There’s a lot of work that goes into producing a good action movie. Fight scenes, car chases, shootouts, and pretty much every type of scene known to man require extensive planning and rehearsal time. A director also needs to know how to block, shoot, and cut together an action sequence if they want to make sure each sequence has maximum impact. Action movies have been around longer than talkies, of course, and directors have worked tirelessly over the last 100 years to find new ways to outdo their predecessors and continue to delight audiences. But in all that time, very few action films have ever reached the same level of technical and aesthetic brilliance as hero.
The 2004 film, which hit U.S. theaters 20 years ago this week, is one of the most astonishing exercises in cinematic style ever attempted by a filmmaker. Directed by Zhang Yimou. hero is essentially a collection of vibrant, monochrome martial arts sequences, all executed to the highest standard. Featuring a cast of some of China’s most talented and popular film stars, it is a symphony of movement and cuts that flow seamlessly into one another. How Tiger and Dragon before, hero invites viewers into a world where warriors who can literally become forces of nature are still ruled by the basest emotions, be it anger or grief. The result is a film that is elegant yet blunt, musical yet discordant – a ballet that strikes with the force of a thousand clenched fists.
Hero plays the biggest hits of Asian cinema
Based on true historical events, hero is set during the Warring States period, when China was made up of seven separate kingdoms. It follows Nameless (Jet Li), a master swordsman who is granted a rare audience with the King of Qin (Chen Daoming). The King is about to lead an ongoing campaign to become the first emperor of a fully unified China. When he arrives, Nameless tells the King of Qin that he personally defeated and killed Broken Sword (Shang Chi Star Tony Leung), Flying Snow (In the mood for love Star Maggie Cheung) and Long Sky (John Wick: Chapter 4 Star Donnie Yen), three warriors who had previously tried to assassinate him. The King of Qin, however, is not immediately convinced.
From there hero Not only does Nameless’s account of the events that paved the way to his royal audience, but also the King of Qin’s presumed version of the same story, as well as the actual truth of the matter, which turns out to be a mixture of both narrators’ perspectives. His story is told simply, if unconventionally. But the film’s five chapters are not only separated by their different narrative purposes. Yimou and legendary cinematographer Christopher Doyle also visually separate hero‘s five sections through the use of striking monochromatic color schemes. Both Nameless’ meeting with the King of Qin and his rain-soaked duel with Yen’s Long Sky, for example, rely primarily on dark blacks and grays, while one version of Nameless’ confrontations with Leung’s Broken Sword and Cheung’s Flying Snow takes place in a world of fiery reds, oranges, and yellows. Another takes place in a sadder and therefore largely blue version of reality.
This is a simple stylistic decision that nevertheless enhances hero above most action films. It turns out to be a thriller with a distinct, maximalist look that never fails to set your senses on fire thanks to its shifting color schemes. While it gives both Yimou and Doyle ample opportunity to show off, the film’s intentionally evolving color palette isn’t just a stylistic choice. The film’s predominantly red section in particular is one in which Broken Sword and Flying Snow are both ruled by feelings of betrayal, jealousy, and heartbreak, while the white and green sections portray them more as warriors who are instead defined by their love, determination, sense of unity, and spiritual and political desires. The film’s decision to color-code its chapters is further supported and reinforced by its subject matter. It makes genius sense, after all, in a way, that a retelling of the history of Chinese unification itself is a film made up of such distinctly different parts.
Hero has some of the best action choreography ever filmed
As impressive as the lighting and color scheme is, hero wouldn’t hold the place it does in action film history if it wasn’t such a pulse-pounding, thrilling martial arts film. Each of its scenes, be it the breathtaking duel between Nameless and Long Sky in the first act or the fight between Broken Sword and Nameless on the surface of a calm lake, is exquisitely composed and edited. Yimou lets sections of certain duels play out in long, unbroken wide shots that let the viewer take in all the beauty of the film. hero‘s action choreography. He saves his cuts for close-ups that emphasize either the power of certain blows or the impact of the film’s fights on nature itself. For example, check out the shots of green banners rippling and falling that repeatedly interrupt one showdown, or the fade-ins of Leung and Li’s hands splashing against water that appear during another showdown. (Not to mention heros greatest and most memorable stylistic change, in which the death of a character is marked by the sudden discoloration of the falling leaves from yellow to blood red.)
heroThe fight scenes of are fluid yet destructive. The characters are warriors who can use the elemental powers of nature. They can float on the wind and create tornadoes of leaves that hurl their enemies through the air. The fact that they use their abilities to cause damage gives hero a chance to find the same rich, seductive balance between beauty and devastation that is at the heart of every great action film. It is a musical of violence – a series of highly choreographed, highly stylized dances, accompanied by the operatic, incessant beating of war drums. There are even moments, like the two dueling close-ups that come in quick succession as Leung and Daoming’s characters fly through the air toward each other in one scene, where hero feels like the best live-action anime film ever made.
The film still surprises even after all these years
It is difficult to capture the power of a great film with just words and images, and this is especially true for hero. It’s a film to watch and admire – one that never fails to blow you away and recharge you at the same time. With the help of his actors and behind-the-scenes collaborators, Yimou managed to raise the bar and show how filmmakers can really use color, editing, blocking and choreography to deliver action sequences that exceed all expectations and take your breath away. Not many other action films, if any, could match that. hero‘s brilliance over the past 20 years, and it seems unlikely that it will any time soon. It’s a feat of jaw-dropping scale and precision – an epic that will drive and crush you into submission. All you can do is gasp and applaud.
hero is currently streaming for free on Pluto TV.
