Background.
Zhang Yimou's 2002 film Hero is set 2000 years ago in China and presents itself as a martial arts movie, building on the world-wide success of Ang Lee's Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000). This is no homage to the genre, however, but profoundly subverts it in a complex essay in light, love and morality.
Zhang Yimou trained in Beijing's Film Academy as a cinematographer, and formed part of the '5th Generation' of Chinese film makers, along with Chen Kaige, for whom he was camera man on Yellow Earth (84). He also shot Wu Tiangming's Lao Jing (87) before going on to direct eight of his own films in China during the late 1980's and through the 1990's. His star and muse then was Gong Li, and the films they made together range from the noir gangster genre of Shanghai Triad, to the domestic melodrama of Raise the Red Lantern and the social critique of Qiu Ju. These films won international acclaim for their star and director. His recent films have followed Qui Ju in their focus on modern China's social concerns. Zhang Yimou has always used colour with bravura, from his camera work on Yellow Earth through Red Sorgum, Raise the Red Lantern and Shanghai Triad, and now he has brought this to powerful effect in Hero. When making this film Zhang Yimou worked with the Hong Kong based director of photography Christopher Doyle and Hong Kong stars Maggie Cheung, Tony Leung and Donnie Yen plus Zhang Ziyi, Jet Li and the musician Tan Dun. Christopher Doyle, Zhang Ziyi and Tam Dun were all applauded for their work on Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.
Much as I enjoyed Ang Lee's film, Hero impresses me and moves me more profoundly. This is perhaps the most beautiful film I have ever seen. The bravura use of colour to separate the different plot lines and provide a useful visual mnemonic is given deeper meaning because it is illustrates the character not only of the individuals but of the view of humanity implicit in each segment. This film is concerned with what it means to be human, so part of my deep enjoyment comes from finding within it values and themes close to my Christian heart.
The Plot in four stories - Red, Blue, White and Green.
The provincial king of Qui plans to conquer and unite the other six provinces of China. For ten years he has lived in fear of three assassins; two men, Sky and Broken Sword, and a woman; Snow.
Three years previously Snow and Broken Sword had stormed his palace and Broken Sword nearly killed him. Since then the King has allowed no-one but his council and servants within 100 yards and worn his armour constantly.
Nameless, a lowly local prefect, has killed Sky in single combat. For this he is generously rewarded and allowed into the Kings presence - at a distance of twenty yards. He and presents the King with the swords of Snow and Broken Sword. As it is well known that these swords would never be parted this is proof that their owners are also dead.
The King therefore rewards Nameless ten fold and allows him within ten yards. The King asks Nameless how he managed this feat and is told the Red Story - Red because in this section of the film the two assassins and their servant girl Moon's costumes and the set's palette are predominantly red. Nameless tells the king that three years ago Snow slept with Sky for one night, and Snow and Broken Sword have not spoken since, communicating only through the servant girl Moon. This Red story is about Broken Sword's feelings of betrayal, jealously and revenge and Snow's feelings of rejection and murderous rage, all deliberately exacerbated by Nameless. Reminded of Snow's betrayal Broken Sword has sex with his servant girl Moon, using and abusing her devotion in order to punish Snow. He tells Snow that she is 'longer in his heart'. Snow kills Broken Sword. Moon attacks Snow, who treats her with distain, and impatiently kills her too. This scene becomes suffused with blood red.
The King's army is at hand and Nameless arrests Snow and duels with her, surrounded by the Army, killing her easily, so undone and remorseful is she by killing her lover in such foolish anger.
The Red story introduces the art of calligraphy and its links with sword fighting skills. Broken Sword has been studying calligraphy - and become a master. Nameless found him in a calligraphy school and asked him to draw the character for Sword on an eight-foot canvas. This ideogram, painted in red, is presented to the King by Nameless. In it, says Nameless, lies the secret of both arts, calligraphy and sword-fighting. There are nineteen different ways to draw the ideogram for sword - and this is the twentieth. The king cannot decipher it, and Nameless says that he can only partially do so. The King tells Nameless that when he has conquered all of the provinces there will be only one language, a simple calligraphy for all to understand, so that people can communicate easily and live in peace.
But the King does not believe Nameless's Red story. He has encountered Snow and Broken Arrow, and seen in them too much courage and strength, honour and integrity to believe that they were so 'emotionally frail'.
