Hero• Director: Yimou Zhang

– (House of Flying Daggers, Raise the Red Lantern)

• Year: 2002• Genre: Action, adventure• Cast:

– Nameless (Jet Li)– Broken Sword (Tony Leung Chiu-Wai)– Flying Snow (Maggie Cheung)– Long Sky (Donnie Yen)– Moon (Ziyi Zhang)

Genre - wuxia

• Wu – martial arts

• Xia – someone who will sacrifice himself for what is right

• Wuxia films: – Red Cliff– Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon– House of Flying Daggers

Box Office concerns

• Miramax executives were concerned that the foreign-language film would not be successful at the box office with American audiences

• Hero was the first foreign language film to open at #1 at the US box office

Historical basis for Hero

• Based on the story of Jing Ke’s assassination attempt on the King of Qin in 227 BC

• The real King of Qin ruthlessly tortured and killed people, and destroyed villages

• The real, historical assassin, brought the decapitated head of another enemy to the king

The Red Story• Narrated by Nameless to explain how he

defeated Sky, Sword, and Snow• For the red fight, the director had to wait for

leaves in Mongolia to turn yellow– Additional yellow leaves were gathered to cover the

ground– After each shot, the leaves were sorted so only

perfect leaves were blown in front of the camera– The entire scene was shot in only 3 days because the

leaves would not last longer

• Special red cloth was Fed-ex’d from England

The Red Story

• In this version, Nameless claims:– Nameless killed Sky– Snow killed Sword– Snow killed Moon– Nameless killed Snow

Subbing vs. Dubbing

• Subtitles preserve the emotions expressed by the original actors in their tone of voice

• Subtitles prevent the distracting phenomenon of people “speaking” out of sync with the motion of their mouths

The Blue Story• Narrated by the King of Qin

• The fight on the lake was shot over a period of 22 days

• Shooting could take place only during a 2-hour period each day – from 10 a.m. to noon – when the water was perfectly still

• Crews began setting up at 5 each morning to be ready for the 10 a.m. window

The Blue Story• In this version, the King guesses:

– Sky allowed Nameless to kill him– Snow wounded Sword to save his life– Snow allowed Nameless to kill her– Sky and Snow sacrificed themselves because

Nameless is able to kill the King if he can get within 10 paces

The White Story• Narrated by Nameless

• In this version Nameless claims:– Nameless has perfected a blow that will

appear fatal, but damage no internal organs– Nameless used this maneuver to stage the

“deaths” of Sky and Snow– Sword is opposed to killing the King of Qin– Snow wounds Sword to prevent him from

thwarting the plan

The Green Story• Narrated by Sword

• Sword explains to Nameless why he did not execute the King of Qin

• 2 words: “Our Land”– Also translated as “All under Heaven”

What the King of Qin saw in Sword’s Calligraphy

• In the first state, man and sword become one and each other. Here, even a blade of grass can be used as a lethal weapon.

• In the next stage, the sword resides not in the hand but in the heart. Even without a weapon, the warrior can slay his enemy from a hundred paces.

• But the ultimate ideal is when the sword disappears altogether. The warrior embraces all around him. The desire to kill no longer exists. Only peace remains.

Character Review

• Sword: practices calligraphy, loves Snow, will not kill the King of Qin

• Snow: loves Sword, but wounds him or kills him in every version; committed to killing the King of Qin

• Moon: Sword’s servant

• Sky: the first assassin Nameless defeats; plays chess, wields a spear