heroWent to see Hero the other day. It's a fantastic movie. Very Crouching Tiger. Kick ass fight sequences (the first one is my favourite, really). Getting towards the end, though, my ears pricked up and I started paying more attention to what was going on than the wonderful colours, the nifty narrative structure and cool-ass sword fights. Warning: This is going to get spoilerish. Stop reading now if you're very concerned about that sort of thing. The movie is based on an historical event, and you're kind of expected to know the story going into it (if you're Chinese, anyway), but people do get fussy about this, so I'd better cover my behind lest someone get mad at me. Go see the movie and come back and finish reading this if you have to. It's worth it. Really. The nameless protagonist of the story is brought before the (historical) King of Qin, soon to be the first Emperor of China. Having killed three assassins who have bedevilled the king for years, he is richly rewarded and permitted to sit within ten paces of the king. (None of that's a spoiler; it's revealed within the first few minutes. This bit is, though: ) Nameless is not, however, the loyal servant of Qin he claims to be. He is instead an orphaned child of Zhao, a kingdom which Qin had crushed (or was in the process of crushing). Nameless had come to exact revenge, and assassinate the king. The technique he had mastered over ten years could not fail within ten paces. The king reasons all of this out as Nameless is telling his story. So then they discuss what is to be done. The king is a tyrant, but his aim is to unify all of China under his rule, ending the perpetual wars and bringing about a new and prosperous age. We know that that's exactly what he will do, but Nameless doesn't. He is faced with a choice: kill the king and claim his revenge, or accept the king's vision and let him live to continue his conquest. He chooses the latter. This isn't exactly what you'd expect if you've grown up watching Hollywood movies. Of course he can't kill the first Emperor of China before he becomes emperor. That would fly in the face of history (not that that would stop Hollywood, but that's besides the point). If you're a part of the (present-day) Chinese central government, this also makes perfect sense and is the correct thing to do. Individual aspirations or regional affiliations are secondary. There is only one China, and all the Chinese people belong under one flag. When the tanks are rolling down the street, it's your duty to let them pass. Rogue provinces like Taiwan are merely deluded into thinking they have autonomy. One day they will see the light and willingly return to the fold. In seeing the light and refusing to kill the emperor, Nameless declares his allegiance to the unified Chinese empire and is a national hero. For a Westerner watching the movie, this isn't quite so clear-cut. Well, not for me, anyway. Part of me is going of course he should kill the tyrant. A tyrant is a tyrant. He'll murder untold thousands. He'll burn the history books (and the historians) to wipe the slate clean. He's not a very nice man. He's a megalomaniac. He really should be stopped. History be damned. On the other hand, I kind of agree with him. The wars aren't going to stop if he dies. People are still going to be killed. You don't need the perspective of history to see that. It be really nice if he'd organize some sort of trade pact and mutual non-aggression treaty with his neighbours, set up a parliament with representatives from each of the states and held general elections, but that's just not how people did things back then. Nameless was seeking revenge for his lost family and country. Sure, it seems just and everything, but is that really the best thing to do? An eye for an eye leaves the whole world blind, somebody once said. So, while it was a fantastic movie, the ending did leave me a bit... torn. As a result, I can't recommend it highly enough. It got me thinking about this stuff. You don't really expect that out of a wire fu action movie. comments:
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