FAQ

He knew Snow and Sword enough to quickly put together his series of events. It is inaccurate (even Hero points that out), but the King knew the essentials, they all conspire to kill the king, Hero must have a secret move to kill the king without bringing in a sword, and that Snow and Sword are just as skilled as Hero and they would never die easily to him, kill each other over romance, or commit suicide.

Historically, yes, like a lot of Emperor and King of these times. But he is revered in China as the law he applied have permitted the country to stay united through history : one set of written sinograms, one set of wheights, and so on.

The King also told Hero that he is ruthless because that is how he will unite China under one law.

He may have been indirectly "forced" to kill Nameless. At the end their both wish and goal was to unite China into one empire. In order to remain as a emperor and maintain his faith among the people he may have been forced to do so. By looking at his expression when he gave the command it's believable that he did it so he could accomplish their goal and bring peace to China.

Also by killing Hero it will send a message that he cannot be stop and will do anything for China.

Zhang Zyi's character, Moon, is seen at the end when Maggie Cheung's, Flying Snow, decides to take suicide. All we know from the movie is that she survives.

Donnie Yen's character survives as well (as stated by the old man messenger). He was given some healing herbs and it nursed his wound back.

No, "Romance of The Three Kingdoms" is based on Three Kingdoms Period (220-280 AD) where the movie is based on Warring States Period (475-221 BC).

This story definite has a lot of inspiration from "Rashomon" and Shakespeare.

Ying xiong (Hero) is based on a screenplay by Chinese writers Feng Li, Bin Wang, and Zhang Yimou, who also directed the film. It is loosely based on the life of Jing Ke, attempted assassination of the Chinese emperor Qin Shi Huang, who reigned from 221 BC to 210 BC.

The "wu" in "wuxia" refers to "martial arts" or "combat". The "xia" refers to a person whose sense of righteousness is so profound that it empowers them to sacrifice themselves and even break the law to help people. The closest equivalents in English would be the hero, knight, warrior, or vigilante in superhero comics. See here for more information about wuxia and the xia.

Wuxia is basically the Chinese version of superhero movies that we get here in the west. We get Iron man, Batman, Spider Man over here, and they get stuff like Hero, Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, and countless others.

That's an ancient Chinese instrument called the "guqin".

In terms of wuxia masterpieces, Bao biao (1969) [Have Sword, Will Travel] (1969) and Xia nü (1971) [A Touch of Zen] (1971) are seen as the influential epic grandmasters of the genre. Tigre et dragon (2000) [Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon] (2000) is probably the most well-known around the world. Some other wuxia flicks of note are Le secret des poignards volants (2004) [House of Flying Daggers] (2004) and La malédiction des fleurs dorées (2006) [Curse of the Golden Flower] (2006). If you like wuxia movies, try some of Akira Kurosawas jidaigeki cinema, like Ran (1985) (1985), Kagemusha (1980) (1990), Le garde du corps (1961) (1961), and Les sept samouraïs (1954) [Seven Samurai] (1954). Another Jet Li movie of interest might be Le maître d'armes (2006) [Fearless] (2006). Other movies similar to Ying xiong [Hero] include La falaise rouge (2008) [Red Cliff] (2008), Musa (2001) (2001), and Ching se (1993) [Green Snake] (1993).

The Director's Cut runs approx. 10 minutes longer than the Theatrical Version and features more than 140 newly added bits and pieces. These new scenes are mostly only a couple of frames long and extend existing scenes smoothly. There are only a fistful of new scenes. Nonetheless the Director's Cut has to be preferred.