Hero - Trivia, Questions and Fun Facts

[discussimdb]

Fan of Hero or just want to share your movie knowledge? This topic is dedicated to all trivia and questions related to Hero

[michele]

Stylistically and plot similar to The Emperor's Shadow (1996) involving the power of the Qin Emperor and sub-plot with court assassins.

[ruby]

All of the soldiers in the Qin army sequence as well as the palace sequences were performed by actual Chinese People's Liberation Army soldiers, except the stunt performers. It's estimated that 18000 were used as extras in the film.

[wallace]

Is the first foreign language film to open at #1 at the US box office.

[bernice]

(at around 12 mins) The old blind man in the chess court plays an instrument know as a "Guqin" or just "Qin."

[ronnie]

Maggie Cheung required weeks of training. Even Ziyi Zhang, who earned rave reviews with her martial arts performance in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000) needed intensive training to become adept with the twin blades she fights with during many of her scenes in Hero.

[jessica]

Earliest project of 5 by Jet Li, to jointly have cast members attending in a single PR media event adjacent to 'The Rose Theatre' sites, newly opened 'Playhouse/Museum', in same week as UK, London premiere of 'Unleashed' (2005). War, Mummy : Tomb of the Dragon Emperor, plus Fearless, completing the ensemble. Uniquely, due delayed release in the UK/USA, it has rare distinction of being only film given full trailer promotion screening twice at two separate events at same location initially shown in (2003), event.

[bessie]

The Qin Empire preferred the color black, even for the horses. In order to be historically accurate, Director Yimou Zhang ordered all 300+ horses to be colored black (temporarily, of course) for the cavalry sequences.

[sophie]

Both Donnie Yen and Tony Chiu-Wai Leung have portrayed Wing Chun Grandmaster Ip Man in separate films, Yen in Yip Man (2008), Ip Man 2 (2010) and Ip Man 3 (2015), and Leung in The Grandmaster (2013).

[stephanie]

Robin Shou was the original choice for the role of Sky but dropped out for unknown reasons. Jet Li then suggested to the director that Donnie Yen would make the perfect opponent for Jet's own character.

[gabriel]

Jackie Chan was offered the role of the King but turned it down.

[steve]

Director Yimou Zhang did not like the initial batch of the red cloth used in the "red sequence"; none of the test samples came out right on camera. Therefore, a special shade of red dye was Fedex'ed from England, and costume designer Emi Wada ended up dying the cloth AND making all the costumes locally (with help, of course).

[nora]

Tony Chiu-Wai Leung tore a ligament while filming the lake scenes. The filming was delayed for just one day and then resumed.

[russell]

(at around 23 mins) The emperor remarks, after hearing Nameless tell him that there are 19 ways to write the word "sword", that he would solve this problem. In history, he succeeded in enforcing only one writing system in the whole of China. This way, whatever dialect people speak, they would be using the same set of characters making communication a lot easier.

[tom]

Quentin Tarantino, being an avid fan of Eastern cinema, was one of the people who enabled the US release of this movie.

[duane]

In ancient China, when someone claimed that he killed his enemies, he needed to present their heads (tou zi) as proof instead of their weapons. Director Yimou Zhang modified this, mindful of the audience's stomachs, thus making the story less accurate.

[ray]

The "red fight" between Moon and Flying-Snow was filmed in a forest in Mongolia. Director Yimou Zhang had to wait until the leaves turn yellow, and hired local nomads to gather even more yellow leaves in order to cover the ground completely. In fact, he was so fanatic about the leaves, that he had his crew separate the leaves into four different "classes" which were each put at increasingly farther lengths from the camera.