The King believes that Nameless and Sky had become allies, and that Nameless himself seeks revenge on him. He believes that after ten years of trying and failing to assassinate the King Sky had joined in Nameless's plot, deliberately given his life and thereby earning Nameless the kudos to enter the king's presence, and the possibility of killing him. 'What gallantry and courage,' the King muses, 'to give his life so that I might die.' But Nameless then had to kill Snow or Broken Sword to get within 10 paces of the king.
In this, the King's Blue story, Nameless persuades Snow and Broken Sword that he does have the skill to kill the King from 10 paces. But his skill with the sword is so fine that he can also deliver what appears to be a fatal blow, but which, by avoiding all major organs, wound rather than kill. The Army, witnessing this blow delivered by Nameless to either Broken Sword of Snow, would believe it was fatal. Nameless asks if one of them will appear to die, even thought risking death, to gain Nameless so close an audience with the King? They agree. As they approach the army Snow stabs Broken Arrow so that he cannot duel with Nameless and risk being killed. She strikes an instant before he can stab her for the same reason. Each is willing to sacrifice themselves for the sake of the other, and the emotions in this story centre on their calm, serene, selfless loving and sacrificial. This Blue story fits with the King's perceptions of the lover's characters. Snow is not distracted during her duel, but calmly urges Nameless to strike the necessary blow, 'Make your move now' she whispers to Nameless, while still giving a convincing display of her fighting skills. But Snow does die, and although Broken Sword must fight Nameless to fulfil the demands of honour, neither will kill the other. Broken Sword kills himself, gifting his sword to Nameless, so that the swords and the souls of the two lovers will be united in death as in life. This Blue story is based on the Kings admiration for his adversaries.
The King had told Nameless that the Red story underestimated the Kings perception. Nameless now tells the King that his Blue story underestimates Broken Sword. He now tells the White Story. When Nameless tries to recruit Broken Sword and Snow into his plan Broken Sword tells him that as long as he is alive he will not allow anyone to kill the King. Snow knows that three years ago Broken Sword was in a position to do so and refused; she still resents this, and says that she will help Nameless if he will help her attack Broken Sword. He does so and Broken Sword is wounded, freeing Snow to go to the duel, and receive the cunning blow from Nameless.
Broken Sword tells Nameless the Green story. In this he meets and falls in love with Snow, the daughter of a general slain by the King of Qui. She is sworn to avenge him. Broken Sword learns the twin arts of sword play and calligraphy, and through then a truthful simplicity of heart. Snow tells him that when the King is dead she will take him home, to a place where there are no swords or swordsmen. For Snow's sake storms the palace with her, cutting their way through three thousand guards until Snow can hold the door to the palace and Broken Sword can confront the King. The Palace is swathed in green silk, and the two men fight in the billowing confusion. As they fight the silk curtains begin to fall, until the two of them stand with a clear view. The King rushes Broken Sword, who parries him and draws blood from the Kings neck. The King knows that Broken Sword held back from what could have been a fatal blow. We were told early on in the film that Snow had slept with Sky three years previously. I wonder if that was in response to Broken Sword's reneging on his promise? In a well crafted narrative the logic of ths tory bleeds our beyond what we see and hear.
Why did you not kill him? asks Nameless. 'Have you given the last ten years of your life to hatred and the desire for revenge?' asks Broken Sword. 'Completely' answers Nameless. 'Here is what calligraphy has taught me' says Broken Sword 'what is in my heart is in these two words.' He draws them in the sand with his sword. They are 'Our Land.' He rides off, leaving his sword for Nameless. The servant girl Moon tells him that in all the time she has been with Broken Sword he had never been wrong. 'Consider his words' she says. According to Broken Sword 'Only the King has the power to end the killing and bring peace by uniting the land. Compared to the greater good one man's pain in nothing.'
'No one has ever grasped what I am trying to do' says the King, when he hears this story. 'Even my court regards me as a tyrant.' He turns to the ideogram. 'To have been understood by such a man as Broken Sword allows me to face death without fear.' Now the King understands the ideogram for the first time; how the swordsman unites with his sword until he no longer needs it to kill; a blade of grass is deadly in his hands. But then the true warrior moves beyond violence and seeks only to embrace all people and live together in peace. The ultimate ideal is when the warrior lays down his sword. The King gives his sword to Nameless and turns his back. Nameless does not kill him. He drops the sword.
Snow learns from her servant that the king lives and confronts Broken Sword.
'Is Our Land all that you have in your heart' she demands.
That; and you.' he replies.
How can I believe you? She asks.
