Zhang
Yimou Crawls out of Woodwork
Merchant Times, 21 March 2001
Liu Shu-De
Last year, before sealing his mouth during the last interview, Zhang Yimou
promised Merchant Times (Shi Dai Shang Bao) that should he open his mouth about
Hero, readers of Merchant Times would be the first to learn of it. Yesterday,
Zhang Yimou finally fulfilled his promise...
Sometime back, all kinds of news related to Hero were churned out endlessly.
During its active production, many media tried to visit the production, hoping
to gain some information. However, Zhang Yimou issued a strict order preventing
any of its crew and cast to say anything about Hero. Just when discussions about
Hero are subsiding, Zhang Yimou came out of woodwork in Hengdian of Province
Zhejiang yesterday to talk about the movie.
I have Always Liked Wuxia
Everyone always has the impression that I only like shooting films set in rural
villages. Actually, I am a big fan of wuxia novels. My first wuxia novel was the
17-volume King of Eagle Claw. I still remember the characters very well. I have
also read Jin Yong (Louis Cha), Gu Long, etc. Jin Yong's novels are more
traditional; Gu Long novels are atmospheric.
Every since I became a director, I had always wanted to produce a wuxia movie. I
had already been looking for script writers three years ago, had always wanted
to adapt a Jin Yong or Gu Long novel. I hoped to get the adaptation script right
before purchasing the rights. However, the adaptation was not satisfactory, so I
decided to handle the script myself. It took me about three years. By the time
our script was done, when I was happy with my script, Lee Ang's Crouching Tiger,
Hidden Dragon had already been released and was immensely successful. And thus,
people are saying that I am merely following the trend, imitating others.
The
Characters in Hero
There are four symbolic persons in Hero. The four people are called Flawed
Sword, Flying Snow, Without Name, Like Moon, and are played respectively by Tony
Leung Chiu Wai, Maggie Cheung, Jet Li and Zhang Ziyi. They seem to have no
surnames, and their names are but a metaphor. Chen Daoming acts as Emperor Qin,
and doesn't have a name either. We don't call him Yingzheng or Ershi, just
Emperor Qin.
The story is set mainly in the Post Warring Period. At that time, there are
Seven Kingdoms, with Kingdom Qin being the strongest. To prevent Kingdom
Qin from conquering them, the Six Kingdoms keep sending assassins to kill
Emperor Qin. Flawed Sword, Flying Snow and Like Moon combine forces to
assassinate Emperor Qin but die in their failed attempt. Eventually, Without
Name gains Emperor Qin's trust and enters the inner palace. When Without Name
gets close enough to the emperor to be able to murder him, he changes his mind.
For Without Name realises that Emperor Qin is a true Hero... This is the basic
structure of Hero.
Many people tend to compare Hero with Lee Ang's Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.
However, I believe that Hero is not only a wuxia pian but also a nursery tale
that happened in ancient China.
I Hope to Retain my Personality
I don't know much about the West, unlike Lee Ang who is familiar about the
Western market and popular in the West. I don't have Lee Ang's good command of
English, and I am known as a folk of the countryside, a rural director. The
world is a big market and there are people who enjoy my movies. I hope to retain
my nature in Hero, to impart the work's refreshing feeling. As I am the one who
wrote the story, it carries my unique mood.
Hero is a commercial action movie. I'll be including my personal understanding
of Chinese culture in the film, to make it more meaningful. Wuxia is a
fictitious world. Sometimes, you may discover that it's so fascinating to
transform the objects of imagination into material objects of the real world;
It's also very difficult. For example, a wuxia novel may paint vividly the
atmosphere of a very short moment, the speed, the strength during the instant
when the sword is unsheathed, affording you plenty of room for imagination. It's
very exhilarating. But in a movie, that instant is but a quick move, there can't
be much charm. Then you have to feel the mood. This is the first time I am
shooting a wuxia pian and I want to portray this type of atmosphere, to produce
something that shows my idiosyncrasies.
In reality, Hero is a movie that combine elements of commercialisation with
uniqueness. It's not justifiable just saying about its uniqueness; That would
mean an experimental movie which may be a commercial failure. Elements of
commercialisation relate to the greatness of the story, the mood, the rhythm and
the vastness of the scenes.
Source: Sina