The film Hero

¶ … film explicitly relives the foundation of the Qin dynasty. It outlines the ancient China before the reign of the first emperor who survived assassination attempts from warring factions' from the neighboring kingdoms. The film highlights events leading to the establishment of the empire that are missing from history books thereby assigning the plot of a mythical foundation. The plot of the film articulates the founding mythology, it focuses on a minor official who defeats Qin's three principal enemies and is summoned to the palace to tell the King of his surprising victory. From the onset of the film, it is unclear who the hero is, Qin appears to be a central figure and also featuring prominently are the other assassins Sky, Flying Snow and Broken Sword. However, it is without a doubt that Nameless not only appears in every scene, but also is the center of focus these scenes. He is the eponymous "hero" of the film and this clearly comes out. Specifically, at the end where he is carried as if in a royal funeral while the captioning reads; "Nameless hero was executed as an assassin but buried as an honored hero" This hero played a significant role in the establishment of the Qin dynasty, his efforts enabled Qin conquer all the Kingdoms and unite them under his rule. The Closing scene shows the writing; "to this day all the people of China refer to their country as Our Land" Therefore, this film fits the description of spoiler, where the death of the hero, marks the end of the film.

The film supports the authoritarian' government in China. Authoritarianism in China is characterized by centralized power without political opposition. The ruling regime mobilizes the citizenry around the government's goals resulting in lack of political space. The film points at the challenges the people of China experienced in their unification and subsequent formation of an empire. It reveals the genesis of key issues characteristic of authoritarian rule witnessed in China. These issues to date are a common denominator in the system of government in the People's Republic of China. Since the collapse of the Qin Dynasty in 1911, China has been under the control of doctrines and philosophies. The Communist Party of China (CCP) preceded the Qin Dynasty as the founding political party. It has ever since been the only ruling political party ruling the people through a unitary system of governance, imposing communism with the exclusion of potential challengers. It is evident that governance in China is more inclined to arbitrary law rather than the rule of law just as portrayed by Qin's style of governance in The Hero. The film justifies the idea behind the belief in authoritarian type of governance in China. In the beginning of the film, a brief history of China is given describing the state of events prior to the unification of China under one ruler. There were many warring Kingdoms and these Kingdoms wanted political power. It is the same reason that led to the death of Nameless, power struggle. Without a strong centralized power wielding structure, there might be revolt in the land. A good example is the lengthy civil war that saw CCP defeat Kuomintang assuming total control of China. The result was Kuomintang retreating to the Taiwan till date. A good argument would that without the authoritarian rule, there would be many wars and a defragmented blood filled China. The film validates the present authoritarian government in China.