I caught "Hero" last night

- 2 minutes read - 222 words

Beautiful colors.

Chinese

Beautiful colors.

Wire team action

Beautiful colors.

Beautiful Zhang Ziyi.

Beautiful colors.

Meditative.

So many lovely colors and such lovely cinematography.

Two Words

[Addendum: 8/30/04]

POSSIBLE SPOILER WARNING - DO NOT READ FUTHER if you want an unspoiled viewing. Scroll down for more.

I was compelled to think about this movie as a Synic interpretation of Sophocles’ Antigone in the sense of the development of a state over a city state (tribal law).

In “Hero” we see the six kingdoms (Greek Equivalent: Area about the polis or city-state) which are undergoing internecine battles as the King of Qin strikes to unify them under a common rule.

Similarly in Antigone we find Creon trying to establish the law of the state (“Polyneices’ body shall not be buried”) conflicting with tribal law and alliances (Antigone must bury her brother).

I find the decision at the end of the King to execute Nameless similar. Nameless is ushering in a new era, the resignation of the tribal moral system to the state’s (Emperor’s) moral system.

While I find the claim that any tribal representative would willingly accede his power “for the good of the people” highly dubious, we must remember that this is the product of a Communist regime where lip-service, at the very least, must be given to such a party ideology.