Hero is a 2002 Chinese wuxia film directed by Zhang Yimou. Audio in Chinese with English subtitles.
Starring Jet Li as the nameless protagonist, the film is based on the story of Jing Ke's assassination attempt on the King of Qin in 227 BC. In…
Hero is a 2002 Chinese wuxia film directed by Zhang Yimou. Audio in Chinese with English subtitles.
Starring Jet Li as the nameless protagonist, the film is based on the story of Jing Ke's assassination attempt on the King of Qin in 227 BC. In ancient China during the Warring States period, Nameless, a Qin prefect, arrives at the Qin capital city to meet the king of Qin, who has survived multiple attempts on his life by the assassins Long Sky, Flying Snow, and Broken Sword. As a result, the king has implemented extreme security measures: no visitors are allowed to approach the king within 100 paces. Nameless claims that he has slain the three assassins, and their weapons are displayed before the king, who allows the former to approach within ten paces and tell him his story.
Director Zhang Yimou collaborated with Australian cinematographer Christopher Doyle to help realize his plan to divide the film visually into five sections, each dominated by a particular color. Doyle compared their story to Rashomon, as it has an unreliable narrator and stories within stories. The film tells different version of the story of how an anonymous hero in ancient China overcomes three rivals. The stories are dominated by the colors red, blue, and white. Red represents desire, possessiveness and jealousy. Blue represents reason and friendship. White represents the balance of reason and desire, the ultimate truth.[10] The overall framing story is darker with shades of black, and flashbacks are shown in vibrant greens. The colors were chosen for their aesthetic reasons, not symbolic ones, and the colors orange and pink were not considered as options; Doyle was dismissive of universal theories of color, such as those put forward by Italian cinematographer Vittorio Storaro.
The lake sequences were filmed in the Jiuzhaigou national park in northern Sichuan, China. The desert sequences were shot near the border with Kazakhstan.
The film was scored by Tan Dun, who also conducted the China Philharmonic Orchestra and Chorus for the recording. The composer Chen Yuanlin also collaborated in the project. Itzhak Perlman performs most of the violin solos, with additional solos by Tan Dun himself.
Cast & Characters:
Jet Li as Nameless
Tony Leung as Broken Sword
Maggie Cheung as Flying Snow
Chen Daoming as the King of Qin
Donnie Yen as Long Sky
Zhang Ziyi as Moon
