Heart Hero Film
The Heart of Hero
I want to discuss Zhang Yimou's film Hero. Many critics have ridiculed to film to represent support of fascism and dictatorship. But there any many elements of the film that show this type of criticism is not accurate. The film can be seen, at its heart, as one that is ultimately about peace. I personally believe that this is the purpose of the film and want to show how I came to this justification.
One might look at the fight scenes of the movie and see them as depictions of violence and warfare. When I watch them, they seem to be done in too slow and choreographed manner (which later plays into the film and will be discussed) for me to believe these are made for violence. They seem, to me, to be more like dances, wonderful ballets, than that of swift, stupendous swordsmanship and martial arts. This is a suggestion of peace with in the film, since many do not associate dance with violence, but rather with storytelling. Watching ballets usually brings about a feeling of enjoyment or peace about the audience, an art of sort for entertainment, not gore. As for the choreography of the fights, as I mentioned earlier, plays into the movie where the Nameless Hero has supposedly killed all the adversaries, or assassins, of the emperor. In fact, he has not killed a single one of them. He has only staged fights with each and been given the weapons of these assassins, by the assassins themselves. These in themselves are acts of peace in that he did not want to really kill any of them. The last fight sequence, between Broken Sword and Flying Snow, is another example. There fight seems to be real, but Flying Snow becomes saddened and pleads, “Why didn't you block my sword?” This shows that she may not have had the intent of killing him, another symbol of peace. But the fact that Broken Sword didn't block and drops his own sword, is in itself, an act of peace, no longer wanting to fight. These fight scenes are just some of the evidence that can be pulled from the film.
The last minutes of the film hold many elements that suggest peaceful actions, or peaceful connotations, and I will discuss them all here. When the emperor is looking at Broken Sword's scroll, he determines that it is not a display of his swordsmanship, but of Broken Sword's ideals with the sword. It is explained in three stages, and in the final stage the desire to kill no longer exist, only peace. This shows proof of peace being an ideal of the film. The colors of the clothes that Broken Sword and Flying Snow are wearing at the end are white. White clothing in Chinese culture is a symbol of mourning death. Isn't mourning a symbol of peace? Would anyone actually mourn the death of someone they wanted to be killed, or tried to kill themselves? Broken Sword himself doesn't want the emperor to be killed, so of course he would wear white to mourn the emperor death, and the fact that “Our Land” will not exist. But why is Flying Snow wearing white? Perhaps to foreshadow her killing Broken Sword followed by her mourning of his death. But the biggest example of peace is in that the Nameless Hero does not kill the emperor, yet considers his mission accomplished. He sees that China will be better and less lives will be lost if he lets the emperor live. Nameless understand the principle behind Broken Sword's “Our Land” and is put in the final stage of sword ideals, at peace, as the emperor pointed out earlier. There is an old martial arts saying in China that states the best fighter in China will fight for the country and for the people, which is exactly what the Nameless Hero did. This leads into the next peaceful action of the film. Though the Nameless Hero is executed, he is buried like a hero, a deep suggestion of peace. The emperor not only sees him as a hero because Nameless did not kill him, but because Nameless instilled in him the strength and understanding to unify China and stop all the warfare between the different states of the country. The Nameless Hero wanted China to be at peace and unity, another clue in the film that proves my meaning of the film.
Once again, I believe many critics got it wrong with what they believed this film was about. Also, anyone who sees the movie as violent isn't truly watching and understanding the meaning behind the scenes of the film. This is a film full of peaceful undertones, and deeper meanings than what is just seen on the surface. Search the heart and soul of all the main characters of the film and the heart of the movie will be revealed, a heart full of peace.
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