A tainted HERO

Zhang Yimou’s Hero languished on a shelf at Miramax for a couple of years before it finally reached American theaters last week. It may be the most visually stunning martial-arts movie I’ve ever seen — and that includes the generally overrated Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.

Hero is set in the Third Century, when China was fractured into warring kingdoms. The king of the Qin empire is trying to unite them all under one flag in the name of “peace.” Of course, this entails conquest and millions of gallons of spilled blood. For that reason, assassins have been harassing the king for many years. This film is the story of three of them, and the story of the nameless Hero who “does the right thing.” Unfortunately, the Right Thing is based on an appalling bit of Marxist/Vulcan claptrap (“The few must sacrifice for the many”) and nationalistic gibberish (“Above all, the Land”). It sounds like the current Bush Doctrine.

Regardless, you probably won’t see a more beautifully choreographed and filmed movie this year. The scenery is breathtaking. The fights are fierce but balletic. One clash in the rain between Nameless (played by Jet Li) and Long Sky (Donnie Yen) is a pulse-pounding killer that I’ll return to again and again on DVD for years to come; its power is underscored by a brilliant, unforgettable musical accompaniment. In another scene, Falling Snow (Maggie Cheung) and Moon (Zhang Ziyi) battle it out in a forest filled with windswept autumn leaves that gradually turn from gold to blood red as the fight climaxes. And the BIG battles, which include literal clouds of arrows descending on hapless victims, are spectacular and exciting.

But alas, bad politics taints an otherwise wonderful movie. So...TWO cheers for Hero, at least from this anarchist.