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Review: Hero (英雄) (2002)
Okay, I get it. I get the hype lmao. I watched this movie a long time ago as a child but I didn't quite understand it, of course. All I remembered from it was the vibrant colours.
Watching as an adult, I understand why this movie is so deserving of praise. This movie is so grand and epic in scale, with lovely visuals. The story itself incorporates Eastern philosophies and challenges them, but still resolves them in a way that makes sense to the Eastern mind.
Spoilers.
Story
The story was told in a Rashomon-like way. Each of our characters told a different story, though in this case, I don't think the story was meant to be open-ended.
Our assassin, Wuming/Nameless had an audience with Ying Zheng, Qin Wang, the King of Qin, who went on to unite China. Wuming and Ying Zheng discussed how they had arrived to this position, an assassin 10 steps away from the King.
In this story, each of the accounts of the story were represented by different colours. Wuming's original story about using an affair to pit the assassins against each other, was represented with red. Ying Zheng's more romantic view of the relationship between Canjian and Feixue was represented by blue. The "truth" was represented with white, maybe beige/yellow. And the past was represented by green.
I thought it was interesting how we saw the same scenes portrayed in slightly different ways, but at the same locations and involving the same people. In each of these accounts, the characters' personalities could vary totally wildly. In one version, Canjian and Feixue were dramatic and petty, and in another version, their bond was unbreakable. The truth was something in the middle. What I thought was interesting was also how the master of the calligraphy school in the first story (the red story) ended up being Feixue's servant. I just thought it was an interesting way for Wuming to lie but also keep all the parties intact.
By the end of the movie, Ying Zheng to accept his fate of being assassinated, though in my opinion, his body language showed that he didn't think it was the end for him yet. As for Wuming, based on the words from Canjian, he'd decided not to assassinate the King, in hopes that he would achieve great things for the people. Nonetheless, due to Wuming's attempted assassination, he had to be executed, but was supposedly given a hero's burial.
Before I watched this movie, I saw that it was labelled as a wuxia movie. However, I knew that it involved some court scenes, so I was skeptical as to whether it was actually a wuxia story or if it just involved martial arts. But having watched the movie, I would consider it a wuxia movie.
What is wuxia? I've been having this discussion lately, mostly because people mislabelling wuxia stories grinds my gears so bad. In my opinion, wuxia, though it literally means "martial hero," is a genre that is more about a romantic form of society. In this romantic form of society, honour, justice, loyalty, and other traits always win out.
In the red story, the only person who showed loyalty was Ruyue. Otherwise, Feixue and Canjian were extremely petty and disloyal. Ying Zheng said that he knew of Feixue and Canjian's love for each other so he didn't believe that Feixue would have had an affair. But I think that Wuming's story also would have been seen through because as major figures in the martial arts world, it would not make sense for Canjian and Feixue to have gotten where they were by exhibiting such immoral behaviour (based on tropes of Chinese literature and wuxia literature). I'm not going to lie, that scene of the calligraphers writing while being attacked by arrows was very moving. I guess it's defiance in the face of certain death that was very touching to me.
In the blue story, Ying Zheng pictured Canjian and Feixue as most people would a pair of martial arts heroes. Though they'd never met Changkong, they respected the memory of him, and since they were convinced that Changkong believed in Wuming, they decided that it was okay to believe in him too. Feixue exhibited a strong need for revenge, which is an extremely prominent aspect of wuxia stories. Her need to kill Ying Zheng was in order to avenge her father. It's very personal, and it makes complete sense when viewed through a wuxia lens. Ying Zheng also theorized that Canjian and Feixue were very bonded to one another, and that they would remain loyal and in love to the very end.
As I mentioned, I believed the truth was somewhere in the middle, represented by white. According to Wikipedia, the cinematographer Christopher Doyle had rejected any colour theories. I can see why it may annoy him if people suggested such theories when that was not the intention, but he also can't stop people from building connections to the story in ways that make sense to them. Though I don't have very strong theories of colour, I wonder if white was used to show the truth as a pure, untainted truth. In addition, in Chinese culture, white is the colour of death, of funeral clothes, and in the process of trying to uphold peace, several of our main heroes are prepared for death. Canjian and Feixue basically died in their funeral clothes. That is my only colour theory lol.
