An assassin or a hero
It is always about the perspective, the way people look at the matter defines how people judge the character involved under every circumstance. One character in question will be judged differently from the opposite perspective of people, one side says an assassin and the other says a hero. Some stories tell the sacrifices made by determining individuals in history to pursue a cause although they must surrender their life to the hands of death. Nevertheless, the determination and the motivation will define who the person is at the finale, an assassin or a hero.
In the history of China, since the ancient time during the Warring States period, an attempt of assassination toward an emperor in the history is a common act.
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From one dynasty to the other the attempt to topple the empire occur as a result of unfavorable ruling because of its tyrannical nature or simply a distasteful of the foreign ruling over a nation or various other reasons. But it always involves an executioner, an assassin to pull the task, to kill the emperor. In the movie “Hero”, the director, Zhang Yimou tells a story of a “nameless” swordsman who plots an assassination toward the emperor Qin Shi Huang.
With the support of three other swordsmen, the “nameless” swordsman comes with a strategy on how to assassinate the Qin emperor, to avenge his parents’ deaths and to stop the emperor’s endless ambition in uniting the entire mainland at the cost of a substantial number of lives from the fallen nations.
In the beginning, without a clear background except his origin the “nameless” hero is simply driven by his sole goal, to kill the emperor. “Nameless” swordsman’s entire life learning martial art skill and sharpened the precision incision swordsmanship for ten years has made him possible to carry out the task. With his well-trained skill, he convinced the three highly trained martial artists, Sky, Broken Sword and Flying Snow to abide with his endeavor.
Witnessing the aggression made by the Qin emperor, it is hard not to agree with “nameless” swordsman assassination idea. Kingdom after kingdom, city after city had been pillaged and destroyed not to mention the loss of lives because of the invasion. In a peace-loving town where a school filled with calligraphy students is stormed and many lives have lost when the vast Qin troops rain the town with zillions of arrows. While the majority of town population had fled, the students stay because they have purposefulness to stay in the city. Alongside of the teacher, they want to show that the Qin army strength would not vanquish their
spirit. The Qin emperor may have a dream to unite the entire mainland of China and end the war conflicts that continuously occur. The emperor’s idea is simplifying the peoples’ life by unification of language and culture. To achieve his goals, the Qin emperor initiates an exhausting war campaign and aggressively invades and expands the territory. However, not everybody agrees with the Qin emperor’s ideal, especially the ones who lost their homeland, their loved ones, and their future. They swore to avenge the loss and be free of the Qin occupation. No matter how peaceful the occupation period offers according to the dream of the Qin emperor, once the entire mainland unified, people from another tribe under the foreign ruling power may experience persecution upon their freedom, and their culture or tradition may be expunged. One example taken from Ch’ing dynasty (1644-1911) where men should have their front head shaved and have braided ponytail otherwise the person will be beheaded. This mandatory “queue” hairstyle was forced to Han people as a symbol of submission to Ch’ing ruling. The sentiment against the Qin emperor shared among the three highly trained swordsmen that the Qin emperor needs to be stopped at all cost. In the eyes of these swordsmen, the Qin emperor is not the unifier of China but a murderer and a pillager. He costs too many lives and sufferings to accomplish his ideal in uniting the vast mainland into one rule and one unifying language. Finally, the “nameless” swordsman has succeeded to convince the Qin emperor to summon him to the palace, after the three other swordsmen complied with the assassination plan of “nameless” swordsman. The three swordsmen are faking dead for the “nameless” swordsman to be trusted by the Qin emperor. Although, “nameless” swordsman is stripped and checked inch by inch for weapon, he still convinces on his solid plan and continuing with the plan to assassinate the Qin emperor. However, following the conversation between the Qin emperor and “nameless” swordsman opens the perspective of “nameless” swordsman upon the idealism of the Qin emperor, to stop the killing through endless wars among kingdoms. The ideal inspires “nameless” swordsman