Zhang Yimou’s Hero and the Globalization of Propaganda by Mark Harrison was published online for a website called "Wordpress". In the article he compares Hero to and earlier Wuxia film Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon but immediately points out that there is a lack of propaganda in the film. He says that Hero almost merges Chinese cinema with Hollywood cinema using all sorts of creative effects to propagandize the story in the film.
Contrasting with the muted, earthy colours of Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon,
Hero’s imagery does indeed a deliver a stunning looking film, wholly
unrestrained in its use of saturated colour and dramatic visual forms in ways
which few films have had the audacity to attempt. Its fight sequences are
spectacularly choreographed and staged, wielding colour, form and movement with
virtuosic skill. The cast, too, is beautiful, and A-list Chinese - Zhang Ziyi,
Tony Leung, Maggie Cheung and Jet Li.
At the same time, the film has no real
plot and no character development and its dialogue is made up of declarations of
fortune-cookie clichés. This points to empty spectacle, to a Chinese version of
the worst excesses of high-concept Hollywood cinema. However, Hero is far more
than an empty exercise in visual technology and marketing.
No comments:
Post a Comment