Hero

Hero (2002) is about an assassin telling an emperor how he killed three enemies, and the story changes more than once. A nameless man arrives at the palace of the Qin emperor. He says he has killed three famous assassins and is granted the right to sit within ten paces of the throne. He begins to tell it. The emperor listens and does not believe him. He tells his own version. Then the man tells the truth. The same events are staged three times, three different ways. Each version has its own colour. One account is red, another blue, another white and green. The costumes, sets and light change entirely with the version. Colour here is not decoration but information telling you which account you are watching. Christopher Doyle photographed it. The fights deliberately abandon gravity; the sequences on water, among falling leaves and across the surface of a lake are choreography rather than combat. Jet Li, Tony Leung, Maggie Cheung and Zhang Ziyi star. Its politics were argued over: the decision made for the sake of unity at the end was criticised for justifying central authority. The company that took the American rights kept it off screens for roughly two years. It was eventually released with Quentin Tarantino's name attached to the marketing and did well. It was nominated for the foreign language film Oscar. It runs 99 minutes. Good for: martial arts cinema, visual design, and multiple narration. Less good for: its political message is contested and the characters have little depth.