September 2, 2004
'Hero' Soars, and Its Director Thanks 'Crouching Tiger'
By CRAIG S. SMITH
The Hong Kong filmmaker Zhang Yimou, in Europe to promote his next martial-arts movie, is bemused by the surprise response from American moviegoers to his first one, the epic "Hero," which broke box-office records last weekend for an Asian film released in the United States.
"I never thought it would be so popular," Mr. Zhang said by telephone from London.
He gives the credit to another movie that almost stopped his from being made, and then contributed to a long delay in its release in the United States - the director Ang Lee's "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" - and to savvy marketing by the distributor of "Hero," Miramax.
" 'Crouching Tiger' created an audience for this kind of film," Mr. Zhang, speaking Mandarin, said in his signature mumble.
Known as a maker of intimate, intense dramas like "Raise the Red Lantern," Mr. Zhang began writing the script for "Hero" in the late 1990's, when attitudes in the mainstream film world softened toward one of his lifelong loves, martial-arts tales.
He said he nearly abandoned the script when "Crouching Tiger" was released in 2000, fearing people would accuse him of riding on Ang Lee's coattails. But he discovered when he persevered that the success of "Crouching Tiger" - the film, made for an estimated $15 million, sold $128 million in tickets in the United States alone, according to imdb.com - made it easier for him to raise money for his own film's production.
The "Hero" story - of a third century B.C. assassin who comes within reach of China's legendary King of Qin but fails to kill him - is well known to the Chinese. In Mr. Zhang's telling, the assassin gives up the opportunity to kill the king for the good of the empire emerging under the king's rule. The king orders the would-be assassin killed instead.
"The hero sacrifices himself for peace," Mr. Zhang said, a concept that he said resonated with Chinese audiences, who also saw contemporary parallels in the self-sacrifice for a brutal ruler. When the film was released in China in late 2002, "Hero" beat even "Titanic" to become the country's highest-grossing film.
Still, Mr. Zhang said he kept Western audiences in mind while making the film because he knew he would not be able to recoup the production costs through Chinese ticket sales alone.
"I tried to get across themes that would be understood by a Western audience," he said. "There are elements that are purely Chinese, but I made an effort to keep a balance between the two."
Miramax was one of his biggest backers, covering nearly two-thirds of the film's $30 million cost. On Miramax's advice, he cut 20 minutes to speed the pace and make it more palatable for American audiences.
"America is a big market, and I wanted it to succeed, so I agreed," Mr. Zhang said. The uncut version was released in China on DVD.
Talk of the cuts and the delay in bringing the film to American theaters fed rumors that Miramax wasn't happy with the film. But both Miramax and Mr. Zhang say that was never true and that technical factors alone were responsible for the delay. (In Variety today, Harvey Weinstein, the co-chairman of Miramax, wrote a guest column recounting his firm's differences with the Chinese distributors of "Hero" and other obstacles to the "full Oscar push" he says he had planned for it.)
Miramax originally wanted to release the film in 2003 but held back when another martial-arts film, Jackie Chan's "Medallion," appeared on the market. It then planned the release to follow Quentin Tarantino's "Kill Bill" series, running trailers for "Hero" on the DVD of "Kill Bill Vol. 1" and in theaters with "Kill Bill Vol. 2." It also put a "Quentin Tarantino Presents" label on the film, hoping to draw interest from the director's followers.
The strategy apparently worked. "Making that association was very useful for getting the film out to an American audience," Mr. Zhang said.
He expects the success of "Hero" to help his next picture, "House of Flying Daggers," another martial-arts saga that is scheduled to open in American theaters in December - distributed, like "Crouching Tiger," by Sony Pictures Classics. He is in Europe promoting the film, which is set in the waning days of the Tang Dynasty and follows the story of two star-crossed lovers fighting a shadowy revolutionary alliance.
"It should be at least as well received, and maybe will exceed 'Hero,' because it is a film about love, and American audiences may find it easier to understand," Mr. Zhang said.
