Hero (2004, US release)

directed by Zhang Yimou

A CONTROVERSIAL CHINESE BLOCKBUSTER
Zhang Yimou’s first film of the martial arts genre is an imaginative and expressive interpretation of China’s ancient history; a Chinese poem in the way Beowulf is a medieval poem. Terrence Malick’s Days of Heaven (1978) also comes to mind. Zhang accomplishes a majestic work of fiction through highly-stylized cinematic technique and a narrative that is, in Gregory Currie’s sense, variously interpretable (Currie, 1995). Once its color-coded sequences and unreliable narration are interpreted, however, Hero stands as a visionary work of formal beauty and Chinese pride. As a result, these two key attributes have sparked controversy amongst Chinese audiences & American commentators who made such unreflective remarks about the film’s ideology as “redolent of fascinatin' fascism”(Hoberman, 2004). Therefore, two issues must be addressed: does Hero condone tyranny by “revising” China’s history and is it possible to critically evaluate this film within the landscape of Western political correctness? I intend to answer no, on both counts.

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