Contemplating Hero. Wuxia or worse?

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.

Is Hero Offensive?

Film Quarterly's critical article of Hero posted June 28, 2005 delivers applause towards the beautifully artistic martial-arts scenes, as well as questions the films intent. According to the article, the film's political stand justifies despotism, tyrannical rule, in China's history. "Viewers may leave with the impression that the film's message is simply that abandoning the attempt to kill the King of Qin was the right thing to do, for the sake of bringing an end to the chaos in China; and that, for his feat of unifying China, the first emperor deserves to be regarded as a hero." The article continues that in actual historical accounts of the first emperor, he is regarded as a tyrant. By assigning the emperor hero-like qualities conflicts arise, since the film portrays a "favorable attitude towards tyranny." In addition, the article questions, "Despite his success in unifying China, should the first emperor not be held accountable for his brutality?"

Hero Yhang Zimou

This offers a brief summary of the movie going through all tghe important point and then moves into a more analytical mode to find the true meaning of Hero which is ambiguous and highly debatable.

Review of Hero (2002)

Blogger: Researching and Writing About Film - Create Post This movie review on Hero was written by Anthony Leong on Media Circus. The interesting history of China adds spice to this film's plot. This review discusses the plot of the movie, which took place when the kingdoms in China were fighting over reign of the country until finally China was united into the first dynasty of China. Leong relates the fight of the kindoms to the business world, which is an interesting comparison.
This review discusses the amazing cast of actors and actresses that were involved in this well-acclaimed film. According to Leong,

"...fans of Hong Kong cinema could not ask for a better dream cast."

Hero was nominated for Best Foreign Film Oscar before being released in North America in 2003.

Who's the real hero?

Yimous Zhang's film creates a great balance between art and violence. The author of this article, Luke Buckmaster, speaks about the "narrative that fuses historical fiction with fantasy." This article elaborates on the fact that Australian cinematographer Christopher Doyle is one of ther real stars of this film with his luminous compositions. Buckmaster continues to draw attention to Doyle's work by saying,

Doyle’s flair for gob-smacking visuals turns Hero into the year’s most stylistically drawn action film.

Hero Review

This review by Jeffrey Westhoff tells about how the director of the movie is known for his colors, which is shown during the movie. He also adds a rather interesting take on the movie stating that the only way this movie would sell after Miramax bought this movie from China would be to put Quentin Tarantino's name on the cover. All in all, this reviewer was not too pleased with the movie.

Hero

In the movie review, Kenneth Turan claims that Hero is "the most artistically sophisticated, most formally beautiful martial arts film the genre has seen." The film is based on Chinese history involving the king of Qin, the third century BC ruler who united other six kingdoms and became the emperore of China. Turan writes that the color schemes in the movie was very impressive. The movie review qoutes, " Great emphasis is laid on intertwined cultural and moral issues: the parallels between martial arts and music, the way fighting skill can be rooted in calligraphy, even the possibility of pacifism within a martial world."

Not just a Martial Arts Movie

This review credits Hero with a stunning use of colors and artistic style. If it wasn't for the use of color, and the film was left in its most "elemental state" it would have not nearly come the distance it has. Although it took 2 years to finally be released to American audiences it has gained awards and an increasing status. The symbols were noted as symbolic, each referencing a different type of mood or story. Red was said to be for imagination, blue for reality, and green for peace. The review also points out the excellent job the film did of showing the strong resemblance between calligraphy and swordsmanship. Even if your not a fan of martial arts movies, this one will be enjoyable.

HERO-Getting by on Looks Alone

Carla Meyer, a chronicle movie writer, wrote an article for the San Francisco Chronicle titled, "The martial-arts movie 'Hero' kicks butt, but it's also beautiful. In director Zhang Yimou's latest, an ambitious royal epic, color is king." Meyer explains how this film is very different from other martial arts films that we are used to through its use of vibrant colors. The colors illustrated throughout the film tell a story in themselves. For example, the crimson color of the calligraphy instructor's robe and the headmistress' robe matches the ink of the calligraphy, which is shown in sensual scenes of the film. The crimson color illustrates the connection between the characters throughout the film. There exists a hot, sexual relationship between them; however, the fire that burns among them soon begins to die out.

