Turns out we can learn something from the world

If Zhang Yimou ’s movie “Hero” proves anything, it proves that you can make a martial arts movie that doesn’t bathe itself in gore. Unlike both chapters of “Kill Bill,” which make your neighborhood blood bank look like a cotton candy shop by comparison, “Hero” uses a drip of blood here, a slight pooling there to achieve all the effects it needs. And unlike “Kill Bill,” Zhang gives us a point of view actually worth considering seriously. The goal is not to prove that you have the biggest sword in the valley but to show that putting down your sword for the greater good can be the more courageous course.