'Is the sword the only answer' says Broken Sword as Snow attacks him. Broken Sword does not parry her lethal blow, dropping his sword as she strikes. Appalled, Snow cries 'Why did you not defend yourself?'
'So that you would finally believe me' says Broken Sword, and dies.
Snow screams with grief and the realisation that she was wrong. They are transported to a high point on the rocks and Snow gathers Broken Sword in her arms and tells him she will take him home, to a place without borders. She thrusts the sword further, through his body and into her own, killing herself.
In the Palace the army gathers and the courtiers scream at the King for permission to execute Nameless. 'This is the sacred law they' cry in unison. 'If you are to unite the land then we must execute him.' The King sadly gestures his agreement and a storm of arrows flies at Nameless as he calmly waits for his own death. He dies an assassin, but saluted by the warriors who carry his bier and buried as a hero.
We are told that Qui united the provinces, and that even now, two thousand years later, the Chinese still speak of their country as Our Land.
Means, Motifs and Motives.
The colours speak clearly to me.
The passionate Red is of betrayal, jealously and revenge, rejection, murderous rage, and abuse. Even Moon is abused by her master and killed by her mistress. But this story is not the truth.
Blue is used here to signal courage and strength, honour and gallantry, calmness and serenity, selfless love and sacrificial. These are admirable; but this story is not true either.
White may be the truth. The colour White contains all colours, including red, and it is true that Broken Sword betrays Snow's desire for revenge. Snow does attack him in rage and kills him. But all the blue virtues are also here. And something else. The Green story is about something new, about spiritual growth as Broken Sword turns from murderous revenge, gives up not only the sword, but also the way of violence- even if it costs him his life.
The green shoots of hope take root in Nameless too, and he does not kill the vulnerable king. The King has seen the living green in the blood red ideogram, and through it understands and values himself better than before, accepting the possibility of death and making himself vulnerable to his assassin.
And Nameless, always clothed in black, gives up his ten-year quest, and his life, to let the King live in the hope that green peace will flourish. He knows this is a costly decision; it will cost many lives; and his own will be the first.
Nameless's corpse is not seen. We do not see the arrows pierce him. We see the space where he stood against the Palace Wall, a space that is surrounded by hundreds of arrows, but is empty. His body is covered in red silk for his funeral, a hero's funeral. The soldiers salute him as they carry his bier, but who would declare him a hero, if not the King?
Is there another colour? Yes. The first fight scene, between Nameless and Sky, is largely grey. Does this have meaning?
Is there another Hero? Consider Moon. In Ang Lee's 'Crouching Tiger...' Zhang Ziyi played an arrogant princess. In this film she plays a humble servant girl. Only in the Red sequence do we see her being violent, as she attacks snow, but we may not believe the Red story to be true. No-where else does she allow her obvious love for Broken Sword come between her master and Snow. It is Moon, speaking to Nameless, with great humility and conviction and telling him that in all her time serving Broken Sword he has never been wrong, who perhaps tips the balance in Nameless mind to accept Broken Sword's final words to him. I hope that she finds a home in the school of calligraphy!
Motives
There have been suggestions that the film is an apologia for totalitarianism and authoritarianism, and a paean to the present Chinese Government. But is the King a totalitarian? His courtiers have certainly seen him as a tyrant - he tells us so. But surely totalitarians do not hand their swords to would-be assassins? And it was the King who told the Blue story, surely a reflection of his own idealistic aspirations. Broken Sword understood the King's higher ambition of peace through unity. That is why he did not execute him. And the King comes to understand the highest virtue of the warrior - to seek peace above all and to lay down his sword. The question is, when?
The film is clear that there is a high cost to pay for this ultimate peace; and most of those who pay it will not do so voluntarily. That could be said of the historical formation of any united kingdom, including our own, and of many contemporary foreign policies, including our own. The question of ends and means hangs over any polity and there are no simple answers between the poles of pacifism at one end - taking no violent action either in aggression or defence - and at the other a totalitarian certainty that our ends do justify whatever means are necessary. The ethics of Just War provide a matrix that is used between these poles by those who seek some moral justification for causing suffering to others, including the innocent, intentionally or unintentionally - but inevitably.