Back to the discussion about wuxia. One aspect of wuxia that is not explored as often is the concept of patriotism. That is because the world of politics is considered the exact opposite of the world of honour that wuxia stories take place in. But there have been wuxia stories that talk about patriotism, in that you should protect your compatriots. Guo Jing is the one wuxia hero I can think of who was a huge patriot and had to fight a mentor figure (Genghis Khan) to protect his people.
Patriotism was where Canjian and Feixue butted heads. Both of them were right. Feixue needed Ying Zheng to pay for his crimes of killing people. But Canjian felt that unification in the long run would save more lives than remaining as the Warring States. Feixue looked at things on a smaller scale and Canjian looked things on a much bigger scale. Canjian managed to convince Wuming that Ying Zheng was important to the people as a whole.
The last story, the green story, was Canjian's account of what had happened in the past, how he had met Feixue and how their first assassination attempt had been unsuccessful.
By the end of the movie, Ying Zheng understood why Canjian did not kill him, and proceeded to tell others that Ying Zheng couldn't be killed. I think he understood that even in the world of politics, the theories of wulin could be applied, that those who lived in the martial forest also relied on him to carry out their ideals as well.
As for Canjian's theory that individuals will have to suffer for the greater good, this is a very Eastern philosophy that totally would not fly in Capitalism today. I wonder how many people agreed or at least saw Canjian's point of view when this movie was released in the West. People don't have to agree with him, but in today's political climate, I can see people villainizing this point of view, calling people like that brainwashed :/
Though Wuming ultimately did not kill Ying Zheng, he was prepared to die. He understood that he had walked from the world of martial heroes into the world of politics, and thus, he had to follow the laws of politics. Ying Zheng knew this too, and that was why he had to order Wuming's execution.
As for Feixue and Canjian, they had irreconcilable differences, and Canjian felt that they could no longer coexist this way, with Feixue needing Ying Zheng to be killed and Canjian not allowing for that to happen. Politics had infiltrated their own wulin, and perhaps in death, they would go on to find another wulin where they could peacefully coexist again.
The version of the movie that I watched had English subtitles, and as always, there were some culture aspects of the story that were left out. Lots of flowery language of course. One thing that I noticed that I found cool was in the red story, when Wuming sought out Canjian and Feixue. He actually addressed them by their "artist names," Gaoshan and Liushui. In particular, when he addressed Feixue, he actually called her "Liushui Xiansheng," or "Mr./Teacher Liushui." In addition, their art names seem to match each other as well, Gaoshan being "high mountain" and Liushui being "running water."
As well, I wonder if the wuxia elements might have flown over people's heads but eh, that's out of anybody's control.
Anyway, the story was not what I had come to expect, and I really enjoyed it!
Production
I was already a fan of Zhang Yimou but the budget of this movie absolutely blew me away. Even House of Flying Daggers was not as visually impressive as Hero.
The first thing I noticed was the fact that this movie was filmed at Hengdian, the studio in China where a lot of Chinese historical movies and TV shows are filmed. That hall, and that "courthouse," are two of the most iconic locations in Chinese cinema (actually Lay Zhang's Lit music video used these two locations as well lol).
When I first started this movie, I thought that it must have been recorded on film (as opposed to digital). Even though this film is dated, the settings just look so immersive and real.
As I mentioned, the vibrant colours were some of the most memorable things I'd remembered from when I watched this movie as a child, and they looked so good on screen. I wonder if the same effect could have been done on digital.
My only small criticism of this movie was that there were some strange continuity issues, like having a character sitting down in one frame and standing up in the next.
The acting was pretty good. What surprised me about Jet Li was how good his enunciation was. All of our actors had good enunciation and honestly that's one of those small things that mean a lot to me. I liked the acting from all of our actors, Chen Daoming, Tony Leung, Maggie Cheung, Zhang Ziyi, and Jet Li. I think they were all appropriately used.
