ABSTRACT
In a New York Times review, Robert Mackey calls Hero an “unlikely collaboration between two dazzling visual stylists: the Chinese director Zhang Yimou and the Australian cinematographer Christopher Doyle” (Mackey, 15 August 2004). The result is a ravishingly beautiful film with colour-coded flashbacks within a black-hued framework. Black represents the dark dynastic power of the main protagonist, the King of Qin, as he fights successfully to unite China and become the First Emperor of the Qin Dynasty over 2,000 years ago. The flashbacks feature stylized combat in gorgeous scenery: a golden birch forest, a blue-green lake, bleached white deserts and a soft grey chess house. While the story is controversial, the sumptuous imagery is widely applauded.
