hero
DESCRIPTION
TRANSCRIPT
HERO
Nanzhu JiRobbie Maloney
Yuhan LiuThomas Grant
Overview
•Chinese film industry
•Asian Global blockbuster
•The Hero
•Structure and colour
•Political and Critical Interpretation
Chinese film industry
• China is the fastest-growing movie market in
the world.
• In 2010, China’s film industry produced more
than 520 films.
• In 2012, China produced 893 feature films.
Film receiptsYear RMB
2003 1 billion
2007 3.3 billion
2008 4.3 billion
2009 6.2 billion
2010 10.1 billion
2011 13.1 billion
2012 17.07 billion
Chinese films abroadCrouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
Main casts
Jet Li Maggie Cheung
Main casts
Tony Leung Ziyi Zhang
The Global Film Industry
Hero grossed:
HK $15,471,348 in its first week.
US $18,004,319
The total worldwide box office gross was US
$177,394,432.
System of Chinese Distribution
China
Asia
America Europe
• Film industries are gradually becoming more
dependent on foreign markets.
• Films becoming more transnational
• The place of Hero
Who is the Hero?Nameless Emperor of Qin Broken Sword
COLOUR AND STRUCTURE
Rashomon
•Akira Kurosawa•Episodic structure
Different colours different stories
• Black
• Red
• Blue
• White
• Green
Black •Fundamental colour
•Nameless
Red --Valiant
Red --Anger
Red --Jealousy
Red --Hatred
Red --Distorted love
Red
Blue Love and sacrifice
Blue
Blue
White
•Real •Mourning and Death
Green Peace
Derek Jarman ：“ Green is a colour which exists in narratives - it always returns.”
Emi WadaRan(1985)Director: Akira Kurosawa
Emi Wada
Emi WadaYear Result Award Category/Recipient(s)
1986 Won Oscar Best Costume Designfor: Ran (1985).
1987 Nominated BAFTA Film Award
Best Costume Designfor: House of Flying Daggers (2004).
1993 Won Primetime Emmy Outstanding Individual Achievement in Costume Design for a Variety or Music Programfor: “Great Performances: Oedipus Rex ” (1993).
1998 Won Hong Kong Film Award
Best Costume & Make Up Designfor: The Soong Sisters (1997).
2003 Won Hong Kong Film Award
Best Costumes/Make Upfor: Hero (2002).
2005 Nominated Saturn Award Best Costumesfor: House of Flying Daggers (2004).
Emi WadaYear Result Award Category/Recipient(s)
2005 Nominated BAFTA Film Award Best Costume Designfor: House of Flying Daggers (2004).
2005 Nominated Golden Satellite Award
Best Costume Designfor: House of Flying Daggers (2004).
2007 Nominated Asian Film Award Best Production Designerfor: The Go Master (2006).
2009 Nominated Golden Horse Award Best Makeup & Costume Designfor: The Warrior and the Wolf (2009).
2010 Nominated Asian Film Award Best Costume Designerfor: The Warrior and the Wolf (2009).
2011 Nominated Hong Kong Film Award
Best Costume & Make Up Designfor: Reign of Assassins (2010).
Christopher Doyle
Christopher Doyle Year Result Award Category/Recipient(s)
1983 Won Asia-Pacific Film Festival
Best Cinematographyfor: That Day, on the Beach (1983).
1987 Won Hong Kong Film Award
Best Cinematographyfor: Lao niang gou sao (1986).
1990 Nominated Hong Kong Film Award
Best Cinematographyfor: Shou huang de nu ren (1989).
1991 Won Hong Kong Film Award
Best Cinematographyfor: Days of Being Wild (1990).
1994 Won Golden Horse Award Best Cinematographyfor: Ashes of Time (1994).
1994 Won Golden Osella Best Cinematographyfor: Ashes of Time (1994).
1995 Won Hong Kong Film Award
Best Cinematographyfor: Ashes of Time (1994).
1995 Nominated Hong Kong Film Award
Best Cinematographyfor: Chungking Express (1994).
Christopher Doyle Year Result Award Category/Recipient(s)
1996 Won Golden Bauhinia Best Cinematographyfor: Fallen Angels (1995).
1996 Won Hong Kong Film Award
Best Cinematographyfor: Fallen Angels (1995).
1997 Won Golden Horse Award Best Cinematographyfor: Happy Together (1997).
1997 Nominated Hong Kong Film Award
Best Cinematographyfor: Temptress Moon (1996).
1998 Nominated Hong Kong Film Award
Best Cinematographyfor: Happy Together (1997).
1999 WonExcellence in Cinematography Award
2000 Won Technical Grand Prize for: In the Mood for Love (2000).
Christopher Doyle Year Result Award Category/Recipient(s)
2000 Won Golden Horse Award
Best Cinematographyfor: In the Mood for Love (2000).
