 minutes and holds a 7.7 rating on Douban. It was the first domestically produced film in mainland China to surpass 100 million RMB at the box office, with a global total exceeding $177 million. It received nominations for Best Foreign Language Film at both the 75th Academy Awards and the 60th Golden Globe Awards.

Set against the backdrop of the late Warring States period, the film centers on the assassination attempt on the King of Qin. It narrates multiple versions of the story from the perspectives of different characters. Zhang Yimou, through extremely bold use of color and aesthetically beautiful fight choreography, created a new form of wuxia aesthetics. The film's visual style has had a profound influence on Chinese cinema.

Plot

In the late Warring States period, seven states vied for supremacy, with the state of Qin being the most powerful and intent on annexing the other six to unify the land. The King of Qin (played by Chen Daoming) thus became the primary target for assassins from the other states. The King decreed that anyone who could kill the three great assassins—Sky, Flying Snow, and Broken Sword—would be rewarded and granted an audience to share a drink with him.

A minor Qin official named Nameless (played by Jet Li) claims to have defeated the three assassins and earns the right to an audience with the King. Before the King, Nameless recounts how he defeated each assassin one by one.

The first story is dominated by the color red. Nameless recounts that Broken Sword (played by Tony Leung Chiu-wai) and Flying Snow (played by Maggie Cheung) are a couple, master swordsmen, and Moon (played by Zhang Ziyi) is Broken Sword's servant. Nameless exploits the emotional entanglements among the three to defeat them one by one.

After hearing Nameless's story, the King offers his own interpretation. He believes Nameless is the true assassin and the stories are fabrications. The King narrates a second story, dominated by the color blue. In this version, Broken Sword and Flying Snow are the true heroes, willingly sacrificing themselves to enable Nameless's mission to assassinate the King.

The third story, dominated by the color white, reveals the truth. Nameless is indeed an assassin sent to kill the King, but before his death, Broken Sword wrote two characters for Nameless: "All Under Heaven." Broken Sword believed that although the King was tyrannical, only by unifying the land could the centuries of warfare be ended. Nameless ultimately understands Broken Sword's profound meaning, abandons the opportunity to assassinate the King, and sacrifices his own life to achieve peace for All Under Heaven.

Cast

Cultural Impact

Hero is considered the pioneering work of Chinese commercial blockbusters. Before its release, the Chinese film market was in a prolonged slump, with few audiences willing to watch domestic films in theaters. Hero, with its unprecedented star-studded cast, lavish production, and sophisticated marketing, successfully drew audiences back to cinemas. Subsequent blockbusters like House of Flying Daggers, The Promise, and Curse of the Golden Flower followed Hero's model, ushering in the wave of commercialization in Chinese cinema.

The film's visual aesthetics received high praise internationally. Zhang Yimou used five colors—red, blue, white, green, and black—to correspond to different story segments, with each color representing different emotional and truth layers. This technique of color narrative was unprecedented in film history. The fight scenes are equally magnificent—the duel between Jet Li and Donnie Yen in the chess house, the chase between Tony Leung and Maggie Cheung on water, and Zhang Ziyi's fight in the poplar forest—each battle is like an elegant dance.

However, domestically, the film's values sparked intense controversy. Many viewers and critics argued that the film defended the tyranny of the King of Qin, suppressing individual resistance in the name of "All Under Heaven," which contradicted traditional wuxia spirit. This controversy precisely reflects the film's intellectual depth—it is not a simple wuxia film but a philosophical movie about the individual versus the collective, violence versus peace, and sacrifice versus fulfillment.

References

1. Douban Movie: https://movie.douban.com/subject/1306123/
2. Baidu Baike: https://baike.baidu.com/item/英雄
3. Wikipedia: https://zh.wikipedia.org/zh-cn/英雄_(电影)