Hero is a beautiful movie narration, based on the assassination attempt on the King of Qin. It starts with Nameless, a warrior taken to dine with the emperor as a reward for killing three assassins, who attempted to kill the king three years ago.
Happy with his bravery, he is allowed to sit 10 paces from the king, a privilege not given to many, considering the enemies the king has made over years of war.
Nameless starts with his version of the story of how he exploits the weak points of his enemies, Long Sky, Flying Snow, and Broken Sword. As he narrates how he manages to use the feeling of jealousy to make snow kill sword, her love, the king begins to grow suspicious and says such a scenario is not possible. He has faced them both, and knows how they think. He knows both snow and sword are above such feelings and would not choose violence for such a petty reason. He begins to contemplate on how nameless has faked the story, and how he must have convinced sky,snow and sword to sacrifice their life, in order to gain King's confidence and get within a striking range, in order to accomplish something which sky, snow and sword couldn't. King's assassination. Nameless is impressed by king's wisdom, as he accepts what the king says, now narrating the original version. But there is something else which the king misses, rather underestimates. And the whole plot again begins to change, as we come to know how three years ago, sword and snow reach close enough to kill the king, but sword spares his life with a greater motive in mind. Ultimately, he teaches 2 words to Nameless, that rattles Nameless's motive to kill the king. 'Our Land'.
China is in a state of chaos, divided into 7 states, all fighting with each other with no peace. The king of Qin has a vision of conquering all those 7 states, and he is the only king who has the army, power and will to win all battles to reign over China.
Sword knew, the only way to stop such a chaos, is for Qin to take over all kingdoms and start a new life for China.For such a life, the king of Qin had to live.For such a dream, Sword gives up his motive to kill the king, requesting snow and Nameless to share his vision.
The movie has some pretty mind boggling scenes, giving the violent scenes a philosophical angle, the way sky and Nameless predict and picture their battle, moments before it is about to happen, in a rainstorm, with music playing in the background. The fighting style of Nameless and sword are commendable. Sword relates his swordsmanship to calligraphy, saying that there is a lot of similarity between the two. The movie transcends the boundaries of Chinese fighting style, turning it into a ballet and a fight between minds, how a mind abandons the feeling of vengeance to think for the greater good. It is a classic example of Roshomon effect, giving contradictory interpretations to the same action.
Worth watching!!
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