Hero

My favorite part of the plot was the clever story that Nameless came up with to try and deceive the King of Qin. The film is pretty clear and easy to follow. We know that there are a group of assassins that have sworn to kill the King of Qin. It scares him so much that the King offers a great reward for their defeat so that he can be at peace again. The King is very impressed when Nameless displays the weapons of the assassins and claims to have killed each of them. The film begins to go into scenes of flashbacks as Nameless tells his story.

The first assassin killed went by the name of Long Sky. Nameless challenges Sky to a duel and wins. He takes his spear and then travels to Zhao, which is considered to be the enemy city. He walks into a calligraphy school intending to find Flying Snow and Broken Sword. These two were assassins, and lovers. This is where I became really interested in the film. I like action, but the type of film that can really draw my attention is a good drama. Nameless proceeds to inform Snow and Sword of Sky’s death. Nameless also claims that Sky had a dying wish for Snow, which was to avenge him. Sky and Snow had a one night affair that deeply hurt Sword. In attempt to gain revenge on Snow, Sword purposely has sexual affairs with one of his students, Moon, in front of Snow for her to see. I think this is pretty classic in movies, yet always seems to hook the audience. Nameless tells the King that Snow was so angered that she killed Sword. At this point he has 2 assassins down, 1 to go. Nameless had Snow exactly where he wanted her because when they battled, she was so emotional and shook up, just as he suspected, he won. Snow was the last and final assassin to die.

I appreciated the lack of blood and intense fighting scenes that a lot of martial arts films have. I liked there was a romance involved and I liked Nameless’s tale of an affair brought out of secret, revenge, pain, and death. It really proved to me that not only are these actors and this actress extremely physically fit and masters of martial arts, they are also very capable of expressing and portraying great emotion, which was really nice to watch in the film.

I also think that the producer did a really good job with all the special effects, imagery, and music. The battle scenes in Hero are different from many other films. Not only does the film focus on the fight, it focuses deeply on the surroundings. For example; a drop of rain, or vividly colored autumn leaves blowing in the wind. I love how we are able to see the pure technique of the actors when the battle is in slow motion. The music chosen for the film put a really good touch on it. Drums are used to really make us build up anticipation and the nice smooth sound of violins being played really made me feel the characters different times of sorrow.