ABSTRACT
Deliberately or not, Zhang Yimou layered his 2002 martial arts (wuxia) masterpiece, Hero, with multiple political discourses. The film addresses and interrogates themes that resonate with political meaning and imagery, and which are as relevant to an exploration of contemporary China as to any attempt to understand the ancient period of the Warring States (c.475-221 BCE) that forms the backdrop to the movie.