and makes him has a second thought about his plan to assassinate the Qin emperor and eventually “nameless” swordsman deviates from the plan and submitted to the Qin emperor’s cause. “Nameless” swordsman ceases his original course and pardons whatever the Qin emperor has caused during his war campaign and asks the Qin emperor to care for people once he succeeded to unite the whole land. “Nameless” swordsman’s deviation from the original plan upsets Flying Snow who has hefty quarrel with Broken Sword, her fiancee caused by same circumstances ever took place in the earlier time when both of them stormed the palace in an attempt to assassinate the Qin emperor. Flying Snow is never forgives for the anguish the Qin emperor has brought to countless of people, especially to her who lost a home. Yet, the Qin emperor’s life was spared at the edge of the sword when Broken Sword started to realize the ideal of the Qin emperor through his war campaign. “Nameless” swordsman takes a repercussion on his unsuccessful assassination of the Qin emperor although the Qin emperor does not want to punish him but the emperor’s advisor board forcefully enforcing the decorum that “nameless” swordsman must be punished for his capital crime. Even the Qin emperor himself is obligated under the law of the land and regretfully advocates the death penalty of “nameless” swordsman with thousands of shooting arrows. “Nameless” swordsman embraces his fate right the moment he spares the Qin emperor’s life and he accepts his death with courage. What makes “nameless” swordsman being called a hero as the title of the movie claims, he had a single purpose in life that makes him trains so hard for years to master the precision swordmanship, to kill the Qin emperor and he deviates for the course, ended up tragic. Trading up his previous objective and his life for a greater good of an ideal that earns him the heroic accolade. He does something greater than himself and the course that beyond his life. There is another folklore, “The Sword-maker” also similar to Ch’ing K’o and the movie “Hero” where a character named Chi, the son of the sword-maker, Ganjiang Moye, took a vow to assassinate the king of Chu as the king made his father killed. Ganjiang Moye has been ordered by the king of Chu to forge a pair of swords, male sword and female sword, which he did. However, Ganjiang Moye knew that after he forge the supreme swords, the king of Chu is likely to have him killed to prevent him to forge another sword that may competing these two swords. The story of Ch’ing K’o shares common resemblances with the movie “Hero”. Ch’ing K’o and “nameless” swordsman are dedicated in martial art, wanderer, and single-minded. At first, Ch’ing K’o has no life goal and causing troubles everywhere he goes. Once with Kai Nieh of Yu-tz’u, then Lu Kuo-chien of Han-tan before he friends with a flute player, Kao Chien-li and a dog butcher. The ending of Ch’ing K’o and the “nameless” swordsman are alike, which the King survives and they were taking the ultimate price of the attempt to assassinate the emperor, whereas in “The Sword-maker”, Chi successfully avenged his father at the cost of his own life and the stranger who aided him. revolutions and rebellions as a ripple in the ocean of politic “The Professional”, the movie starred by Reno is a movie about a professional hitman in modern age whose at one time meets with a little girl who changes his life as a killer and becomes a hero for the abandoned little girl and even die for her as a retribution of his past life. “Ninja Assassin” is another movie tells a same idea of an assassin who changes into someone new when find a purpose in life besides doing the killing. “Hitman”, “Unknown”, “Swordfish”, “Salt”, “V For Vendetta”, Certain people although having a quality of being an assassin but the true character within is a hero struggling to get out from the inside. Some do not choose the path of life but the conditions and external causes make them become an assassin.
In most stories we enjoy, may it be from childhood or something more recent there is many times a theme that shows a clear hero and a clear villain. But ordinarily this is not the case in real life, there are few times that this is quite that simple. There are many sides to each story, and sometimes people turn a blind eye to, or ignore the opposing side’s argument. But if we look at both sides of a situation in the stories we can more clearly understand what is going on, moreover the villains in the book or play would seem more real, instead of a horrible person being evil for no reason, these two people have their own agenda may it be a ruthless vengeance or misplaced trust.
Wu Xia or Wuxia – a type of Chinese story utilizing martial arts of ancient China which showcases heroism (Dictionary)
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