Hero

[elfs]

Sunday night, since tygereclipse was about, Omaha and I chose on the spur of the moment to go see a movie. After pulling up Rotten Tomatoes to get movie times (and I recommend Rotten Tomatoes over Movielink or Fandango) and reviews, and based on fallenpegasus's praise, we decided to go see Hero.

The previews and commercials for Hero suck. There's no other way to put it. The promoters want you to go based on it being a Jet Li film "like Black Mask" or "a wire-work marital arts film "like Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon". Yes, it's a wuxia film, but it's not either of those. Hero is a heavy movie. It is essentially a dialogue between two people, only one of whom we really know at the beginning of the film, and each tells the other "what happened" (very Rashomon), or what he thinks happened, leading up to the final crisis, which is between the two. But the four characters involved go through emotional upheavals and contortions that leave the watcher feeling battered; it's such a movingly effective film. And the martial arts sequences are pretty damn good. I'm completely sure that I missed the point of the filmmaker's use of color; each battle is backgrounded with a different color-- desert grey, autumn leaf gold, aboreal green, battle red. There's a little CGI silliness that can safely be ignored. Jet Li's not very interesting as an actor, but that's okay; he's completely overshadowed by Tony Leung Chiu Wai, who really takes this film where it should go.

All in all, a very satisfying movie. Visually stunning, and much better written than the previews hint.

Comments

Re: Hero's political message

[caprinus.livejournal.com]

Do you think that's particularly Communist agit-prop, though? It would seem to me that the love affair with the Empire and strong central authority is as timelessly Chinese as apple pie ...um... is American... yeah.

Re: Hero's political message

[elfs.livejournal.com]

I think in this case it is CCP agit-prop. I refuse to refer to them as "Communist"; they aren't, they're a mature facist state. Communism is accompanied by a refutation of the past, but the CCP doesn't do that; instead, like facism, it mines the past and presents a history that makes their ascencion and autarky seem fait accompli. Neither the state nor private industry are withering away; instead, they're basically in each other's pockets to the detriment of the common people.

And yes, Hero would never have been made if it hadn't appealed to the CCP's sensibilities.

Re: Hero's political message

[caprinus.livejournal.com]

I fully agree with you on the paucity of useful information attendant the usage of the word "Communist" in referring to China; I meant it as a purely referential label for the ruling (fascist) Chinese party which just happens to call itself Communist, not a suggestion the movie was a product of "communism" as a conceptual entity based on the writings of Marx and Engles. That discussion more properly belongs to Dziga Vertov :). Apologies for that confusion :)

But my point was, Mr. Anonymous saw Hero as a piece of propaganda made tacitly or explicitly to pander to the Party's central authority, a blatant excuse for its ambitions. Mind you, I have not yet seen the movie; but I was born and raised in the equally pseudo-communist Poland, and I have a keen sense of the ways in which culture can be co-opted as agit-prop, and I would like to think that blatant PRC propaganda would not be embraced by Western viewers with as little fuss as I have seen. For one, I don't think I have ever seen a piece of "blatant propaganda" which has not been in some ways heavy-handed and low-brow, failing as a piece of art. So instead of supposing a sinister authorship behind the movie's story, I am suggesting an alternative explanation: the movie, while useful to the Party's aims, is structured on age-old Chinese cultural principles which have nothing to do with the current political climate. The story as I have heard it told in reviews is in every way the narrative of Confucian obedience to central authority, and an appeal to the age-less and ideal Middle Kingdom as a unified bureaucratic power and conqueror of barbarian and rebellious peripheries. I guess what I am trying to say is, if the revolution had never happened, and today's China was still under the rule of a hereditary imperial, the exact same movie could and would have been made, and the faceless bureaucrats nodding with approval would still be able to enjoy the movie with no direct control over the script or direction of the movie. This might very well be a completely unforced artistic endeavour. No Party puppeteers need have been pulling its strings.

Do you agree with that, as restated? I hope to see the movie this weekend. But if I am told I am rewarding a political product, instead of an independent artistic creation, I'll save my money and wait for a pirated copy.