Hero (2002 film)

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.

Nameless recounts first killing Long Sky at a gaming house, accompanied by warriors loyal to Qin, before traveling to meet Flying Snow and Broken Sword, who have taken refuge at a calligraphy school in the Zhao state. He tells Sword that he is there to commission a calligraphy scroll with the character for "Sword" (劍), secretly seeking to learn Sword's skill through his calligraphy. Nameless also learns that Snow and Sword, who are lovers, have gradually grown distant. Once the scroll is complete, Nameless reveals his identity and reveals that Snow and Sky had been together as lovers. He says that Sky was certain Snow would avenge him, challenges Snow to a duel the next day. A heartbroken and angry Sword makes love to his pupil Moon, and is seen by Snow. Snow kills Sword in revenge, and later Moon when she attempts to seek vengeance for her master. The next day, Nameless kills an emotionally unstable Snow before the Qin army, and claims her sword.

As the tale concludes, the king expresses disbelief and accuses Nameless of staging the duels with the assassins; he had, in the previous assassination attempt, perceived Sword as an honourable man who would not betray Snow in that manner. The king then suggests that what really happened was that the assassins volunteered their lives so that Nameless could gain the king's trust, which would allow Nameless to get close enough to the king to kill him. He then narrates his guess at what really happened.

In the king's hypothetical version of the story, Nameless seeks out Snow and Sword after staging the battle with Sky, telling them that he has perfected a special technique that allows him to kill any target that is within ten paces. Nameless explains that he can use this technique to kill the king, but to get close enough he must present one of their weapons to the king; he further explains that he only needs to kill one of them in public in order to accomplish his goal. Snow and Sword argue over who should be the one to die, resulting in a short fight, in which Snow manages to injure Sword. She then proceeds to meet Nameless before the Qin army, while the recovering Sword watches helplessly as Snow is defeated. Moon later gives Nameless her master's sword, telling him that the swords of Snow and Sword should remain together in death as they had in life.

Nameless admits that he does indeed possess the special technique the king alluded to. However, he states that the King has underestimated Sword, and tells the true story. Nameless says that the special technique, while deadly, can also be used to deal a blow that misses all of the victim's vital organs while appearing fatal. He used this technique on Sky, and asks Snow and Sword to cooperate by faking a duel with him as well. He proves himself by demonstrating that the technique is highly accurate as well as deadly. Snow agrees to the plan, but Sword refuses. Snow angrily accuses Sword of ruining the opportunity they had three years ago, revealing that Sword had overpowered the king of Qin during their assault on his palace three years prior, but had refused to kill him. She then attacks Sword, and manages to wound him with Nameless's help. The next day, Nameless "kills" Snow in front of the Qin army. Sword later explains to Nameless that he let the king live because he desired a unified, peaceful China, and that only the king of Qin could achieve that vision. He then sends Nameless off to the Qin capital, writing the words Tianxia in the sand before leaving in order to persuade Nameless to reconsider the assassination.

The king, touched by the tale and Sword's understanding of his dream to unify China, ceases to fear Nameless. He tosses his own sword to Nameless and examines the scroll drawn by Sword. The king understands that it describes the ideal warrior, who, paradoxically, should have no desire to kill. Realizing the wisdom of these words, Nameless abandons his mission and spares the king.

When Snow learns that Sword convinced Nameless to forgo the assassination, she furiously attacks Sword and unintentionally kills him when he chooses not to defend himself so that she would understand his feelings for her. Overwhelmed with sorrow, Snow commits suicide. At his court's urging, the king reluctantly orders Nameless to be executed at the Qin palace for his assassination attempt, understanding that in order to unify the nation, he must enforce the law and use Nameless as an example. Nameless receives a hero's funeral and a closing text identifies the king as Qin Shi Huang, the first Emperor of China.

