Hero: The Book

I watched off and on some of the epic Chinese film Hero today. Mainly because since it is in mandarin, I would like to have my dad watch the entire movie with Chinese sub-titles first before watching for my selfish self in english sub-titles.

Well to really start out with, I didn't have any expectations of this movie, I haven't even seen the trailer. I knew that it was epic size proportions, and it starred Jet-Li, Donnie Yen and Ziang Ziyi, a five course meal of China's finest actors and actresses in martial art films. I also had the wonderful criticism of many people on the net saying that it wasn't too good. However what was said in defense of the movie is what had un-conciously set my disposition of what I think of this movie:

This movie is not geared towards Western audiences, but more towards Chinese audiences.

To tell the truth, it was only after I saw a bit of the movie that I understood the meaning of that defense and it rings very true. The fact is, it isn't geared towards Western audiences. If Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon was the new age rock and roll example of a great martial art film, then Hero is the old school rock and roll example of a great.......ok bad metaphors.

The fact of the matter is, I am tempted to say that this movie is art, and even rivals in tenacity and pretenciousness of most Oscar worthy films but to tell the truth, after hearing said "comment" above it had created a mindset for me that grew into my final comment that summarizes the feeling that this movie envokes:

Hero is the movie that you would see if you were to see a reading of a literary work be made into a film.

No seriously, stop laughing. This would be as close as anyone would be to watching a book reading experience come to life. What do I mean by this? I mean that the actual experience of reading a book is suddenly direct feeded onto the screen from someone's imagination. This isn't a perfect recreation of any literary work but it's definatly no slouch. Basically, Hero is a book first then a movie. This is what Harry Potter: The Chamber of Secrets could have really been but lacked the consideration of a book reading experience.

Whereas Lord of the Rings was a movie first, then a film adaption, Hero is the exact opposite.

But first I have to explain how I came to this conclusion. It really first started out with the whole comment about this movie not being for American audiences. I worked upon that, steeling myself for something very traditionally Chinese. What exactly would that be? The only movie that has sort of the same style of direction would the The Emperor and the Assassin. This film was done very cleanly and very epicly, but I can't really describe anymore since I only saw ten minutes of it.

Well back to what I was saying. I could totally see why it would not appeal to Western audiences. The movie has a lot of straight on shots, much like portraits. That's one thing that really made me think about how Chinese culturally movtivated this film might be since it really emulates the traditional Chinese paintings of the past. Times where people's faces were all clearly shown in the same manner, always able to cleary see the entirety of their face despite their body positon. Also the whole idea of how paintings (as with Japanese paintings as well) had people positioned where they were floating in the air, but it was merely the lack of proper prespective.

The other thing is when the fight scenes appear. To tell the truth, it is magical not in the technical aspect of the fight scenes, (nothing truly eye blistering fast) but more of grace of a dance. That too adds to how this is more of a Chinese film than a film geared towards the Western culture, not because it's slow, but it's so very descriptive of the martial art scene that my grandmother once described. This lead me to my actual final conclusion of this film being a film of the reading experience.

It's the fight scenes.

For me, reading is purely based on imagination. Of course depending on how greatly immersive one's imagination is. The thing is, I would imagine mine is just like any others, I can't really see what it is I'm imagining, but it's more of this haze that blocks my mind. It's hard to describe, but the best way I can describe it is that for me, without sight, my imaginary objects seems very half-complete. As of now I can't really produce what I imagine in any form of medium, especially that of film, because those seem to be totally seperate entities, almost never to become together. Whereas film produces something into reality with logical sense, imagination is the un-reality with illogical sense.

Hero brings both of these worlds together. How? Ok like the first fight scene, it's slow, it's precise and there are a lot of single shots of single actions. Even at the same time there is music that fits the movie, but not the mood or even the scene. The fact of the matter is it is exactly what your imagination would do when you read a book.

You can understand this because that is how reading a book is. Delayed reactions towards actions that you are just reading about, much like how your mind pieces each and every scene without the small details of what else is going on, but just the details that count. It's like how your mind would jump back and forth without logic but it's own in actions imaiging this is how it would end up, and every word that describe the most minute detail is also shown in the film, not as an addition or support to the already large scene, but as a scene itself to be totally enjoyed and taken in.

The music is very Chinese operatic, but like most books (save Scud the Disposable Assassin) there are no soundtracks included. If they were, they would obviously not coincide editingly precise. But it is neat to a degree that it would be something that a different person than you would listen to. It's like the music you let become ambient sound in the background as you read which once again fits the film, but not necessarily the scene or the mood.

Hero is a book first and movie second. Remember that and you shall enjoy this film to tears.