Hero Worship; Already a hit in China, Jet Li's latest movie is tipped

Sunday Herald, The, Aug 22, 2004 by Graeme Virtue

SUMPTUOUS cinematography. A feudal Chinese setting. Characters who defy gravity, stepping lightly into the air on a whim. Oscar nominations. And a hell of a lot of dazzling swordplay. Is all this sounding familiar? Maybe, but it would be wrong to dismiss Hero - which has its UK premiere at the Edinburgh International Film Festival this week - as a sly attempt to replicate the global success of Ang Lee's Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.

In some ways, it's got a head-start over its illustrious predecessor; while Crouching Tiger was critically adored in the West, Chinese audiences, perhaps hardened after years of watching similar wuxia period dramas, weren't quite so blown over. On its release in 2002, however, Hero quickly became the most successful Chinese film ever. That's down to one man: Jet Li.

"This is the most important film I've ever made," explains Li. If you've only seen his Western output - his debut as a baddie in Lethal Weapon 4, followed by kinetic but formulaic action fare such as Romeo Must Die and The One - you wouldn't find that hard to believe. But what's interesting is that Li chose to return to China to make Hero just as his career was gaining real momentum in Hollywood. He was already a superstar in Asia. Why go back?

"One of the producers of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon is a friend of mine," he explains. "He flew over to LA with the Hero script. I liked the script, and he told me, 'Jet, I need your help to make this film'. And I said 'why?' just like you. And he said, if you're not involved in this film, we can only spend three million US dollars. If we want to make a great, high-quality Chinese film, we need you because you can bring a worldwide audience and more money. And I want to help Chinese film, so I went back."

In the end, Hero was budgeted at $30m, and it's certainly world- class. Directed by Chinese auteur Yimou Zhang, it's set in pre- unified China, with Li's character Nameless, a lowly country policeman, granted a rare audience with the paranoid king of the Qin region after he defeats three legendary assassins: Sky (Donnie Yen), Flying Snow (Maggie Cheung) and Broken Sword (Tony Leung). Nameless recounts his victories - which we see in dazzling flashback - and is permitted closer to the warlord after each account. But is he really a loyal subject, or an assassin?

Although the fight sequences are breathtaking (particularly a duel on a mirrored lake, Li and Leung skipping across the surface), it's the knotty plot - which shifts, Rashomon-style, depending on who's telling the story - that makes Hero so engaging.

"It's totally different to a commercial action film: someone get in trouble, go to the mountain, learn martial art, kill the bad guy. Always revenge, revenge, revenge. Hero has a unique story - martial arts are involved, but the whole message is really that violence is not the only solution."

This is the first of Li's period films to be released in Western cinemas but he built his considerable career starring in wuxia dramas such as The Legend of Fong Sai-Yuk and the successful Once Upon A Time In China franchise. "Over 20 films!" he laughs. "You can only see them on DVD or TV! Never on the big screen!" But these historical epics are perfectly suited to his firecracker skill with traditional weapons, honed since he enrolled in the Beijing Wushu Academy at age nine.

"In the modern story, you can only use hand-to-hand, or use a chair to knock down the other guy, or hit him with a television. Anybody can use a table or beer bottle to attack. You don't need a style."

Distributors Miramax are obviously hoping Hero will catch the Western imagination in a similar way to Crouching Tiger. They've convinced Quentin Tarantino to attach his name to the film - he's "presenting" it - in order to pique the interest of mall America. What are Li's hopes?

"Who knows?" he laughs. "I can't control it! I'm just an actor! But I hope more people watch the film and get more information about the Chinese people.

"We're not just making kick-ass movies, we have wonderful stories and wonderful characters. I hope it will be successful. But there's no guarantee."

Although he won't make it over from his LA base for the Edinburgh screenings, Li was in Scotland earlier this year, filming Danny The Dog (since rechristened Unleashed). In the film, Li plays a feral bare-knuckle fighter raised in the dark and systematically brutalised by his handler, Bob Hoskins "My character is mentally only 10 years old. He's like an animal. He's got a dog collar round his neck and when the collar's off, he knocks people down, and when the collar is back on, he goes back to the dark."

It's only when Danny meets a kind, blind piano tuner (as played by Morgan Freeman) that he starts to discover his humanity. This coming- of-age theme seems like a departure for Li - although the pit- fighting scenes are apparently bone-crunchingly violent, the first clip to hit the web showed his character belatedly discovering the joys of ice-cream.

"It's a different kind of martial arts film. The physical part is that he can fight but he's not human, he's an animal. Humans have responsibilities, emotions and friendships. Like Hero, that's the message I want get across to the young audience. Violence is not the only option."