I would be remiss if I didn't mention Tony Ching's action direction. When I saw the first fight scene between Wuming and Changkong, I just felt so at home seeing classic martial arts direction. Being that wuxia is heightened action, of course there were going to be some moves that were fantastical (though many of them are staples of the wuxia genre), such as balancing above water, crazy flips, etc. But all of our actors are so well-trained in basic performance that it looked great regardless. That being said, the action between Wuming and Changkong was definitely on another level compared to the fighting among our other characters, and that's fine! Tony Leung and Maggie Cheung are more actors than fighters anyway. I'm just really pleased to have watched some classic martial arts directing, with limited slow motion, but with a familiar and nostalgic visual style.
Characters
Wuming/Nameless
Wuming was our main character. Perhaps someone would call him the eponymous hero, but I have thoughts on that. If he was the hero, then that would be interesting because he became a hero by not killing the King. Is that something worthy of being a hero? In the context of wuxia, however, he probably is considered a hero, seeing as how he trained very diligently (though he did so as a reaction to hate and vengeance), and ultimately gained higher insight.
Wuming as a character wasn't particularly emotive. That made sense. He was Zhao citizened, orphaned due to war and taken in by a Qin family. After learning of the truth of his heritage, he sank himself into perfecting his martial arts in order to assassinate the King. If he didn't have the stillness of heart, he would not have been able to focus on this task.
Wuming was seemingly moved by Canjian's words, understanding that the reason Canjian needed the King of Qin to remain alive was for the good of everybody else, even if it meant individual suffering. This is a concept that as mentioned, is rather Eastern in philosophy, which makes sense, as this King was eventually the first one to unite China.
As I explained above, Wuming decided not to kill Ying Zheng, and since he had stepped into the court, he was to follow the laws of politics, which meant that he had to be put to death for treason.
At first, I wondered why Wuming even tried to "attack" the King, if he had no intenton to. After rewatching the scene, I wonder if it was so that he could tell himself that he had attempted assassination. Ten years ago, he had this goal of assassination, and it would be dishonourable if he had not even attempted this goal by the end of all of his work. (I'm still workshopping this thought.) As well, Wuming reminded the King that many will die for his decisions, but to never lose sight of the ideal. So I think Wuming decided that he would sacrifice himself so that the King would always remember this discussion as well.
Wuming was executed, but given a hero's burial, which in my opinion was a little too idealistic. Truth be told I thought that he would have just been treated a regular assassin. Perhaps it was Ying Zheng's homage to the martial hero.
Canjian
Canjian was a wanderer before he bumped into Feixue. Together, they practised calligraphy, and we see that they ran an institute together.
In Wuming's story, Canjian was petty and grudge-bearing. In the King's story, he was a romantic and deeply devoted. The truth was that he was deeply devoted, but he also stayed true to his wandering ways. Seeing as how he was a wanderer, it really feels like his beginnings were the closest to what we would expect of a martial hero. He roamed the earth obeying only the laws of nature and the laws of honour. In addition, he was so unattached for much of his life before he met Feixue. So it made sense that it was easier for him to see the big picture, that sacrificing individuals for the greater good was necessary sometimes.
In the end, he tried to convince Wuming not to kill Ying Zheng, citing 天下. In English, this was translated into "Our Land," which I don't love. The more common translation that I see is "(all) under heaven." "Our Land" made the concept feel a little more political, which I guess it technically is, but I really feel that "All under heaven" is more appropriate as it encompasses people everywhere, regardless of where they live. Perhaps it was translated as "Our Land" so that people outside of China wouldn't feel weird about being included as "All under heaven" is rather manifest destiny of them lol.
I think Canjian felt that politics was going in a reasonable direction (thinking that Ying Zheng would do good by the people), and I think he just wanted to retreat into isolation with his love, Feixue. He wanted to convince her that he cared for both the good of the people as importantly as he did her, but she didn't believe it. Heeding her words, he picked up his sword, but dropped it to prove his love to her. After all, sacrificing oneself for one's ideals made complete sense to Canjian.
Feixue
Feixue was the daughter of a Zhao general who was killed in battle against the Qin. She bumped into Canjian and they fell in love, but she never forgot her mission to avenge her father.
My guess is that the idea to assassinate Ying Zheng was probably her idea, seeing as how Canjian was never really as passionate about the idea as she was. This was the one point of conflict between Canjian and Feixue.
