An Elite Group Enterprise Inc. Production, HERO is directed by Zhang Yimou, written by Zhang Yimou, Li Feng and Wang Bin. Produced by Bill Kong and Zhang Yimou. Christopher Doyle is the director of photography. Production designers are Huo Tingxiao and Yi Zhenzhou. Tony Ching Siu Tung is the Action Director. Costume design by Emi Wada. Music by Tan Dun.

Qin's Palace

Synopsis
At the height of China's Warring States period, the country was divided into seven kingdoms: Qin, Zhao, Han Wei, Yan, Chu and Qi. For years, the separate kingdoms fought ruthlessly for supremacy. As a result, the populace endured decades of death and suffering.

The Kingdom of Qin was the most determined of all. The Qin King was obsessed with conquering all of China and becoming her first Emperor. He had long been the target of assassins throughout the other six states. Of all the would-be killers, none inspired as much fear as the three legendary assassins, Broken Sword, Flying Snow and Sky.

To anyone who defeated the three assassins, the King of Qin promised great power, mountains of gold and a private audience with the King himself. But defeating the killers is a near impossible task. For ten years no one came close to claiming the prize. So when the enigmatic county sheriff, Nameless, came to the palace bearing the legendary weapons of the slain assassins, the King was impatient to hear his story. Sitting in the palace, only ten paces from the King, Nameless told his extraordinary tale:

For ten years, Nameless studied the way of the sword and resolved to challenge the three assassins. Using the secrets of swordsmanship; Nameless defeated the mighty Sky in a furious showdown. Following this initial victory, he destroyed the famed duo of Flying Snow and Broken Sword. This time using a weapon far more devastating than his sword - their extraordinary love for each other.

Nameless

The King hung on every detail of this curious story. But then something most unexpected happened - the King has a different story to tell of how Nameless really came to sit there, face to face with the King!

It appears that everything was not so simple. In the centre of the intrigue sits Nameless -a solitary ranger and the King of Qin - the ruler of the Kingdom, with only ten steps between them. Within those ten steps holds an earth-shattering tale of love, honour and duty, a story that moves beyond the reaches of history. A story about what it means to be a HERO.

To bring to life this epic tale of love, loyalty, jealousy and intrigue, HERO assembled an unprecedented collection of Asia's hottest talent. International martial arts superstar Jet Li heads the stellar cast as Nameless, the enigmatic county sheriff who earns his audience with the mighty King of Qin. Hong Kong megastars Tony Leung Chiu Wai and Maggie Cheung Man Yuk, fresh from their award-winning performances in Wong Kar Wai's 'In the Mood for Love', reunite to play the assassins Broken Sword (Leung) and Flying Snow (Cheung). Zhang Ziyi, who has gone from strength to strength since her critically acclaimed debut in 'The Road Home' will play Broken Sword's devoted servant, Moon, whilst distinguished veteran Chen Daoming plays the powerful King of Qin. Rising star and martial artist Donnie Yen will play the third assassin, Sky.

Two-time Academy Award® nominee, director Zhang Yimou is joined by Award® winning 'Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon' producer, Bill Kong, Cannes Technical Grand Prize winner Christopher Doyle as director of photography, and straight from his roaring success in 'Shaolin Soccer' comes action director Tony Ching Siu Tung. Academy Award® winning costume designer Emi Wada and Academy Award® winning composer Tan Dun complete the formidable, star-studded crew.

Background
HERO is based on events in China during the Third Century BC.

From 475 – 221 BC, the land was divided into seven major Kingdoms: Qin, Zhao, Han Wei, Yan, Chu and Qi. Named ‘The Warring States Period’ because of the power struggle between the Kingdoms, this was a time of endless brutal wars and much hardship and suffering.

War was the predominant way of life. Technological advances enabled the casting of individual weapons, which in turn allowed the arming of foot soldiers. This precipitated a new order of warfare. In previous eras, aristocrats on chariots had fought battles. A General-led infantry replaced this, with peasants pressed into the front lines and commanders directing the strategy. Many treatises on warfare were written during these turbulent times, including the celebrated ‘Art of War’ by Sun Tzu. This in-depth study of warfare remains a Bible of the battlefield to this day.

Dominated by power struggles, the Warring States was nevertheless a period of great classical thought. This cultural flowering is known as the One Hundred Schools Period. Confucianism, Taoism and Legalism developed during the Warring States, and some of the most memorable poetry and prose in China were written at this time. The incessant warfare also contributed to other social changes. It sparked reforms in the economy and the development of iron greatly increased agriculture, precipitating a population explosion.

Qin, First Emperor of China

During the Warring States period, a feudal system became firmly established. The Warring States saw the feudal lord of each state vying for hegemony. Each of them believed that they were destined to unite ‘All Under Heaven’, a phrase taken to mean civilization as they knew it. The King of Qin was most ruthless and ambitious of all. Historically chronicled as a brutal tyrant, the King was determined to conquer and control all of the states. Throughout history, there have been stories of how assassins from all over China plotted to kill the King of Qin. HERO is one of these stories.