2000 Won Best Cinematography for: In the Mood for Love (2000).
2001 2nd place BSFC Award Best Cinematographyfor: In the Mood for Love (2000).
2001 Won Golden Bauhinia Best Cinematographyfor: In the Mood for Love (2000).
2001 Nominated
Hong Kong Film Award
Best Cinematographyfor: In the Mood for Love (2000).
Historical Context
Jing Ke’s assassination attempt on Ying Zhen,
king of Qin and future first emperor of China
from 221 BC- 210 BC.
Similarities and differences to Jet Li’s
‘Nameless’
Politics
Film as propaganda?
Despotism: The exercising of absolute authority by an
arbitrary government/ the exercising of absolute power
or control.
Government by an absolute power unchecked by any
constitutional limits to their power.
Endorsement of current Chinese government?
Critical Opinion
Peter Travers (Rolling Stone) “Ravishes the eye without quite touching the heart.”
James Christopher (Times UK) “Mortal wounds are delivered and received like love letters, hopelessly sentimental.”
Nev Pierce (BBC) “Visually spectacular but slight on story.”
Mike Clark (USA Today) “A movie just good enough to keep nurturing rooting interest as you watch it.”
Critical Opinion
Adam Smith (Empire) “The comparisons are inevitable, so lets get them out of the way, Hero is a better film than Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.”
Michael Wilmington (Chicago Tribune) “Swooningly beautiful, furious and thrilling, an action movie for the ages.”
Lisa Kennedy (Denver Post) “Hero is not a long movie, yet it is persuasively epic.”
Varying Responses
BeautifulFascistPropagandaPro-totalitarian Celebration of
dictatorshipMasterpieceA gorgeous abstraction
A Rashomon style epicA piece of poetryVisually dazzlingExtravagant doodlingA silly and bloated
fableNothing more than
pretty pictures
Thomas Delepa (Boulder Weekly)
“So stuffed with stunts, so bare on plot, you might as well call it…
“Crouching Tiger, Hidden Story.”
Reference • Zhang, J.X. Film Quarterly, Vol. 58 (Summer 2005), p. 47-52
• Klein, C (2002) ‘When Chinese Martial Arts Flies Through the Global Box Office,’ Yale Global, available online at: http://yaleglobal.yale.edu/content/when-chinese-martial-arts-flies-through-global-box-office
• Kraicer, S (2003) ‘Absence as Spectacle: Zhang Yimou’sHero,’ available
online at: http://www.chinesecinemas.org/hero.html • Larson, W (2008) ‘Zhang Yimou’sHero: Dismantling the Myth of Cultural
Power,’ Journal of Chinese Cinemas, Vol. 2, No. 3, pp. 181-96
Reference • Lau, J.K. W (2007) ‘Hero: China’s Response to Hollywood Globalization,’
Jump Cut: A Review of Contemporary Media, No. 49 (Spring), available online at: http://www.ejumpcut.org/archive/jc49.2007/Lau-Hero/index.html
• Lee, V (2007) ‘Into/Out of the Critical Divide: The Indeterminacy of Hero,’ Scope9, available online at: http://www.scope.nottingham.ac.uk/article.php?issue=9&id=955
• Nyman, M (2005). The American History Review, Vol. 110 (June 2005),
p.769-770 • Stringer, J and Yu, Q (2007) ‘Hero: How Chinese Is It?’ in Paul Cooke, ed.
World Cinema’s ‘Dialogues’ with Hollywood (Basingstoke and New York: Palgrave Macmillan),238-54.
Reference • Chan, E (2004) ‘Zhang Yimou’sHero and the Temptations of Fascism,’ Film
International, Vol. 2, No. 8 (March), 14-23
• Fung, A and Chan, J.M. (2010), ‘Towards a Global Blockbuster: The Political Economy of Hero’s Nationalism,’ in Gary D. Rawnsley and Ming-Yeh T.
• Rawnsley (eds). Global Chinese Cinema: The Culture and Politics of Hero (London: Routledge), pp. 198-211.
• Harrison, M (2006) ‘Zhang Yimou’sHero and the Globalisation of Propoganda,’ Millennium: Journal of International Studies 34, pp. 569-72
• Hunt, L (2011) ‘The Contemporary WuxiaRevival: Genre Remaking and the Hollywood Transnational Factor,’ in Song Hwee Lim and Julian Ward, eds. The Chinese Cinema Book (London: BFI/Palgrave Macmillan), pp. 150-57.
Discussion Questions
Who do you think is the hero of film?
How do you think the film should be
interpreted?
Thanks for your
Listening!