Day 157: Hero

A warrior known as Nameless (Jet Li) wants to stop the Qin Emperor (Daoming Chen) before he kills anymore people in his attempt to unite the kingdoms of China. He uses the three best assassins of the time in order to get close to the Emperor but when he does, the situation is not as black and white as he first thought.

Nameless has the Emperor believe that he killed Sky (Donnie Yen), Broken Sword (Tony Leung Chiu Wai) and Flying Snow (Maggie Cheung) and in doing this, the Emperor invites him to the palace in order to explain his success. This was Nameless’ plan all along as he needed to get past the guards and be within 10 paces of the Emperor in order to be able to kill him. As he tells the story of how he defeated the three assassins, it is obvious to the Emperor that it can’t have taken place like how he is told. Nameless says that he managed to defeat Broken Sword and Flying Snow through jealousy, saying that Flying Snow had slept with Sky. The Emperor knows Broken Sword and Flying Snow to be honourable and so this pettiness would not have taken place. It’s revealed that the assassins were not killed by Nameless but instead two offered to help him. Broken Sword, however, told Nameless that the Emperor could not be killed because he would unite the kingdoms and it would result in peace. Even if there had to be war and great loss of life to get there, it would still be preferable to separate kingdoms. Nameless takes this on board and decides to still get within 10 paces of the Emperor but when his opportunity comes, he decides against killing him. As a result, he must be executed but is given a hero’s burial.

The film is visually stunning. The colours used throughout are so striking and it makes the film memorable for those alone. That’s not all though, the story is also very interesting and how it’s told is done wonderfully. The fighting scenes between the three assassins, Nameless, and Moon (Ziyi Zhang) are beautiful to watch and seem more like dancing than fighting. When Flying Snow kills Broken Sword and then herself, it seems to cement their love and make sense for their relationship. Their swords were always together as they were always together in life, and so they must be in death. It managed to be sad and lovely at the same time, which is rare.

8/10

Day 149: Memoirs of a Geisha

A little girl is sold out of her small village to a woman who will raise her in the ways of a geisha. That was the initial plan but after many run-ins, it is decided that Chiyo (Ziyi Zhang) will work as a servant instead. Until the wonderful geisha Mameha (Michelle Yeoh) takes her under her wing and makes her into the most sought-after geisha.

Chiyo’s strength despite all the hardships and spitefulness she faces is quite impressive. She works hard for what she wants and even after she thinks she won’t get what it is she has worked so hard for, she still carries on. Finally though, her perseverance is rewarded and she gets to be with the Chairman (Ken Watanabe). That’s quite a touching scene itself and you can see that the Chairman and Chiyo had so both wanted to be with each other but couldn’t due to circumstance and loyalty.

The film itself is quite visually interesting. It did well in documenting the change from poor village girl to wonderful geisha with Chiyo. I liked that we got to see a lot of what went into the process as it gave some insight into how exact and unforgiving it all is.

7/10