Hero

Hero - Directed by Zhang Yimou

Analysis by Karson Mo

The movie "Hero" is a Chinese movie about an unnamed assassin who travelled around China and "killed" some other assassins in order to get within 10 paces of the Qin emperor in order to assassinate him. When the unnamed assassin was in the presence of the emperor however, he started talking to him and the emperor figured out that he was here to assassinate him, and he tried to discuss how exactly the unnamed assassin planned on killing him and what he did to prepare for this event.

The lighting of this film was rather nice. In the scenes where the unnamed assassin was talking to the Qin emperor, the lighting was soft, and hits the unnamed assassin from different angles to make him look rather mysterious. Side lighting was used with the Qin emperor to symbolize to us that even though he appears all nice and stuff, he is also evil. The lighting helps to foreshadow the events that follow; that the unnamed assassin plans on assassinating the emperor. It is a big contributor to the overall gloomy and cold tone of that particular part of the movie.

The cinematography of the movie was excellent. The colors used in the movie were just absolutely magnificent. I found it nice and interesting how the director used such vibrant colors as red, blue, and green in different versions of the story. A lot of the things in the movie were pretty much centered in the shots, like the emperor, the unnamed assassin, Moon, and the others. The cinematography reveals the tone of and mood of the movie by making people relate certain colors with certain moods.

The editing in this movie was pretty interesting what with the whole switching from one version of a story to another version. It reveals the tone and mood of the movie by sometimes making really rapid transitions from people to people like in the fighting scenes.