Courageous warriors in flowing robes run lightly through a field, swerving swords with remarkable ease and challenging their opponents in a most valorous manner. This is a typical scene from the movie Hero, which was shown by the Mythology Club on Friday, February 1.
Following an informative lecture on Chinese gods and goddesses given by Chinese teacher Carol Chen-Lin, the movie Hero screened in the Humanities viewing room. In addition to the movie, the club provided snacks such as pomegranate juice, dried fruits, and Japanese crackers. Hero is a 2002 Chinese movie staring some of the most prominent Asian actors, including Jet Li and Ziyi Zhang, The movie is loosely based on the legend of Jing Ke, who is famous for his failed attempt to assassinate the Chinese emperor around 200 BC.
This event was sponsored by the Mythology Club, which “started in early winter term last year as a small group of interested students got together to promote interest in the mythologies of cultures past and present,” according to James Barasch ’10, the club’s founder and current president. The club has sponsored similar events in previous years, such as “the National Mythology Exam and a movie about Ancient Rome and the mythical hero Pseudolus.” “In October,” Barasch adds, “we showed the movie King Arthur” while “Ms. Ann Nesslage lectured on the Celtic influences on the current myth.”
The club is currently planning future events to spread knowledge of mythologies from around the world, such as hosting “the Mythology Exam again at the end of winter term.” Furthermore, “In the spring, we are planning to host a trip to The Metropolitan Museum of Art to see the new Greek and Roman exhibit. We also plan to host another movie/lecture event about the cross-cultural mythology surrounding dragons,” said Barasch.
The club’s plans are exciting, but the movie itself met with tepid reactions. Andrew Ricardo ’10 explained, “Basically, it was your typical martial arts movie: entertaining, and not much else, although supposedly this one had some sort of historical significance. Also, the ending turned it into a stupid fable… the movie got really schizophrenic and jumped around a lot towards the end. The entire film was really convoluted.” Indeed, the movie did not have much to offer the audience other than the enthralling action scenes and the dramatically romantic moments. Though the turnout was not very good and the film was far from spectacular, these movie-lecture events seem to be an effective way of expressing the club’s enthusiasm for mythology and the Mythology Club did manage to share its knowledge of mythology in a more publicly accessible form.
