One of the most "operatic" moments I've ever seen is ten thousand armored
men shouting in perfect unison, again and again, in a terrifying crescendo:
"Permission to execute!" It's just one unforgettable scene among hundreds
in Zhang Yimou's "Hero," a mighty, glorious film epic.

This story about China's first emperor was the film Zhang was working
on even as he completed the "Beijing Turandot" and "opera" is written
all over "Hero," in sight and sound, and a super-sized largesse of spirit
and gesture.

For unfathomable reasons, Miramax has been holding back on the US
commercial release of "Hero," although it has done spectacularly well
for two years now in Asia.  I saw what might have been the only US
screening, at the San Francisco Asian American Film Festival.

Plans for an April release withdrawn, Miramax is now talking about June.
Whenever "Hero" arrives, be sure to see it, either as an opera fan or
as a film enthusiast.  "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" composer Tan Dun
wrote the score for "Hero," and it is music as superior to his earlier
effort as Zhang's work outshines Ang Lee's.

Casts partially overlap: in "Hero," the protagonist, called Nameless
(Jet Li), is a small-town peace officer, who mysteriously eliminates
three feared warriors threatening the king, even behind the protection
of his vast army.  One by one, Flying Snow (Maggie Cheung), Sky (Donnie
Yen), and Broken Sword (Tony Leung) fall to the superior swordplay of
Nameless, who is then brought to the court to receive his reward - and
that's where the film begins.  The reverse story-telling here is just
as sure-handed and effective as in the best film around these days,
"Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind."

Zhang's uses a multilayered, "Rashomon"-like approach, repeating events
from different points of view and in flashbacks - and yet the story moves
forward, unimpeded.

There may be more beautifully photographed films than "Hero," but I
can't think of any.  For years (decades?) now, we have seen martial arts
and sword fights in the air, but in "Hero," Christopher Doyle's magical
cinematography and Ching Siu-tung's choreography combine to make the
warriors soar through thousands of arrows, water droplets, leaves, sand,
changing colors.  Add incredible vistas and jaw-dropping crowd scenes,
and you can be well satisfied with the artistry of the images alone.

But, of course, there is much more to this film.  From his large-scale
works - "Red Sorghum," "Ju Dou," "Raise the Red Lantern," "Story of
Qiu Ju," "Shanghai Triad" - to his recent heartwarming, intimate films
- "The Road Home," "Not One Less," "Happy Times" - Zhang has been a
storyteller, and he doesn't fall back on special effects, even in this,
his first martial-arts drama.

At 52, the man who bought his first camera with money he made by selling
his blood, the film-maker with experience in every genre, finally arrived
where other Chinese directors get their start - and he scored big.

The story is about the Qin (Ch'in) ruler, Zheng or Cheng, who conquered
and united all of China, in 221 BC.  By now, Western audiences are
familiar with the period from such films as Tony Ianzelo's "The First
Emperor of China," Chen Kaige's "The Emperor and the Assassin," Zhou
Xiaowen's "The Emperor's Shadow," among others.  "Hero" works as a unique
take on history, as a believable drama of fascinating characters.

There are instances of grotesque overkill, as enormous armies besiege a
small school or Cheung and Yen cut through hundreds of armored warriors
like knives through butter, but the visual thrills, wonderful acting,
and the consistently effective direction make those occurrences just so
many nits to be ignored.

"Hero" has the best of the "Matrix" and "Lord of the Rings" series
combined, for grownups, and none of their endless, empty tedium.

Another important event in June is the Spoleto USA production of the
"real," the entire "Peony Pavilion," the 18-hour Chinese opera written
in 1598.  This is the seminal work seen in this country for the first
time at the 2000 Lincoln Center Festival, not the abbreviated,
Peter-Sellars-butchered version produced in Berkeley in 1998.

I disliked that rock-band take, with Tan Dun's synthesis of Gregorian
chants, Boito, electronic music/sounds/noise, Orff, and Indian raga, but
more importantly, my companion to the event, Al Chungliang Huang, hated
it with a negative passion not usually found among Tai Chi masters.

Just one of Sellars' many miscalculations was the casting of Ying Huang,
the soprano known in the West through the film version of "Madama
Butterfly," wasted in the circus music and directorial mess.

Anyway, in Charleston this summer, Chen Shi-Zheng's production will
restore the great kunju masterpiece, with something much closer to the
original music, and very, very big: 160 characters, 600 costumes...
and an 1800-gallon pond filled with ducks, goldfish and water plants.
All that, and Qian Yi in the leading role!  See www.spoletousa.org.

Janos Gereben/SF
www.sfcv.org
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