The movie still has its merits. Tan Dun's music, Hetian Huimei's clothing, and Du Kefeng's photography are all very good. Of course, with a different director, these three might have played better. Now let's talk about the most unbearable part of this movie, which is the martial arts scene. To sum it up in two words: contrived. Especially yesterday, I watched the solid sparring scene in "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" in which Yuan Heping was the martial arts instructor. Today, watching "Hero" is as uncomfortable as eating flies. Fight scenes need rhythm without rhythm, strength without strength, and character without character. The martial arts scene exists purely for the sake of beauty and pretence. It is better to watch "Saint Seiya" and shout "Tianma Meteor Boxing" and "Lushan Rising Dragon Ba" with the protagonists. This kind of martial arts aesthetic orientation is really unacceptable.
Now that the digression is over, I'm going to start what this review really wants to discuss. The whole movie, the story is very simple, but after watching the character Canjian made me think deeply. Can Jian is a standard intellectual, an elite class, who practiced calligraphy and swordsmanship to understand culture. Although he is a ronin who lives from all over the world, he is a spiritual aristocrat with a higher rank than Feixue, the daughter of the great general. After being proficient in the nineteen ways of writing the word "sword", Can Jian will create the twentieth way of writing with a higher realm. But the King of Qin said, "Nineteen ways of writing are too troublesome. When I destroy the six countries, I need to unify all the characters, leaving only one way of writing." Characters are the carrier of culture, and the King of Qin unified not only the country, but also the culture behind each country. This kind of unification will inevitably bring about the loss of different degrees of cultures in various countries, and the more noble and pure culture is, the more fragile and fragile it is. The unification of King Qin is cruel and painful to Can Jian, a spiritual aristocrat who can appreciate the subtlety of twenty different ways of writing the word "sword". But Can Jian has to protect the King Qin who is destined to end the spiritual world he cherishes at all costs.
I don't like the setting of King Qin in the movie. I would rather that King Qin in the movie is a tyrant, a tyrannical dictator, and an ambitious politician. Even with such a king of Qin, Can Jian would still do everything in his power to stop the assassination of Qin. And these two people are more tense than in the current movie. Chen Daoming's version of King Qin said with tears in his eyes, "Remnant Sword is my only confidant", which is too hypocritical and the heart of the Virgin.
Even putting aside those heavy national hatred and family hatred, Can Jian still belongs to the group whose interests were maximized and sacrificed after King Qin unified the six countries. The intellectual freedom of intellectuals and the iron-fisted tyranny of dictators will always be the most incompatible. But Can Jian chose to protect the King of Qin and support his road of unification, because "the world". Who exactly is "the world"? "The world" is opposed to the spiritual nobles like Canjian, that is, the commoners. "Tianxia" refers to those farmers who were supposed to farm but were dragged to the battlefield, the small traders who hoped that their business would make more money, and the thousands of ordinary people who only hoped for a safe and prosperous life. While the unification of the King of Qin was cruel, it brought them peace. Canjian realized "returning to the basics" from the calligraphy, and thus understood that this "world" is ordinary but not humble. Civilians are living strong, many of them are even illiterate. Only one of the twenty ways to write the word "sword" will remain, and it doesn't matter that the nineteen will disappear forever, as long as these commoners can continue to live. Perhaps because he used to be a prodigal son from all over the world, Can Jian was able to understand the "return to nature" in calligraphy and swordsmanship, and to go against his lover's will for "the world". And Feixue, who had always been the daughter of a general, had such a hard time letting go of her father's revenge.
Regardless of whether Can Jian's choice is a help to Zhou, I still admire people like Can Jian, and ask myself that Can Jian can't do this. People always tend to defend their own interests, this is human nature. Very few people can truly protect the interests of others, even at the expense of their own.
At this point, I finally understand why this movie feels empty. Because the "world" for which Canjian sacrificed his happiness, life and even spiritual world has never appeared in the movie. Canjian kept saying "returning to the basics", but the film is not simple and sincere everywhere. Pretend to be a ruthless assassin, pretend to be a deep king, pretend to be a chivalrous saint, pretend to be an army of robots, even a blind musician is pretending to be a calm emperor. The chess hall, the Qin Palace, the academy, and the desert, in these tall backgrounds, there is no ordinary market street to carry the common people who are busy with their livelihoods. Watching this movie feels like watching a man in a fur coat advertise that no wild animals should be hunted, and tearfully said, "No business, no killing".
Although Can Jian died for "the world", in the world of "Hero", there is no room for a too plain "world".
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