Hero

This is one of my favourite scenes from the film



the Aesthetics of the scene are very important but so are the thoughts and philosophy behind it. i think this scene would have quite different meanings for an eastern and western audience. both would find the actual fight exciting, however i think that all the stuff that they are saying might have more weight with a chinese audience as all the interviews I ave read with ZY he's mentioned that chinese people are brought up with chinese myths an mythologies. (perhaps this is why the historical groundings of his films have more of an impact on the popularity with chinese audiences than western audiences)

This scene is very stylised and the use of colour is emphasised, in the film each telling of the story is drenched in a different colour to convey the emotion pinned to that version (although im not really sure what this one is all about its colour scheme is grey)

Old fashioned chinese films of the 50s and 60s used these sort of 'flying' but actors such as bruce lee and directors such as Wei Lo in the 70s started using a lot more of a western realistic style, this is when asian cinema first started growing in popularity in the west.

I think that Ang Lee (Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon) and ZY were the first directors to contemparise the style and bring to a western audience in a big way in the late 20th/early 21st century.

The fact that these types of films are having renewed success shows the skill and artistry of the directors as the films truly do feel contemporary despite their being set in the distant past. this may be to do with technology, budget and better acting aswell.