cool movie, but i dont get alot of it
mostly why did the king kill the Hero at the end after he spared him

9/20/2006 11:30:18 PM

its actually spelled gyro and is a delicious treat from the mediterranean

9/21/2006 12:33:19 AM

We don't need another Hero...




thread.

9/21/2006 12:39:04 AM

dustin hoffman didnt want the credit for saving people from the plane crash, but after the reward comes out andy garcia takes the credit

[Edited on September 21, 2006 at 12:49 AM. Reason : $$$]

9/21/2006 12:48:56 AM

You didn't get it?

It's one of Zhang Yimou's simplest plots. It's also straight out of a Chinese legend, so I don't think he wanted to fuck with the material too much.

9/21/2006 1:14:44 AM

The first time I saw it was without any English subtitles or dubbing. I had no idea why people kept coming back to life.

9/21/2006 1:43:27 AM

Yeah, it is kinda confusing, but I understood the whole thing when I saw it in the theatre. It's just two lies and the truth.

Quote :

"mostly why did the king kill the Hero at the end after he spared him"

It was the law: Any would-be assassin had to be executed.

9/21/2006 9:25:59 AM

You are an emporer... king in this case... you are trying to unite the kingdoms that don't want to be united. His cause was good.

The Hero... in this case... was one of the children caught in the war to unite the kingdoms. This is why when the couple attacked the king the guy (forgot name) didn't kill him when he had the chance. He understood that the king was striving for peace through unification. Instead of the kingdoms constantly fighting each other.

The REASON he killed the hero was he had to send a message to everyone that his power is absolute. Doubt of his power or not following his own law would result in anarchy. He has to make an example though he desperately didn't want to.

But he gave the warrior a warriors death. Standing against the entire royal army... he fell. That is an incredible honor. This is also based off of Chinese tradition and way of life. If you've ever been to a polite chinese or even japense family you will notice a strong attention to detail. Honor, politeness, speaking very correctly... these things are a way of life.

This is the basis for why chinese, japenese, taiwanese car makers succeed. They find honor in the work they do. They strive for perfection. We strive for more power, and performance...no matter the cost.

9/21/2006 9:58:50 AM

whoa, thats cool. but forgiveness is greater so i dont think that was right.

9/21/2006 12:31:09 PM

Quote :

"dustin hoffman didnt want the credit for saving people from the plane crash, but after the reward comes out andy garcia takes the credit"

AWESOME. Thought I was the only one who EVER saw that movie.

9/21/2006 12:39:18 PM

There was some controversy with the movie since the message implied that absolute loyalty to the Communist Party in the People's Republic of China (where the movie was produced) was critical for the well being of all.

Quote :

"This is the basis for why chinese, japenese, taiwanese car makers succeed. They find honor in the work they do. They strive for perfection. We strive for more power, and performance...no matter the cost."

I think that's a bit of a stretch. Japanese carmakers succeed because they are better at reading and responding to customer demands as well as running lean manufacturing processes. As for Chinese and Taiwanese carmakers, they pretty much have zero presence in the United States right now.

American carmakers failed not because they strove for better power and performance but due to inefficient manufacturing techniques, overreliance upon a single class of automobile, and craptastic engineering. Besides, if your theory held true about Confucian societies building better cars, then why are so many European brands considered to be some of the finest engineering?

That's all a side nitpick though. I think your summary is pretty good otherwise.

9/21/2006 1:31:30 PM

yeah, it was the law and even the king could not undermind the law.

I don't think Jet Li was the "Hero" in the title though. he was just the Nameless warrior, though "he was given a hero's burrial". I think the King was the hero. I'd like to know more about the meanings (in chinese culture) behind the colors used. I could relate some of the colors to american thought, but they could be completely different in china.

interesting movie, the effects are looking a little dated, but good story. Is there anything else this director had done that is similar or worth watching?

9/21/2006 1:47:45 PM

to be given the title of hero in China you had to essentially die immediately as not to tarnish your heroism or something

as for the colors

http://www.helloziyi.us/Articles/Hero_Color_Code.htm

9/21/2006 1:56:17 PM

^ yeah, but that doesn't necessarily apply to the film. Just as the colors weren't chosen to reflect anything (just to set the segments apart), the title may not have been chosen to reflect old chinese ideas as much as to equate the actions of the king to those of a warrior. Jet Li's character wasn't really a hero in the story, he just did not follow through with his intentions. throughout the film you are somewhat led to believe that the Nameless warrior is the person of importance, but at the end the "point" of the story is that the King is using war to hopefully achieve peace. and the big shift is Nameless' coming to understand this, just as Broken Sword had. The king didn't want people to die and eventually wanted peace. He believed the only way to achieve this was to conquer the other groups. He was shown in the last scene that he did not want to kill the would-be assassin, but he knew that he had too to achieve his goal. He had to overcome his personal wants for "the greater good", which is typically considered heroic in western cultures.

Now it could be as you said, but i can't see them naming the film after a character who was just a device for getting to the point. They could have presented the entire story of the first time broken sword and snow attacked the king and delivered the same message, this was just a way to have the segments and get people along for the ride. So you could take the nameless warrior out and have the exact same "point". He doesn't play an extremely vital role to the concept, he's really just a plot device. Considering the tone of the film I hope they wouldn't name it after a character who is just there to move the story along.

The only way to know for sure is to know what the director/or writer thought, i hope it's not named after jet li's character though.

9/21/2006 2:27:40 PM

Even though this movie doesnt really coordinate greatly the real story, I dont think anyone would call the first emperor of China a hero, at least anyone who historically knew how he gained power and ruled, he was probably more of a tyrant.

That said, I took the movie as portraying an ideal placed in the minds of Jet Li's character and Broken Sword (regular Chinese populus) rather than what the emperor used to try and not be assassinated. The emperor was known for wanting to unify all the warring states but supposedly only began the unification as a retaliation for the failed assassination. I took it as the hero was the one who not because he could get to the emporer and kill him, but realized that China had been warring for so long a time that perhaps unification would be better and even though the emperor was shit that it would forge a better path for China as a whole to let the emperor live.

As I said, even though the movie did not really follow the story exactly, I don't see how the emperor did anything at all in the movie to become a hero. Jet Li and Broken Sword made the decision not to take his life, I just took Jet Li's guy to be the hero since so much more was based around him than Broken Sword, and that he made the other characters understand, Flying Snow, Moon, etc, who were still pissed at Broken Sword's failure

9/21/2006 4:55:10 PM

Quote :

"The REASON he killed the hero was he had to send a message to everyone that his power is absolute. Doubt of his power or not following his own law would result in anarchy. He has to make an example though he desperately didn't want to. "

thats how I interpreted

Quote :

"whoa, thats cool. but forgiveness is greater so i dont think that was right. "

well leaders of that time ruled with force alone so if he let him live he was sending an awful message, if you want to take the film literally that is

9/21/2006 5:16:42 PM

Quote :

"Just as the colors weren't chosen to reflect anything (just to set the segments apart)"

I thought the colors did mean something. Something along the lines of how much truth there was to the current progression you were watching.

9/22/2006 9:17:29 AM

that's exactly what i thought myself, but they don't represent anything according to the article posted by volex, which contained a discussion with the cinematographer.

Quote :

"While Mr. Zhang and Mr. Doyle insist the choice of colors was aesthetic, not symbolic, the coloration itself becomes the movie's theme."

[Edited on September 22, 2006 at 10:17 AM. Reason : .]

9/22/2006 10:15:37 AM

the story was complete shit, the idea behind this is EYECANDY, and it does it without rival

9/22/2006 11:37:31 AM