I was recently in South-East Asia, and had the good fortune to watch a Chinese movie(my first) there. The movie is called, "Hero", and is directed by the famed Zhang Yimou. The dialogue is in Mandarin; the cast is stellar, and includes apart from Jet Li, all the big names on the Hong Kong circuit. I am unabashed in my gushing praise of this movie and am certain that I have never seen anything on celluloid that comes close to this. The cinematography defies adjectives. The story is engrossing and the treatment of the plot is thought provoking and creatively magnificent. Please, please, all of you, do go and see it. I am told it is due in the US theatres only in May, but those of you that can see it now, please go.
Briefly, the story, set in 3B.C., is about the Emperor Shi, and a lowly official called, 'Nameless' who is granted special access to the King, by virtue of having killed the three dreaded warrriors (two men and one woman) whose life aim was to assassinate the King. How he managed this feat and what his real identity is, forms the rest of the unfolding story. There are thus five main characters and each character is cinematically treated with a different colour (the King is green, Nameless is black, etc.), which has an intense visual and metaphorical effect.
The Emperor Shi was the first King to consolidate the seven kingdoms of China, into an empire and went on to found the first dynasty, the Qin dynasty. Apart from a lot of cultural and administrative reforms that he instituted in his brief reign, he also is credited with the building of many of the great Chinese walls (including the consolidated Great Wall). Despite these achievements, the King was a much hated and despised man in his time, primarily due to the brutality with which he enforced the union of the seven kingdoms under the umbrella of the Qin banner.
The film thus addresses the eternal metaphysical question of whether, the means justify the end and therefore, whether endemic acts of intense aggression and violence are necessary and justified, to usher in an epidemic of peace.
It is a very depressing thought, but this pattern seems to inexorably recur in most models of endurance, success, survival, fame, progress(in whatever way each one of you may define these words). From the level of the gene(according to Dawkins) to the horrific tragedy that we all witnessed on Saturday. I realise that neither the gene or brave Columbia, are direct examples or analogies of this principle, but each in their individual way do conform to and embody it, do they not?
God Bless their souls. They will forever be an inspiration of fearless determination and boundless courage. It is somewhat comforting, as Jackie says, to know that they lost their lives doing what they loved doing most. If only they did not have to......
Edit: Thank you Faldage, for the edit nudge
OP
