Hero is a Chinese martial arts film directed by Zhang Yimou, starring Jet Li. The film is about a group of assassins Broken Sword, Sky, Flying Snow and Namelss, who are all on a mission to kill the King of Qin. The movie narrates the story through a series of flashbacks that occurs during Nameless’ conversation with the king. Nameless claims to have kings the three assassins most feared by the King of Qin. The king invites Nameless to his palace to collect his rewards and brief the king of how he killed these three assassins.

Nameless begins his story by giving the king his background. He claims to be a citizen on Qin who was orphaned at a young age and trained to be a swordsman. Nameless approaches his first victim, Sky in a Weiqi parlor where they dueled. Nameless defeats Sky in front of Qin soldiers. Nameless then pursues his next victims Flying Snow and Broken Sword. He learns that they have taken refuge at a calligraphy school in the Zhao province. Nameless tells the King of Qin that used Sky and Flying Snow’s affair to drive her apart from Broken Sword. He claims that Flying Snow killed Broken Sword, which made it easier for him to defeat Flying Snow.
As the film progressed Nameless is allowed to move closer to the king in terms of distance. After the king hears his encounter with Sky he allows him to come within 20 paces and the 10 paces after he hears Nameless’ defeat of Broken Sword and Flying Snow. However, after Nameless completed his accounts of what happened the king realizes that he has been tricked. He then proceeds to tell Nameless what he thinks actually happened. The king claims that Nameless is the most feared assassin of all and that his plan to kill the king by getting within 10 paces of him. Nameless agrees with the king that he is there to kill the king. However, he corrects the king by proceeding to tell the king what actually happened.

Nameless, originally a citizen of Zhao had his family killed by Qin soldiers. He vowed to avenge his family’s death by assassinating the king. He meets with Sky, Flying Snow and Broken Sword to make a deal with them. Nameless asks them to fight him and pretend to loose so that he can get within 10 paces of the King of Qin. Broken Sword is the only one that does not want to assassinate the king and he refuses to give his reason. He meets Nameless privately and attempts to convince him to abandon his mission. His reason in signified in three words that he draws in the sand – “All under heaven”. Broken Sword claims that the only way to stop the suffering and war in China is to unite all the kingdoms under one and only the King of Qin will be able to achieve it. Nameless chooses to follow through with his mission, but chooses not to kill the king at the very last moment. The Qin soldiers bury him in a cloud of arrows. Flying Snow learns that the king is still alive and confronts Broken Sword of what he told Nameless. Broken Sword tells her the three words. Outraged she battles Broken Sword and he deliberately falls to her sword. Depressed at the loss of her loved one she kills herself with the same sword.

This movie was directed in a very unique fashion which added an extra touch to it. I thoroughly enjoyed this movie from beginning to end. The story was rooted in Chinese history and was rich with Chinese culture and beliefs. The background music and sound effects complimented the amazing action sequences. Also, the vibrant colors present throughout the movie, especially the action sequences added a lot to its oriental heritage. The director’s clever use of camera angles, background music, beautiful setting, sound effects and vibrant colors added an extra dimension to the movie, especially the action sequences. The plot is rich as it is based on history and is significant to China’s unification.

Arun Duraiswamy