I just saw Hero tonight. Didn’t realize it came out a month ago, so I missed the first thread :smack:
But I have a couple questions anyway:
What’s the deal with all the “wire-fu” fight scenes? I noticed this in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon as well. Is there some legendary mysticism associated with Chinese martial arts that would account for those kinds of abilities (walking on water, levitation, “flying”)??
I find myself wondering if there was some cultural (or other) significance to the color changes in Snow’s and Half Sword’s costumes – red to blue to green to white – that would be obvious to Chinese viewers but not so readily apparent to Western viewers…?
Can we all agree that Zhang Ziyi is really really hot?
What’s the deal with all the “wire-fu” fight scenes? I noticed this in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon as well. Is there some legendary mysticism associated with Chinese martial arts that would account for those kinds of abilities (walking on water, levitation, “flying”)??
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I can’t comment on the second question as I haven’t seen the movie yet, but the answer to this question is that movies like Hero and CTHD are based on a litterary genre known as Wuxia. Those are very popular, both in the sense that many people read them and in the sense that they’re aimed at a broad audience.
Wuxia novels dig abundantly in Chinese lore and legends where flying people and the like abound.
Think of it that way: no one says “Superman was cool but what’s the deal with flying people”. A movie like Hero (from what I can tell by the previews) is pure fantasy and its heroes are probably best thought of as super-heroes.
There was an article in the NY Times Magazine a couple months back by the director on why he chose the colors he did. I forget the exact reasons, but they seemed more personal than cultural. I think he had avoided red in his previous movies because it carried too many cultural implications for the Chinese. For Hero, he changed from his usual film brand to another (it was either from Fuji to Kodak or vice versa) to get a more saturated red.
#2 next - The colors symbolize the veracity of the tale being told. Red for fabrication, Blue for perceived reality, white for Truth. The green supposedly stands for ‘enlightenment.’ - Referring to Broken Sword’s realization, probably.
#1 - Ah, yes. As others have noted, the moves are typical of the Asian ‘wuxia’ films. The ‘mystic’ explanation, as I understand it, is a mastery of ‘chi’ (‘Qi’) - an energy thought of as life-essence. Chi-powers have been used in a variety of ways in a variety of movies and TV shows - for extreme examples, see Dragonball Z. In this case, however, superhuman speed and leaping are fairly tame examples, along with superhuman ‘balancing’ ability - namely, the martial artists have such fine body control and chi manipulation that they, while unable to fly, can use any surface as if it were a solid floor.
It seemed to me that the number of colors squared up with the number of warring states, but I didn’t check this very carefully since I thought of this halfway through the movie.
The silver portion of the movie when the unnamed character is battling Sky represents history. The event in question actually happened, and lays down the foundation for the story.
The red portion is the unnamed characters initial story to the Emperor. Red is the colour of passion, rage and blinding emotion, hence the sex, the murder of Broken Sword, and Flying Snow’s inability to concentrate in battle.
The blue portion is the Emperor’s version of what actually happened. Blue is sad, but is at the same time calm, and sees the big picture. In the blue scenario, Sky, Broken Sword and Flying Snow agree to sacrifice themselves for the greater good. Broken Sword isn’t killed in battle however, since Flying Snow prevents him from joining in order to spare his life. Broken Sword cannot bear to be without her, so he battles the unnamed character at the lake so that he may die at his hands and join Flying Snow in the great beyond.
Green is the colour of youth. It shows Flying Snow and Broken Sword as they used to be, and gives greater insight into who they are and why they do what they do.
White represents truth, and gives the correct interpretation to events.
Black is tragic, final and sombre. Despite the Emperor’s respect for the unnamed assassin, he has him executed since he represents a threat to the unity of China.
The actual sequence is therefore
Green
Silver
White (coloured by interpretations of events in Red and Blue)
Black
You’ve already gotten good responses about wuxia, but if you’re interested in a detailed survey, I go into some of the history of the genre as it was handled in film in my review of Crouching Tiger. Long, but I’ve gotten some compliments on it, so I’m offering it up.