Feixue was willing to help Wuming because she so badly wanted to kill Ying Zheng. And it was technically Canjian who foiled her plans. In the end, she let her ideals blind herself.
As I mentioned, though both Canjian and Feixue's morals were in line with wuxia ideals, hers was more near-sighted, while his were on a much grander scale.
After accidentally killing Canjian, Feixue realized that she was so hyperfocused on revenge that she'd forgotten the tangible things that were worth fighting for that were right in front of her, and were just important as her love for her father. And in the end, she killed herself to be with Canjian.
Ying Zheng/King of Qin
I wonder if Ying Zheng also could have been considered a hero. He was an important figure in Chinese history. Perhaps all of our characters here were paving the road for him to become a hero.
In this movie, Ying Zheng was pretty smart, which made sense. If he wasn't smart, he wouldn't have gotten to where he was. He saw through Wuming's lie about Canjian and Feixue turning on each other. That being said, as someone who was deeply embroiled in politics, he had a romantic view of wulin, as many of us do.
It took explaining from Wuming for him to understand that he was not entirely separate from wulin, that the martial arts who attempted to live justly and honourably were also under his care, and so if he was going to be the hero, he needed to lead well.
He respected these words from Wuming, and in the end, he gave him a respectful funeral.
Ruyue
Ruyue's personality varied widely from account to account. In all versions, she was Canjian's loyal servant.
In the red story, she was implied to be in love with Canjian and probably despised Feixue for her rift with him. And when Canjian used her to get back at Feixue, she so gladly accepted because she was so madly in love with her. After Feixue killed Canjian, Ruyue sought revenge, though was unsuccessful.
In the blue story, Ruyue was pretty much relegated to the background, as the King was so focused on Canjian and Feixue's romance.
In "truth," Ruyue was extremely loyal to Canjian, but not to the point of hatred of Feixue. In fact, I felt like Ruyue was mostly neutral to Feixue, because she was so focused on Canjian's well-being.
When Canjian imparted his words to Ruyue, Ruyue pleaded with Wuming to heed Canjian's words, because she believed them so deeply. We found out that Ruyue had been Canjian's servant since she was 8 years old, so she probably saw him as a father or older-brother figure, a wise and infallible person. In the end, Ruyue watched as Feixue killed herself with Canjian. Of course, she was very distraught by the whole scene.
Changkong
Changkong appeared extremely briefly. He was also a martial arts wanderer. Ying Zheng theorized that Wuming probably was not as strong as Changkong, so the only way Wuming could have won was if Changkong let him because they had known each other before. I wish this would have been explained in further detail, but I guess it technically wasn't important.
Changkong had never met Canjian and Feixue, but they respected him quite a bit as a warrior. In the white story, I'm not sure if Wuming had presented Changkong's spearhead to them, because the first scene of the white story only involved Wuming demonstrating his skill. Perhaps "killing" Changkong was for Ying Zheng's benefit, so he would believe that all of the three greatest warriors in his land were dead.
Themes
I already covered several of the themes above. Most of them were wuxia themes, including loyalty and patriotism.
The red story was kind of a corruption of the typical wuxia concept of love. It was implied that Feixue was perhaps still loyal to Changkong, seeing as how she had kept in her possession a part of the spearhead of Changkong. Canjian was so enraged that his loyalty to Feixue was violated that he decided to violate his own loyalty himself. And Ruyue's loyalty went so far as to infatuation and romantic love, instead of love for a sovereign.
On the other end, the blue story followed wuxia themes very closely, in the way that most people would think of wulin. Canjian and Feixue were devoted to each other, they respected the martial heroes of the lands greatly, and they were patriotic people.
The white story showed that wulin was not a monolith, that there can be infighting within wulin, and that wuxia concept can also apply in real life. Both Canjian and Feixue had romantic ideals and we saw that they clashed. And just because Ying Zheng did not operate in wulin did not mean that he could not attempt to be the best version of himself, and to try to bring the best governance that he had to offer to the people.
Overall
I'm really fascinated by this movie because of how it takes very Chinese wuxia ideals, and challenges them, but still in a very Chinese way.
