BY ABIGAIL GRABER

In print | Published September 16, 2004

For a drama championing the glory of suffering for ideals, the great tragedy of “Hero” isn’t that lovers are forced into deadly conflict or that worthy characters come senselessly under the sword. That’s just what the writers want you to think. The real tragedy of “Hero” is that “Rashomon,” “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon” and “The Matrix” came out first.

Despite its magnificent blend of visual and martial art, it is difficult to appreciate the originality of “Hero” without comparing it to its predecessors, for it teeters precariously between historical melodrama and modern marital-art extravaganza. Fortunately, that fragile balance is maintained by a strong emotional core, rooted in a set of complex characters that stay true to the thematic ambiguity of the movie.

Done in the style of Akiro Kurosawa’s 1950 masterpiece “Rashomon,” the tale of “Hero” is told multiple times from alternating perspectives. Nameless (Jet Li), a police chief in pre-unification China, is brought before the Emperor (Daoming Chen) to recount how he slew the assassins Sky, Broken Sword and Flying Snow (Donnie Yen, Tony Leung Chiu Wai and Maggie Cheung, respectively). In the spirit of Kurosawa, as the tale is told and re-told by Nameless and the Emperor, the audience is left with a central question unanswered: Who is the real hero of this story?

The movie’s non-linear structure may be expected if you paid attention to the “Presented by Quentin Tarantino,” tackily engraved on the promotional posters. But director Yimou Zhang manipulates time with effortlessness that’s foreign to Tarantino fare. The story flows naturally through flashbacks without the ponderous feeling of “Crouching Tiger,” and because it continuously reshapes itself, both the plot and characters develop genuinely.

Such development is the movie’s strongest deviation from kung-fu flicks of yore. While the characters in “Crouching Tiger” tended to be archetypal (Aging Hero and Aging Heroine fight Desert Nomad and Hot Young Thing), “Hero” defies you to box its cast in. Even the title is misleading—it’s unclear at the end of the film whether Li’s “hero” is any worthier than his adversaries. The screenplay (Feng Li, Bin Wang and Yimou Zhang) displays the integrity often thrust aside in martial arts films to up the “whoa” level with gratuitous fight sequences. While “Hero” could easily have shed three or four battle scenes, the characters’ strong emotional motivations—jealousy, vengeance, love—justify their actions (if not their ability to defy gravity). Zhang has an excellent eye for atmospheric nuance, taking full advantage of the visual medium to delicately explore the characters’ vulnerability and interdependency.

More so than any other martial-arts film, “Hero” pays just as much attention to shot composition and overall imagery as to the actor’s whirling bodies. Zhang dresses the set and actors in vibrant tones that complement the mood of each new version of the story. For example, Nameless’ original tale draws heavily on jealousy and anger. During this scene, the characters are dressed in reds highlighted by flaming gold trees and plains. Flashbacks to more innocent times are clothed in a cool green palette, enriching the sense of peace and reflection. The cinematography, too, leans heavily on the metaphoric, with many lingering shots of characters striving solitarily against a vast, overwhelming landscape and buffeted almost to the point of ridiculousness by strong winds. (I’d estimate the electric bill for powering the wind machines as rather larger than the budget of some Third World countries.)

Unfortunately, the saturated visuals of “Hero” are at times a liability. While perfect for dramatic stills, the cinematography is aggravatingly showy during the fights—they look like souped-up animé. For all the “Matrix” junkies and naysayers of the low-tech approach of “Crouching Tiger,” look no further than the first fight scene of “Hero.” Like many moments in the film, it is overloaded with slow-motion and digitized bodies pummeled by the ever-present wind machines. Granted, there is some beauty in elegant figures frozen in mid-air, but like much of the film, it’s so obviously derivative that it degrades the experience.

Not content with stealing Lee’s thunder, Zhang also stole his lead actress, Ziyi Zhang (Jen in “Crouching Tiger”). This was a mistake. Her character, a pouty, adolescent kung-fu disciple (sound familiar?) is even more out of place than bullet time in this universe, and her superfluous angst upsets the much more interesting dynamic between the adults. I wanted to send her to time out until she finished puberty.

But though “Hero” loses many of the sterling qualities of its influences, it remains one of the finest understated mixtures of cinematic art and violence to date. It may not be entirely unique, but it has a fine style all its own.

“Hero” is 96 minutes long and rated PG-13 for stylized martial arts violence and a scene of sensuality.

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