Zhang Yimou's 2002 wuxia epic "Hero" follows Nameless, played by Jet Li, a prefect who arrives before the King of Qin claiming to have defeated three legendary assassins. As he tells his story, the king doubts it and offers his own version—and then a third account emerges that may be closest to the truth. Shot across China with a cast including Tony Leung, Maggie Cheung, Zhang Ziyi, and Donnie Yen, it's a Rashomon-style narrative of competing loyalties, told in saturated color and set against some of the most meticulously constructed images Zhang Yimou has ever composed.
Andy Nelson and Pete Wright dig into the wuxia genre and why this is Zhang's most satisfying entry into it, the political questions the film raises about unification and authoritarianism, and the production stories behind the two-hour-a-day lake shoot and the obsessively sorted yellow leaves—as part of their Zhang Yimou series on The Next Reel on TruStory FM. Full episode resources and transcript here.
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