Hero Analysis

Hero (2002)

Written and Directed by: Zhang Yimou
Starring: Tony Leung, Maggie Cheung
Cinematography: Christopher Doyle
Most expensive film made in China till date back then.

It's a wuxia, martial arts film with a strong touch of Rashomon - the unreliable narrator. It's a war film, set in ancient China. It is shot in different segments, with different color palettes each. This film should be a masterclass in using color palettes. When they use red, they don't shoot it normally and increase the saturation of red in the DI - which is what they did in A1 Express - which is why it looked so bad. In this film, when they use red color predominantly - they use red costumes, and production design mainly, red lipstick, blood and the skin tone has a little bit of yellow and green to bring in a nice contrast. Same with blue, it's mainly created through costumes and mostly the blue is in the out of focus backgrounds. The pre-climax fight scene with the green curtains - it was a brilliant idea - it was such a cinematic scene with such a simple idea of swaying curtains around. Finally, when all the curtains fall down - it was such a visual way of showing that he has defeated the king, it's almost like he's undressed him. 

The action felt unrealistic, but I think all the wuxia films shot back then were like this - so I made peace with it midway. Because the rope stunts were clearly evident. But, the action like the arrows being tackled and the production design with hundreds (maybe thousands) of extras made it look like an extravagant saga. The film is shot by Christopher Dolye - the DoP of In The Mood for Love - and we can see his touch - wherever we see shots of raindrops in the beginning where they describe the fight, and the frame within a frame - where we see some people with an obstruction in front of them, and the usage of slow motion. The music elevated the drama so much, especially the slow motion sequences - the scenes are so high on drama already and the music takes them a notch higher.