Of course, the visuals are an important part of this movie, from the stunning sets, to the wonderful use of colour, and the lovely cinematography.
Loved this movie!
Watching as an adult, I understand why this movie is so deserving of praise. This movie is so grand and epic in scale, with lovely visuals. The story itself incorporates Eastern philosophies and challenges them, but still resolves them in a way that makes sense to the Eastern mind.
Spoilers.
Story
The story was told in a Rashomon-like way. Each of our characters told a different story, though in this case, I don't think the story was meant to be open-ended.
Our assassin, Wuming/Nameless had an audience with Ying Zheng, Qin Wang, the King of Qin, who went on to unite China. Wuming and Ying Zheng discussed how they had arrived to this position, an assassin 10 steps away from the King.
In this story, each of the accounts of the story were represented by different colours. Wuming's original story about using an affair to pit the assassins against each other, was represented with red. Ying Zheng's more romantic view of the relationship between Canjian and Feixue was represented by blue. The "truth" was represented with white, maybe beige/yellow. And the past was represented by green.
I thought it was interesting how we saw the same scenes portrayed in slightly different ways, but at the same locations and involving the same people. In each of these accounts, the characters' personalities could vary totally wildly. In one version, Canjian and Feixue were dramatic and petty, and in another version, their bond was unbreakable. The truth was something in the middle. What I thought was interesting was also how the master of the calligraphy school in the first story (the red story) ended up being Feixue's servant. I just thought it was an interesting way for Wuming to lie but also keep all the parties intact.
By the end of the movie, Ying Zheng to accept his fate of being assassinated, though in my opinion, his body language showed that he didn't think it was the end for him yet. As for Wuming, based on the words from Canjian, he'd decided not to assassinate the King, in hopes that he would achieve great things for the people. Nonetheless, due to Wuming's attempted assassination, he had to be executed, but was supposedly given a hero's burial.
Before I watched this movie, I saw that it was labelled as a wuxia movie. However, I knew that it involved some court scenes, so I was skeptical as to whether it was actually a wuxia story or if it just involved martial arts. But having watched the movie, I would consider it a wuxia movie.
What is wuxia? I've been having this discussion lately, mostly because people mislabelling wuxia stories grinds my gears so bad. In my opinion, wuxia, though it literally means "martial hero," is a genre that is more about a romantic form of society. In this romantic form of society, honour, justice, loyalty, and other traits always win out.
In the red story, the only person who showed loyalty was Ruyue. Otherwise, Feixue and Canjian were extremely petty and disloyal. Ying Zheng said that he knew of Feixue and Canjian's love for each other so he didn't believe that Feixue would have had an affair. But I think that Wuming's story also would have been seen through because as major figures in the martial arts world, it would not make sense for Canjian and Feixue to have gotten where they were by exhibiting such immoral behaviour (based on tropes of Chinese literature and wuxia literature). I'm not going to lie, that scene of the calligraphers writing while being attacked by arrows was very moving. I guess it's defiance in the face of certain death that was very touching to me.
In the blue story, Ying Zheng pictured Canjian and Feixue as most people would a pair of martial arts heroes. Though they'd never met Changkong, they respected the memory of him, and since they were convinced that Changkong believed in Wuming, they decided that it was okay to believe in him too. Feixue exhibited a strong need for revenge, which is an extremely prominent aspect of wuxia stories. Her need to kill Ying Zheng was in order to avenge her father. It's very personal, and it makes complete sense when viewed through a wuxia lens. Ying Zheng also theorized that Canjian and Feixue were very bonded to one another, and that they would remain loyal and in love to the very end.
As I mentioned, I believed the truth was somewhere in the middle, represented by white. According to Wikipedia, the cinematographer Christopher Doyle had rejected any colour theories. I can see why it may annoy him if people suggested such theories when that was not the intention, but he also can't stop people from building connections to the story in ways that make sense to them. Though I don't have very strong theories of colour, I wonder if white was used to show the truth as a pure, untainted truth. In addition, in Chinese culture, white is the colour of death, of funeral clothes, and in the process of trying to uphold peace, several of our main heroes are prepared for death. Canjian and Feixue basically died in their funeral clothes. That is my only colour theory lol.