The seven states would stop at nothing in their goal to create the first Chinese Empire. They placed huge garrisons and enormous walls along their frontiers, military advisors schemed to defeat foreign armies, and alliances between states were formed only to be broken. In the middle of the fray were the wandering warriors. They were skilled fighters who would lend their skills to various states against their enemies. In HERO, the fate of China rests in the hands of three such legendary warriors.

Information
HERO’s path to the screen began with the film’s director, Zhang Yimou. World famous for his brilliant storytelling and incisive portraits of China, Zhang had always wanted to make a martial arts film. He devoured wuxia (martial arts literature) novels as a child, but rejected the idea of adapting something from literature and instead spent three years developing the story of HERO, which he describes as “Not only a martial arts film, but also a legend [of what] happened in ancient China.” Zhang continues to explain his reasoning: “If you look at the history of Chinese martial arts literature”, he says, “the plot always hinges on revenge… For years, this has been the only theme in Chinese martial arts films whether it’s Bruce Lee or Jackie Chan. I wanted to take the genre in a new direction. In my story, the goal is to downplay violence. The characters are motivated by their desire to end the war. For real martial arts heroes, the heart is far more important than the sword.”

For the actors, HERO presented a unique opportunity: a martial arts film that placed equal importance on the plot and the action. “HERO is my dream movie” enthuses Jet Li. “When I read the script, I cried twice. In my twenty-two year career of making movies, this is the first script that made me weep. It is an incredible story, and an important question about what kind of person we can call a hero.” Zhang Ziyi, too is excited by her part in HERO: “Most projects offered to me contain many fight scenes,” she says, “But I really hoped to experience playing with my heart and not my fists. There are some fight scenes in HERO too, but my role is rich, multi-layered and has distinct personality”.

Zhang Yimou is a world-renowned storyteller, but HERO is his martial arts debut. He describes the difficulties in directing action: “One move of a sword can be described in a wuxia novel – the strength and the speed – and it is very exciting, you have plenty of room to imagine. But in a movie, you have less than one second to describe the movement of a sword – it is a challenge.” He admits to being in unfamiliar territory, but Zhang feels excited by the challenge and the chance to work with Action Director, Tony Ching Siu Tung, who is an old friend of more than a decade. “And then there’s the cast,” he adds “Jet Li, Tony Leung, Maggie Cheung Zhang Ziyi and Donnie Yen – five of the most talented actors in China. It's just a joy to work with them. It takes the pressure off to work with such skilled people.” Donnie Yen applauds Zhang’s command of a new style: “For a guy who has never directed action, he’s got a nuance for certain pauses, certain breaks. He never stops looking at the bigger picture and perfecting as he sees fit.”

The Look
The exacting standards that were set for the story and the action sequences are no less stringent when it comes to the look of HERO. Three versions of the story, told from different perspectives each has its own color scheme – red, white and blue. “ The aesthetics of this film are inextricably bound up with the plot”, says director Zhang Yimou “The idea of using colors to tell the story came about quite early in the process of conceptualizing the film. The look of the set, the costumes and so on was developed in concert with the script itself. I had an image in my head for a long time and then worked through the details of how to realize it through talking with the other people working on the film”.

In search of perfection, Zhang traveled hundreds of miles to find the ideal backdrop for each scene. The 300-strong crew has moved from Dunhuang in the northwest of Gansu province to Jiuzhaikou in northern Sichuan, before erecting spectacular sets in Hengdian TV & Movie City just three hours outside the historic city of Hangzhou. The company even dropped everything to head to an ancient oak grove in Inner Mongolia to shoot a fight scene between Maggie Cheung and Zhang Ziyi at the height of the fall foliage. “I had a guy out there specifically to keep an eye on the leaves,” says Zhang Yimou. “He made videotapes of their progress as they turned from green to yellow.” As soon as the leaves turned golden, the crew rushed north. “We used three or four cameras simultaneously at different angles.” explains Zhang “And the leaves had to be perfectly yellow. We even implemented a leaf classification system. Special class leaves could be blown in the actors’ faces, first-class in front of them, second class behind them and third-class were scattered on the ground.” A mat gathered leaves as they fell so that the crew could collect, clean and classify them, then gently send them drifting back down again.

Such obsessiveness is matched by Academy Award&Mac226; winning costume designer, Emi Wada who cites director Zhang Yimou as one of her heroes. For the costumes in HERO, Wada tried no less than thirty colors, hand dying each individual sample. However, after her colors were approved, Wada ran into an unforeseen problem. She elaborates: “We couldn’t make some colors with the dye and water in Beijing,” she sighed “Therefore we brought the dye from England and Japan and used mineral water to dye some of the fabric…we ended up with some thousand meters of cloth.” So meticulous was Wada’s control of the design that the red costumes were created using fifty-four shades of color. Using different textures to characterize the individuals in the story. Wada sought inspiration from ancient costumes in China, Korea and Japan. The silhouette of the costume is an ancient style. “But as this is an action movie, Wada explains “It also has to be as light as ballet costumes.”