Meyer also talks about the technical parts of the film. She explains how the director never goes overboard with the visual effects. Rather than including a computer generated form of an army of soldiers in the fight scene towards the end of the film, the director places an army composed of real people to give the scene a realistic effect.

Finally, Meyer describes the unnecessary bloodshed scenes in the film. At some points of the film, there are people fighting and killing each other for no apparent reason, or at least ones that the audience finds hard to follow. However, Meyer mentions that these points of the film work in a more ideological perspective, proposing a new idea of heroism, "...one in which dying for a lost cause is just as noble as killing for a winning one" (Meyer 1). Perhaps becoming a hero does not necessarily involve winning for a cause, but rather fighting for something that will be clear in the end.

Absence as spectacle: Zhang Yimou's Hero

I know it is after 12, but please count this blog :)

I found this article from the website: http://www.chinesecinemas.org/hero.html. It was written by Yingxiong. Although this article is a review, it could also pass for a critical essay. This article, Absence as spectacle: Zhang Yimou's Hero, deals with with a variety of topics from Chinese genre to a critical analysis of the film. This following quote extracted from the article concludes Yingxiong's main argument.

"Hero celebrates absence as spectacle; it glorifies absolute renunciation and perfect non-violence as preconditions for peace. Like Nameless, it addresses authority, undermining power’s grip on narrativity."

For more information about this article, click on the link. Enjoy!

"Hero" vs. "Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon"

As we talked about movies that are closely related to "Hero," "Crouching TigerHidden Dragon" was the most talked about. In this article, by Neil Young, it talks about just that, the similarities between these two films. "Though its makers probably won’t welcome the comparison, Hero is bound to be received around the world as ‘Crouching Tiger 2.’" He also talks about the films storyline as well as the color schemes that are seen throughout the movie. A lot of the ideas that were mentioned in class are brought out through this article, so take a look and enjoy!

Hero- Visually stunning

The author of the article, Mike Ward, agrees that Hero is full of color and beautifully crafted together. Hero gives the fighters the ability to "fight with flight." It's an amazing work of choreography and pieced throughout the movie just enough without being overexposed. The Film is comprised of a series of flashbacks with the conversation between the King and Nameless. "Hero strongly relies on its fight scenes as its backbone," says Ward. We can observe that the story is strong and compelling.

Hero

When Hero was released, it was the highest grossing film in China's history. Yimou Zhang uses modern effects to create an awesome "chop-socky" epic with an emotional storyline. According to the author Andrew Wright, Hero is very closely compared to Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, Hero is special because Zhang embraces each scene with a special Technicolor technique. Unfortunately, there were some problems during the release. Wright states that because of import DVD's and downloadable bootlegs, there is a good chance that anyone interested in this genre will already have a copy. Piracy hurt Hero's box office income.

Review of Hero

This link directs us towards a review by Joshua Tyler. He seems to not really enjoy this movie refering to it as, "...outlandish mythology..." and comparing to "...the cheesiest of Romance novels..." in the United States. Tyler seems to be overly critical of all the details that Zhang Yimou added to create dramatic effect. He reflects on how Hero is to compare with Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, but he states that, " Hero is trying for something a little deeper that in some ways just never connects." The rest of this review continues on this type of criticism with Joshua Tyler pointing out all the flaws, the simplistic plot, and the overall film being an "idealized dream."

Chinese Cinema and Zhang Yimou

This article by Eleanor Hisaye Taniguchi talks about Chinese cinema, namely, Zhang Yimou's movies. Believed to be the best "fifth generation" director, Yimou movies, such as 1984's Yellow Earth and the 1987 film Red Sorghum, were huge successes in Chinese. This was not the case, Taniguchi states, for those movies banned in China and Hong Kong.

Taniguchi talks in great detail about Zhang's global-breakthrough movie, Hero.

"Zhang's true redemption in the eyes of the Chinese government however, came with the release of Hero in 2002."

The article continues to talk about how the movie was the most successful Chinese film gross around $100 million in China, America, and Hong Kong combined.

