Can ‘Hero’ Save the Pandemic Film Genre in China?

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Dylan Levi King

A film from late 2022 offers something different from the maudlin sentiment of mainstream Chinese films about the human toll of Covid-19

This review may contain spoilers for the film.

At some point, not very far into the future, a review of a Chinese movie about the Covid-19 pandemic might need to start with a lengthier explanation of the epidemiology of the virus, the sociology of city and apartment complex lockdowns, the heroism of nurses, doctors, and food delivery workers, the physiology of a cotton swab up the nostril, and the economics of mask distribution.

These common motifs of life in China over the previous three years have abruptly disappeared as strict pandemic controls have been lifted. It is only a matter of time before they fade from our daily concerns and then from living memory. But what makes ripped-from-the-headlines pandemic movies appealing to audiences at present—whether it is cathartic entertainment, sentimental remembrance, or odes to everyday heroes—will not necessarily be why future generations watch them.

Hero, the latest Chinese film to come out of the pandemic experience, was made and screened at a unique time, with its September 2022 release date putting it on the cusp of great change in local policy. It also comes far enough out from late 2019 for the filmmakers to reflect on the intervening three years, and is the first film that might serve as a considered look back as China emerges on the other side.

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