Back to the discussion about wuxia. One aspect of wuxia that is not explored as often is the concept of patriotism. That is because the world of politics is considered the exact opposite of the world of honour that wuxia stories take place in. But there have been wuxia stories that talk about patriotism, in that you should protect your compatriots. Guo Jing is the one wuxia hero I can think of who was a huge patriot and had to fight a mentor figure (Genghis Khan) to protect his people.
Patriotism was where Canjian and Feixue butted heads. Both of them were right. Feixue needed Ying Zheng to pay for his crimes of killing people. But Canjian felt that unification in the long run would save more lives than remaining as the Warring States. Feixue looked at things on a smaller scale and Canjian looked things on a much bigger scale. Canjian managed to convince Wuming that Ying Zheng was important to the people as a whole.
The last story, the green story, was Canjian's account of what had happened in the past, how he had met Feixue and how their first assassination attempt had been unsuccessful.
By the end of the movie, Ying Zheng understood why Canjian did not kill him, and proceeded to tell others that Ying Zheng couldn't be killed. I think he understood that even in the world of politics, the theories of wulin could be applied, that those who lived in the martial forest also relied on him to carry out their ideals as well.
As for Canjian's theory that individuals will have to suffer for the greater good, this is a very Eastern philosophy that totally would not fly in Capitalism today. I wonder how many people agreed or at least saw Canjian's point of view when this movie was released in the West. People don't have to agree with him, but in today's political climate, I can see people villainizing this point of view, calling people like that brainwashed :/
Though Wuming ultimately did not kill Ying Zheng, he was prepared to die. He understood that he had walked from the world of martial heroes into the world of politics, and thus, he had to follow the laws of politics. Ying Zheng knew this too, and that was why he had to order Wuming's execution.
As for Feixue and Canjian, they had irreconcilable differences, and Canjian felt that they could no longer coexist this way, with Feixue needing Ying Zheng to be killed and Canjian not allowing for that to happen. Politics had infiltrated their own wulin, and perhaps in death, they would go on to find another wulin where they could peacefully coexist again.
The version of the movie that I watched had English subtitles, and as always, there were some culture aspects of the story that were left out. Lots of flowery language of course. One thing that I noticed that I found cool was in the red story, when Wuming sought out Canjian and Feixue. He actually addressed them by their "artist names," Gaoshan and Liushui. In particular, when he addressed Feixue, he actually called her "Liushui Xiansheng," or "Mr./Teacher Liushui." In addition, their art names seem to match each other as well, Gaoshan being "high mountain" and Liushui being "running water."
As well, I wonder if the wuxia elements might have flown over people's heads but eh, that's out of anybody's control.
Anyway, the story was not what I had come to expect, and I really enjoyed it!
Production
I was already a fan of Zhang Yimou but the budget of this movie absolutely blew me away. Even House of Flying Daggers was not as visually impressive as Hero.
The first thing I noticed was the fact that this movie was filmed at Hengdian, the studio in China where a lot of Chinese historical movies and TV shows are filmed. That hall, and that "courthouse," are two of the most iconic locations in Chinese cinema (actually Lay Zhang's Lit music video used these two locations as well lol).
When I first started this movie, I thought that it must have been recorded on film (as opposed to digital). Even though this film is dated, the settings just look so immersive and real.
As I mentioned, the vibrant colours were some of the most memorable things I'd remembered from when I watched this movie as a child, and they looked so good on screen. I wonder if the same effect could have been done on digital.
My only small criticism of this movie was that there were some strange continuity issues, like having a character sitting down in one frame and standing up in the next.
The acting was pretty good. What surprised me about Jet Li was how good his enunciation was. All of our actors had good enunciation and honestly that's one of those small things that mean a lot to me. I liked the acting from all of our actors, Chen Daoming, Tony Leung, Maggie Cheung, Zhang Ziyi, and Jet Li. I think they were all appropriately used.