Motivation is important. Hero is clear about motives. It is not so explicit about who the hero or heroes are. The Chinese ideogram for Hero does not differentiate between the singular and plural. Could the King be one of them? If so it would not be because he was a totalitarian, but because under his armour beat the heart of an idealist, but one who accepted the cost of his decisions, accepted responsibility for his actions, and was willing to stand under the judgement of others, including the assassins. Totalitarians accept no judgement but their own. I am reminded of the last lingering shot of The Mission where the Papal Nuncio, played by Ray McAnally, meets our gaze and silently challenges us to judge him for taking responsibility for his effective action as opposed to the pure but ineffectual brother Gabriel. We have to choose between purity and responsibility, as Alistair MacIntyre once said.
Motifs
As someone brought up in the Christian culture I see rich Christian images and themes here. The willing sacrifices of Sky and Snow as they trust themselves to Nameless's sword strike; Snow and Broken Sword doing what they can to spare their beloved the risk of dying in combat with Nameless; Broken Sword dropping his Sword and dying to save Snow from the hatred and revenge that rule her heart. All of these have Christian echoes, and I am also reminded of the pieta as Snow cradles her saviour's body in her arms. The courtiers demand the death of one man for the sake of the people, as the Pharisees and crowd demand the death of Jesus in the gospels under another sacred law. The empty space where Nameless died can be seen as an empty tomb, and his fate, to be executed as a criminal but then revered as a hero, can be compared to that of Jesus. Above all is the vision of the costly peace, a vision embraced at last by the heroes, a peace that can only be made real in a new Kingdom. This is a peace worth dying for. If the Kingdom of God can be seen as a Kingdom of values, then it is worth asking what values these heroes are pursuing. I also warm to a film in which the plot is driven by character. It maybe that there is something profoundly incarnational here, an honouring of motive and autonomy, a determination that our lives and spiritual identity should not be shaped by the stars, accident or intervention, and should not be reactive, but proactive. This is so rare in the movies that it may confuse those who are accustomed to looking for plot rather than character driven action and denouement.
There are a few moments in the film when the protagonists appear to find serenity and peace, and are beatified by them. When Sky rushes Nameless in the opening duel; when Snow wounds Broken Sword to prevent him duelling Nameless and looks back at him for what may be the last time; when Broken Sword drops his sword during their final confrontation, knowing that Snow's blow will kill him; and possibly when the King turns his back on Nameless to contemplate the calligraphy - and possibly his death; and when Nameless faces the massed arrows of the King's guard in the moment before he dies. Each of them has come to terms with their own death, offered up for the sake of what they believe, or a person they love.
This self-emptying is identified as a characteristic action of Christ by Paul and named kenosis in Philippians 2:7 '(Christ) emptied himself, taking the form of a slave,' stripping himself, even to his death on the cross. If we want to stay with New Testament Greek words, choosing them because of the added layers of meaning provided by their scriptural use and context, we could say that each of these heroes became Kalos, (beautiful/good) undergoing metanoia, (transformation or turning to a new path) in a moment of Krisis (judgement). Their aphesis (radical letting go) led to their anastasis (rising up, standing up, resurrection).
Hero is profoundly subversive of the kung fu, wuxia martial arts and Western cowboy genres, in-so-far as they are all driven by the search for honourable vengeance. Broken Sword's enlightenment, presented as his ultimate spiritual maturity as a swordsman, calligrapher and human being, is manifested by his renunciation of vengeance, no matter what that implies about his loss of honour, or life. Nameless also accepts this renunciation of vengeance and violence; and does so by listening not only to his ally, Broken Sword, but also to his enemy, the King of Qui. This is shocking and counter-cultural in the East, so it may not be surprising that Hero has not received a warm reception in China itself. But even Western critics have warmed to the cinematography and performances rather than to the theme. Zhang Yimou may have lost some audiences by pursuing this line. Broken Sword has to lose his own life in order to convince his beloved that he is serious.
Christian and human Virtues
Hero is not a thesis, it is a film about people, about love and responsibly, jealousy and betrayal, about truthfulness and integrity, human failure and human triumph. It is also very beautiful. I am happy to apply Keat's judgment that beauty is truth, truth beauty. This film is often suffused with beauty, sometimes a terrible tragic beauty. And so is life. St Paul called on believers to look for, recognise and celebrate the things of God in the world, wherever we find them. As St Paul said (in Eugene Peterson's translation of the passage known as the virtues in Philippians Chapter 4) we will 'do best by filling our minds and meditating on things true, noble, reputable, authentic, compelling, gracious - the best, not the worst; the beautiful, not the ugly; things to praise, not things to curse.'
The more I see Hero the more I am moved by its virtues and inspired to praise it.