• Jet Li as Nameless (simplified Chinese: 无名; traditional Chinese: 無名; pinyin: Wúmíng)
  An unknown prefect of a small province, orphaned at an early age. Forged into a master swordsman over years of training, Nameless possesses the singular technique "Death at Ten Paces" (十步一殺 Shíbù yīshā) allowing him to strike precisely within that distance. He is the primary conspirator to assassinate the king, but ultimately decides that China's unification and peace are more important than vengeance. Hero also saw Jet Li's first appearance in a film produced by mainland China, after his debut in Shaolin Temple.
• Tony Leung as Broken Sword (simplified Chinese: 残剑; traditional Chinese: 殘劍; pinyin: Cánjiàn)
  Broken Sword and Flying Snow are the only assassins to ever infiltrate the king's palace, killing hundreds of his personal guard and very nearly the king himself before halting at the last moment. Of all the assassins, Broken Sword is the only one whom Nameless considers his equal in swordsmanship.
• Maggie Cheung as Flying Snow (simplified Chinese: 飞雪; traditional Chinese: 飛雪; pinyin: Fēixuě)
  A skilled assassin, Flying Snow is Broken Sword's lover and his equal as a swordsman. She has vowed revenge upon the King for killing her father in battle. When Broken Sword convinces Nameless to abandon the assassination attempt on the king, Flying Snow kills him and later herself.
• Chen Daoming as the King of Qin (Chinese: 秦王; pinyin: Qín Wáng)
  An ambitious leader who desires to become the first Emperor of China. Following an assassination attempt, he withdraws into his palace, which he empties of all but his most trusted advisors, and always wears his battle armor.
• Donnie Yen as Long Sky (simplified Chinese: 长空; traditional Chinese: 長空; pinyin: Chángkōng)
  An accomplished spearman, Sky is the first to be "defeated" by Nameless, who takes Sky's broken spear as proof of his defeat to the king.
• Zhang Ziyi as Moon (Chinese: 如月; pinyin: Rúyuè)
  Broken Sword's loyal apprentice, skilled in using twin swords.

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. Zhang had initially wanted to use different cinematographers and shooting styles, but that proved impractical.[7] 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. 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, and not symbolic ones, and the colors orange and pink were not considered as options, and Doyle was dismissive of universal theories of color such as those put forward by Italian cinematographer Vittorio Storaro.[8]

The lake sequences were filmed in the Jiuzhaigou national park in northern Sichuan, China. The desert sequences were shot near the border with Kazakhstan.[8]

The film was scored by Tan Dun, who also conducted the China Philharmonic Orchestra and Chorus for the recording. A majority of the tracks feature Japanese taiko drum ensemble Kodō. Itzhak Perlman performs most of the violin solos, with additional solos by Tan Dun himself. The theme song, Hero (英雄), composed by Zhang Yadong and Lin Xi, was sung by Faye Wong. It is unavailable in the American versions of the film DVD and soundtrack album.[9][10] Wind & Sand (風沙) is a song inspired by the film and was sung by Tony Leung. The musical instrument seen and played during the fight in the weiqi courtyard scene is a guqin. The guqin music for that scene was performed by Liu Li.

Hero was first released in China on 24 October 2002. Miramax owned the American-market distribution rights, but delayed the release of the film a total of six times. Import DVDs of the film were sold online and Miramax demanded that the sites cease selling the DVD.[11]

The movie was finally released in American theaters on 27 August 2004 after intervention by Disney executives, Government of China and Quentin Tarantino, who helped secure an English-subtitled release.[12][5][6] Tarantino also offered to lend his name to promotional material for the film in order to attract box office attention to it; his name was attached to the credits as "Quentin Tarantino Presents".[13] In addition, a sword held by Jet Li's character in the original promotional poster was replaced by weapon resembling a katana, a Japanese weapon, in the North American promotional poster, which was both anachronistic and culturally misplaced. The United States version of the DVD, with Mandarin, English, and French soundtracks, was released on 30 November 2004.

Translation of "Tianxia"

There has been some criticism of the film for its American-release translation of one of the central ideas in the film: Tiānxià (天下) which literally means "Under heaven", and is a phrase to mean "the World". For its release in Belgium, two years before the U.S. release, the subtitled translation was "all under heaven". The version shown in American cinemas was localized as the two-word phrase "our land" instead, which seems to denote just the nation of China rather than the whole world. Whether Zhang Yimou intended the film to also have meaning with regard to the world and world unity was at that time difficult to say. Zhang Yimou was asked about the change at a screening in Massachusetts and said it was a problem of translation: "If you ask me if 'Our land' is a good translation, I can't tell you. All translations are handicapped. Every word has different meanings in different cultures."[14] In Cause: The Birth of Hero—a documentary on the making of Hero—Zhang mentions that he hopes the film will have some contemporary relevance, and that, in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks (which took place just before the movie was filmed) the themes of universal brotherhood and "peace under heaven" may indeed be interpreted more globally, and taken to refer to peace in "the world."[15][16] The phrase was later changed in television-release versions of the film.

In 2014, Time Out polled several film critics, directors, actors and stunt actors to list their top action films.[29] Hero was listed at 77th place on this list.[30]

• House of Flying Daggers
• Jet Li filmography
• List of martial arts films

Wikiquote has quotations related to: Hero (film)

• Hero at IMDb
• Hero at AllMovie
• Hero at Box Office Mojo
• Hero at Rotten Tomatoes
• Hero at Metacritic
• Hero at LoveHKFilm.com