I would be remiss if I didn't mention Tony Ching's action direction. When I saw the first fight scene between Wuming and Changkong, I just felt so at home seeing classic martial arts direction. Being that wuxia is heightened action, of course there were going to be some moves that were fantastical (though many of them are staples of the wuxia genre), such as balancing above water, crazy flips, etc. But all of our actors are so well-trained in basic performance that it looked great regardless. That being said, the action between Wuming and Changkong was definitely on another level compared to the fighting among our other characters, and that's fine! Tony Leung and Maggie Cheung are more actors than fighters anyway. I'm just really pleased to have watched some classic martial arts directing, with limited slow motion, but with a familiar and nostalgic visual style.
Characters
Wuming/Nameless
Wuming was our main character. Perhaps someone would call him the eponymous hero, but I have thoughts on that. If he was the hero, then that would be interesting because he became a hero by not killing the King. Is that something worthy of being a hero? In the context of wuxia, however, he probably is considered a hero, seeing as how he trained very diligently (though he did so as a reaction to hate and vengeance), and ultimately gained higher insight.
Wuming as a character wasn't particularly emotive. That made sense. He was Zhao citizened, orphaned due to war and taken in by a Qin family. After learning of the truth of his heritage, he sank himself into perfecting his martial arts in order to assassinate the King. If he didn't have the stillness of heart, he would not have been able to focus on this task.
Wuming was seemingly moved by Canjian's words, understanding that the reason Canjian needed the King of Qin to remain alive was for the good of everybody else, even if it meant individual suffering. This is a concept that as mentioned, is rather Eastern in philosophy, which makes sense, as this King was eventually the first one to unite China.
As I explained above, Wuming decided not to kill Ying Zheng, and since he had stepped into the court, he was to follow the laws of politics, which meant that he had to be put to death for treason.
At first, I wondered why Wuming even tried to "attack" the King, if he had no intenton to. After rewatching the scene, I wonder if it was so that he could tell himself that he had attempted assassination. Ten years ago, he had this goal of assassination, and it would be dishonourable if he had not even attempted this goal by the end of all of his work. (I'm still workshopping this thought.) As well, Wuming reminded the King that many will die for his decisions, but to never lose sight of the ideal. So I think Wuming decided that he would sacrifice himself so that the King would always remember this discussion as well.
Wuming was executed, but given a hero's burial, which in my opinion was a little too idealistic. Truth be told I thought that he would have just been treated a regular assassin. Perhaps it was Ying Zheng's homage to the martial hero.
Canjian
Canjian was a wanderer before he bumped into Feixue. Together, they practised calligraphy, and we see that they ran an institute together.
In Wuming's story, Canjian was petty and grudge-bearing. In the King's story, he was a romantic and deeply devoted. The truth was that he was deeply devoted, but he also stayed true to his wandering ways. Seeing as how he was a wanderer, it really feels like his beginnings were the closest to what we would expect of a martial hero. He roamed the earth obeying only the laws of nature and the laws of honour. In addition, he was so unattached for much of his life before he met Feixue. So it made sense that it was easier for him to see the big picture, that sacrificing individuals for the greater good was necessary sometimes.
In the end, he tried to convince Wuming not to kill Ying Zheng, citing 天下. In English, this was translated into "Our Land," which I don't love. The more common translation that I see is "(all) under heaven." "Our Land" made the concept feel a little more political, which I guess it technically is, but I really feel that "All under heaven" is more appropriate as it encompasses people everywhere, regardless of where they live. Perhaps it was translated as "Our Land" so that people outside of China wouldn't feel weird about being included as "All under heaven" is rather manifest destiny of them lol.
I think Canjian felt that politics was going in a reasonable direction (thinking that Ying Zheng would do good by the people), and I think he just wanted to retreat into isolation with his love, Feixue. He wanted to convince her that he cared for both the good of the people as importantly as he did her, but she didn't believe it. Heeding her words, he picked up his sword, but dropped it to prove his love to her. After all, sacrificing oneself for one's ideals made complete sense to Canjian.
Feixue
Feixue was the daughter of a Zhao general who was killed in battle against the Qin. She bumped into Canjian and they fell in love, but she never forgot her mission to avenge her father.
My guess is that the idea to assassinate Ying Zheng was probably her idea, seeing as how Canjian was never really as passionate about the idea as she was. This was the one point of conflict between Canjian and Feixue.
