The Blockbuster Breakthrough: The Fantastic in Hero

Abstract

This chapter identifies the fantastic as a crucial element that makes Zhang Yimou’s Hero (2002) the first successful locally grown blockbuster in China. In addition to a high budget and all-star cast, Hero distinguished itself from many previous failed blockbuster attempts though a “fantastic” makeover that turned a household historical tale into an enthralling viewing experience featuring mythicised narrative and spectacular visuals. The fantastic energy, unleashed by the adoption of the beloved martial arts film genre, helped to find the optimal aesthetic solution to the imported blockbuster financial model and to land the film at the balance point between art and commerce. The result was a stylistically unique, yet crowd-pleasing, local blockbuster that channelled the wonderous exhibitionist impulse of early cinema and ushered Chinese commercial cinema into a new era.