Taniguchi later touches on the color coordinated scenes, "characters float through color themed sets,... pursue one another over trees bathed with autumn gold, ride through yellow deserts with blue mountains in the background."

Many of the questions we raised in class about Hero were touched in this article.
Taniguchi believes Zhang portrayed Snow as a "unruly, destructive" female protagonist in the film, thus this film implies women are wrong, and men know better.

Also, Taniguchi thought Hero intoned that centralized government is good, which puzzled her since

"The Emperor Qin, known to every Chinese schoolchild as being a brutal tyrant who unified China"

was portrayed as a wise, somewhat emphatic ruler, with a "grand vision" for China.

Dissection of Hero

This article dissects the movie into 5 parts. One part is 5 minutes in where Pruyune disscusses the black and white strategy that Zhang Yimou uses in the fight scene that takes place in the mind. Pruyne also shows the affects this scene has on the entire story. The next breakpoint is the colorful scene where Moon fights Snow. Pruyne says that this scene reiterates the theme of evolution. The next breakpoint is when the King questions Nameless about his story. The nest two breakpoints take place at the end of the movie.

Dissection of the Structure of Hero

This article dissects the movie into 5 parts. One part is 5 minutes in where Pruyune disscusses the black and white strategy that Zhang Yimou uses in the fight scene that takes place in the mind. Pruyne also shows the affects this scene has on the entire story. The next breakpoint is the colorful scene where Moon fights Snow. Pruyne says that this scene reiterates the theme of evolution. The next breakpoint is when the King questions Nameless about his story. The nest two breakpoints take place at the end of the movie.

Zhang Yimou on "HERO"

In the article that I found by Lisa Bear,written for indiewire.com, many different elements of the film Hero were addressed. While the article starts with a synopsis of the film, it branches out into a brief formalist look at the film, comparing both shots that were used and sounds featured in the film.

Memorable for its finely-judged performances, superlative sound design and stylized visual compositions, shot by renowned Australian cinematographer Chris Doyle, this is a martial arts film that contrasts orderly military formations in wide shot with lyrical close-ups. A volley of arrows fills the skies like a swarm of bees or plague of locusts rather than the tools of warfare. Lingering shots of gleaming metal, the sonorous hiss clang and echo of a sword being unsheathed or falling to the ground evoke harmonics and reverb rather than unsightly atrocities--torn limbs and membranes or screams of pain.

The article then goes on to recount an interview that Lisa Bear had conducted of Zhang Yimou. In the interview transcript, Yimou answers questions about the film, China, and some of the color schemes in the film.

IW: How did you come up with the color changes in the film: red, white, blue and green?

ZY: "Hero" is not a traditional martial arts movie. It's very structurally presented. I like Rashomon, and thought I could use different colors to represent different parts in the movie.

IW: Why those particular colors, red, white and blue?

ZY: There's no particular meaning to each color. I just needed the colors to represent...

IW: Points of view.

ZY: Yes, yes. Each color represents a different period and different [way of telling the] story...

Overall, it is a well written article which contains many different view on the film Hero. It gives the reader an insight into the mind of Zhang Yimou and how he wanted to make the film appeal to the audience.

Hero, visually spectacular but slight on story

This review by Nev Pierce describes the film as being "slightly unsatisfying." He talks about the film being to communist and simply a Chinese take on "whiz-bang" Western cinema. He does recognize that there is some good acting present but believes the story is predictable enough that subtitles aren't needed. I disagree with his stance and think that the choreography and three different story lines adds a great deal of suspense and the color schemes are also simply amazing. Pierce believes that if you liked Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon then you would defiantly enjoy this film. This gives me the feeling that he is not a fan a Chinese cinema.

HERO

This is a review about Hero by Jurgen Fauth. I really liked it because he gives a great sumary of the movie but also explains all the great special features in the film. I liked "looking" at the movie more than the story itself. He also explains that it is a martial arts film and i think that most people would also watch it for the fighting and because it is "beautiful" to look at. He also compares the film a lot to Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and looks at the work of the director. I liked this article because he brings up many diferent topics.