Feixue was willing to help Wuming because she so badly wanted to kill Ying Zheng. And it was technically Canjian who foiled her plans. In the end, she let her ideals blind herself.
As I mentioned, though both Canjian and Feixue's morals were in line with wuxia ideals, hers was more near-sighted, while his were on a much grander scale.
After accidentally killing Canjian, Feixue realized that she was so hyperfocused on revenge that she'd forgotten the tangible things that were worth fighting for that were right in front of her, and were just important as her love for her father. And in the end, she killed herself to be with Canjian.
Ying Zheng/King of Qin
I wonder if Ying Zheng also could have been considered a hero. He was an important figure in Chinese history. Perhaps all of our characters here were paving the road for him to become a hero.
In this movie, Ying Zheng was pretty smart, which made sense. If he wasn't smart, he wouldn't have gotten to where he was. He saw through Wuming's lie about Canjian and Feixue turning on each other. That being said, as someone who was deeply embroiled in politics, he had a romantic view of wulin, as many of us do.
It took explaining from Wuming for him to understand that he was not entirely separate from wulin, that the martial arts who attempted to live justly and honourably were also under his care, and so if he was going to be the hero, he needed to lead well.
He respected these words from Wuming, and in the end, he gave him a respectful funeral.
Ruyue
Ruyue's personality varied widely from account to account. In all versions, she was Canjian's loyal servant.
In the red story, she was implied to be in love with Canjian and probably despised Feixue for her rift with him. And when Canjian used her to get back at Feixue, she so gladly accepted because she was so madly in love with her. After Feixue killed Canjian, Ruyue sought revenge, though was unsuccessful.
In the blue story, Ruyue was pretty much relegated to the background, as the King was so focused on Canjian and Feixue's romance.
In "truth," Ruyue was extremely loyal to Canjian, but not to the point of hatred of Feixue. In fact, I felt like Ruyue was mostly neutral to Feixue, because she was so focused on Canjian's well-being.
When Canjian imparted his words to Ruyue, Ruyue pleaded with Wuming to heed Canjian's words, because she believed them so deeply. We found out that Ruyue had been Canjian's servant since she was 8 years old, so she probably saw him as a father or older-brother figure, a wise and infallible person. In the end, Ruyue watched as Feixue killed herself with Canjian. Of course, she was very distraught by the whole scene.
Changkong
Changkong appeared extremely briefly. He was also a martial arts wanderer. Ying Zheng theorized that Wuming probably was not as strong as Changkong, so the only way Wuming could have won was if Changkong let him because they had known each other before. I wish this would have been explained in further detail, but I guess it technically wasn't important.
Changkong had never met Canjian and Feixue, but they respected him quite a bit as a warrior. In the white story, I'm not sure if Wuming had presented Changkong's spearhead to them, because the first scene of the white story only involved Wuming demonstrating his skill. Perhaps "killing" Changkong was for Ying Zheng's benefit, so he would believe that all of the three greatest warriors in his land were dead.
Themes
I already covered several of the themes above. Most of them were wuxia themes, including loyalty and patriotism.
The red story was kind of a corruption of the typical wuxia concept of love. It was implied that Feixue was perhaps still loyal to Changkong, seeing as how she had kept in her possession a part of the spearhead of Changkong. Canjian was so enraged that his loyalty to Feixue was violated that he decided to violate his own loyalty himself. And Ruyue's loyalty went so far as to infatuation and romantic love, instead of love for a sovereign.
On the other end, the blue story followed wuxia themes very closely, in the way that most people would think of wulin. Canjian and Feixue were devoted to each other, they respected the martial heroes of the lands greatly, and they were patriotic people.
The white story showed that wulin was not a monolith, that there can be infighting within wulin, and that wuxia concept can also apply in real life. Both Canjian and Feixue had romantic ideals and we saw that they clashed. And just because Ying Zheng did not operate in wulin did not mean that he could not attempt to be the best version of himself, and to try to bring the best governance that he had to offer to the people.
Overall
I'm really fascinated by this movie because of how it takes very Chinese wuxia ideals, and challenges them, but still in a very Chinese way.
Of course, the visuals are an important part of this movie, from the stunning sets, to the wonderful use of colour, and the lovely cinematography.
Loved this movie!