The Chinese Wuxia Film:Hero (2002)
By admin on 2015-01-06

Hero (Chinese: 英雄) is a 2002 Chinese wuxia film, directed by Zhang Yimou with music by Tan Dun. Starring Jet Li as the nameless protagonist, the movie is loosely based on the legendary Jing Ke.

A group of assassins: Flying Snow (飞雪) (Maggie Cheung), Broken Sword (残剑) (Tony Leung Chiu-Wai), and Long Sky (长空) (Donnie Yen), have sworn to kill the King of Qin (秦王) (Chen Daoming), and Nameless (无名) (Jet Li) comes to the royal capital to claim the reward offered for their defeat. The movie tells the story of his conversation with the King of Qin, and through a series of flashbacks depicts the journey he took to save the country from collapse. Zhang Ziyi stars as Broken Sword's servant Moon (如月).

Hero was first released in China on October 24, 2002. At that time, it was both the most expensive and the highest-grossing motion picture in Chinese film history. Miramax Films owned the American market distribution rights, but delayed the release of the film for nearly two years. It was finally presented by Quentin Tarantino to American theaters on August 27, 2004.