How is Hero an Art Movie?

1.By looking at the explanation of an art movie above, please describe at least three
ways (three sentences) that you think Hero could be considered, at least in part, an art movie. 

     For a movie to become or to be known as an art movie, it has some characteristics. Hero, would be could be considered as an art for a few reasons. In particular, the movie has a serious plot line, which is one of the characteristics of an art movie. The plot line involves more serious situations such as assassinating the King, or assassinating the assassins that are trying to kill the King. There are also no comedic moments which makes the movie even more serious than other non- art/indie movies. Art movies usually focus on the thoughts and dreams of a character or characters. In Hero, we focused on the thoughts, feelings, dreams of the assassins, Sky, Broken Sword, and Flying Snow. For example, Flying Snows dream was too kill the King she was also angry at Broken Sword for not killing the king when he had the chance.The last characteristic for a movie to be considered as an art film is that, the film is a bit confusing and may be hard to follow because sometimes the director wants the viewers to have a more artistic experience. In my opinion, when I watched Hero, I mostly focused on all the colours and colour pop, also how the director focused more on the artistic parts for example, the scene in the gold forest, when Snow killed the assistant the gold trees turned into red trees marking blood and death.

2. How does the director also make this movie for everyone, so that it's not too artistic or alienating for the average viewer? Please explain in at least three sentence.
    
     The director made this film for everyone by having a plot line that was supposed to be difficult to follow but wasn't because the calming of the colours and artistic structures really distracted the viewers. It was if the director balanced the movie, by having a confusing plot but saved it by having a beautiful movie.

3. Did you like this movie? Why or Why not?

     In my opinion, I liked the plot line of the story and also the artistic scenes, but I didn't like how I didn't speak Chinese and I wish I could. I liked the plot of story because it had a lot of not expecting scenes that played with my emotions. For example when Nameless didn't kill the King when he had a chance too made me proud of him, but then the King had him Killed because of peer pressure which made me angry.  I really liked all the calming artistic structures, what really stood out in my mind were the green drapes that were hanging in the temple or castle when Snow and Broken Sword attacked the King. I don't know why it stood out for me, I guess it was the way it hanged in a dark place, and how green and lack are really vivid to me. I didn't like how it was in Chinese, it was hard for me to follow but it was still beautiful. The music also made me like the movie. The way the violin was played throughout th

4. Sequences in the film are ' colour coded', enabling Zhang Yimou to offer his audience ravishing and memorable images which enhance his action sequences. Write three sentences about how Zhang Yimou has used colour to emphasize or enhance aspects of the narrative.

Select one of these sequences 

•  the fight in the rain
• the Golden Forrest 
• the attack on the calligraphy school at Zhao
• he Library
• the Combat at the Lake
• Broken Sword and Flying Snow's attack on the King

     Zhang Yimou used the colour coding  gold and red in the beginning of the Golden Forrest scene. In the beginning of the scene the two girls were wearing bright red in a gold forrest, a gold forrest where it was constant gold colour meaning that the bright red really popped. Bright red is also a colour that is really difficult to forget. The colours really emphasize the way of fighting for the people you love and revenge. We see at the beginning the colour that really out stand was the red, at the end when Snow stabbed the assistant the leaves turned red as her blood dripped on the leaves, the same colour as the robes the girls were wearing. Therefore I think that the Bright Red stood for being hurt. Snow was hurt that she killed the person she loves and the assistant was hurt because her leader she looked up too died, they both were hurt in a sense of way.
     

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Welcome to New York Reflection Questions

        I called my artwork “Welcome to New York”. My montage is based on my first trip to New York. Throughout my work I used a lot of fading in my large pictures and contrasting on my small pictures because I wanted the people viewing my montage to focus on the small photos rather than the large ones. I also blended my eye picture with the background, to make my montage look creative. My main idea for this assignment, were to find photos that describe New York and my trip. Also pictures that were my style as well, and my style is usually dark and simple. I didn’t really have any influences throughout my montage, I just kind of followed myself. To me when I see my montage the first photo I focus on, is the large black and white picture of my friend Gabe on the right, it then makes my eyes move lower to the pictures below to the blended photos. My personal motivation for this assignment was simply the music I was listening too. I know its kind of weird to say but I was listening to a lot of indie music which inspired me to make my pictures simple, because indie to me means simple. In my opinion, I believe that what I did successful was my fading. and my ability to place my photos in a way that the viewer could move their eyes around. I could improve on the proportion on size. Make the pictures different a different proportion from others.

