The main characters in the film are all dressed in solid and brightly colored costumes, with solid color decorations, which are very personal and full of meaning. The different colors also seem to imply the different fates of the four protagonists, which has also become a major artistic achievement of the film.
"Hero" is an important symbol of director Zhang Yimou's artistic transformation in the face of film globalization and commercialization. Stars gather, the scene is grand, the pictures are exquisite, the martial arts design is slick and freehand, and the traditional Chinese artistic conception is combined with the violent aesthetic modeling of action movies, creating a new round of box office myths and film industrialization models for mainland Chinese movies. The "Wall Street Journal" of the United States believes: "Heroes truly opened the curtain of the era of Chinese blockbuster films." At the same time, "Hero"'s grand narrative strategy between commerce and art has also triggered intense debates among intellectuals, the general public, official ideologies, and film professionals. The oriental style of its style, color and artistic conception, beautiful audio-visual spectacle, the combination of Chinese big stars, and the construction of multinational and trans-regional production teams such as Du Kefeng, Cheng Xiaodong, Hetian Huimei, Tan Dun, etc., provided the opportunity for later Chinese commercial blockbusters. The mode of replication.
The mode of film industrialization brought about by "Hero" is also quite enlightening. From the preliminary planning and preparations, genre film star production, to shooting and production, and finally to publicity and distribution, "Hero" presented to people is a complete set of market-oriented film operations that are very different from the previous operations of domestic films, but are fully in line with commercial laws. Paradigm. Two months after "Hero" was released, the domestic box office reached 250 million yuan. There is no doubt that "Hero" has achieved unprecedented commercial success for domestic films. To some extent, "Hero" is a milestone in the industrialization of Chinese films. It has rich enlightenment in the development of Chinese martial arts genre films that combine art and commerce.
"Hero" is widely acclaimed in the West, but due to differenceslanguage and culture (). Many Western audiences are only amazed by the image beauty of the film, but they have difficulty understanding the content and spiritual essence of the film.
American film critic Roger Ebert believed that "Hero" imitated Kurosawa Akira's "Rashomon" in structure, but Zhang Yimou made martial arts movies poetic for the first time. The American "New York Times" reported the grand opening of "Hero" in the United States in two editions, commenting: "The Chinese movie "Hero" is as classic as China's "Dream of Red Mansions", and it is also the uncrowned king of our American Oscars. "The producer Zhang Weiping commented: "The movie "Hero" was delayed for two years in North America, but it is still popular in North America. It is the first week of the box office champion, which is really aspirational for our domestic film length."
In 2005, "Time" magazine selected the "Top 10 Best Movies in the World in 2004", and Zhang Yimou's "Hero" and "Ambush on Ten Sides" were tied for No. 1. This was the first time that a Chinese-language film was ranked No. 1 by Time magazine. Famous, the magazine praised Zhang Yimou's two martial arts giants, believing that the film is a superior innovation regardless of the use of color, motion design, and photography.
In short, "Hero" is the pioneering work of mainland blockbusters, and it also adds a new genre to mainland Chinese New Year films: martial arts blockbusters, which should be written in the history of the development of China's film industry.
Extended Reading
Top cast
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Nameless: Halt!
Sky: What can a minor official do?
Nameless: This is my territory.
Sky: And?
Nameless: You are on the kings most wanted list; I am here to place you under arrest!
[lifts sword ready to fight]
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Moon: I am going to kill you and avenge my master!