-Kate Delas Armas

Welcome to New York

Welcome to New York

Brainstorm

• left early morning
• arrived in New York late
• with 10 people
• met my aunt and uncle
• went to times square
• took wrong bus

Welcome to New York

The sun barely up, my eyes barely open, I opened my Ipod and it says its 5 o'clock, time to get up my mom says, time to hit the road she finishes. I put on jeans and a red Hollister Co. sweater, I wanted to be as comfy as I could be, I mean after all I will be staying in a cramped car for 12 hours. I took a small step outside the door and a shot of cool air hit me, its summer. I walked to our van with a pillow and a blanket in my hand, our first stop was Tim Hortons where we will meet up with our good friends The Catelos, they consists of a mother and a father, 2 daughters and 2 sons, they will be with us traveling to our destination. Dad ordered the usually, 1 large double double to get him through the day, mom ordered french vanilla just enough caffeine to last through the car ride. We all got into our cars and headed for New York.

"We're here", I opened my eyes to what I thought would be bright lights and loud noises, but instead I woke up to quiet noises and a big building called "Holiday Inn". Are we in New York? was my first thought. It turns out we were staying a bit farther from Times Square, however I didn't care I was still in New York! Later that evening we all went to visit my Aunt who lives not far away from our hotel. She told us she would take us to Times Square and give us a tour of New York. I was very excited, the only time I have seen New York was from movies and online pictures. She took us to the bus station where we would take the 17th bus all the way to another bus stop and then take the 14th bus to the subway or underground train station where it would lead us to Times Square. I hoped on the dark blue bus and it was as full as a chicken farm, the bus smelt like leather and sweat ( a smell i would never forget), and there were no seats I had to stand for the most part, I was very uncomfortable. Once we got into the second bus I knew there would be no seats available so like the first bus I stood holding the pole. The bus dropped us off at the subway station and after we took the next subway to Times Square! All I could think of was all the beautiful lights, big buildings, and all of those shopping stores. I was so excited!
We got off of the subway and went up the stairs which lead us to the pavements of Times Square. I quickly learnt that the people in New York are always on the move. Everyone was just walking super fast, I couldn't stand it! I just stayed close to my group. I was right there were a lot of light, lights that blinded my eyes, I'll admit that they were somewhat beautiful. For some reason before the trip, I thought that New York was going to be peaceful, no New York was incredibly loud that I couldn't hear my sister and she was nose to nose to me, maybe I'm over exaggerating although that's how I felt! We crossed the street trying not to get hit by all these bright yellow cabs and into broadway, where I have seen a middle aged man wearing a green coat and had 3 kittens in front of him. 2 were black, black as the lead could be, and 1 was white, white as fresh snow on a winters day. He had them in a straight line performing simple tricks. I knew he was doing that for money therefore I gave him 5 dollars. I turned around and a whiff of sweat, car gas, and hot dogs hit me, that smell I will never forget. I stepped on the side walk singing Miley Cyrus's song Party in the USA in my head, while looking at the ground. I really didn't want to make eye contact with anyone. Then suddenly out of no where I saw a black ball moving on the pavement and into the sewer, my mom shouted "rat! rat!" and to be honest I was pretty embarrassed because everyone was looking at her, at us! I just backed up into the wall pretending to tie my shoe lace. The clock said 11:00, it was getting late and we were all very tired. My feet were hurting and it was getting chilly, it was time to head back to the hotel. We walked to the subway station where we got on the next subway to our bus stop, this time when we got on the bus there were empty seats. I quickly sat on a seat beside my aunt. In 15 minutes we arrived to our next bus stop. Our bus was a little late and we had to wait under this green bus stop in the cold dark. We waited for about 20 minutes before our bus arrived. Finally. I hopped on the bus and only 3 people were on which meant there were a lot of seat unoccupied. I sat next to the window where I had fallen asleep to the sight of the moon.

" What do you mean this is the last stop?", I heard my aunt say. I awoken to the sight of the adults yelling at the bus driver. I looked outside and our hotel was no where in sight. We were all getting scared, here we are tourists from Canada stranded in the middle of the night in New York, lost. 12:30, well good morning? We all got out of the bus, and went inside this building which turned to be an exclusive hotel. We told the security guard what had happened to us, how we apparently took the wrong bus and we were all tourist well not including my aunt. He was very nice and called us 2 taxis. We waited for 15 long minutes. Suddenly 2 black SUV's pulled up, the drivers both had ear pieces on and both were huge, like muscular huge. They drove us back to the hotel where we paid them a fair amount. I quickly headed upstairs where I told my mom " I am never coming back here ever again" and went to bed.

I soon realize all my expectations and all my hopes about New York were somewhat false and inaccurate . Maybe Times Square is a place for other people who enjoy being on their feet, as for me though, I don't think Times Square is a place for me, maybe Hawaii?