Yu Jang, formerly of the state of Chin, serves the Fan and Chung-hang clans, but does not seem to have a purpose and does not get the appreciation that he believes he deserves. Therefore, he leaves to serve the earl of Chih, and the two develop a mutual respect and honor for one another. The earl of Chih soon declares war on Lord Hsiang of Chao, but Lord Hsiang conspires with two other states and eliminates the earl of Chih. The three states celebrate their victory by drinking from the earl of Chih’s skull and dividing his land amongst the three of them. Yu Jang manages to flee and save his own life, but because of the respect that existed amongst the two, he now feels that he must dedicate his life to avenging the earl and that this is the only way that his soul will be able to rest easy. Yu Jang twice disguises himself to get close enough to Lord Hsiang to kill him, but both times the lord feels something is wrong and catches him. Lord Hsiang respects Yu Jang’s dedication and loyalty, so he releases him out of respect the first time. The second time he is caught, however, Yu Jang’s luck runs out. Before he dies, Yu Jang has one last request and says to Lord Hsiang, “let me strike at your robes as a gesture of revenge so that I can thereby die without regret.” Lord Hsiang honors his request and Yu Jang slashes at the robe for a final act of vengeance before falling onto his own sword and taking his own life. To me, Yu Jang is as righteous, loyal, and honorable as they come. While serving the Fan and Chung-hang clans, he was treated as a common man, and so he honored them as a common man would. Lord Hsiang, however, saw Yu Jang for everything that he was, and so Yu Jang was willing to give Lord Hsiang everything, including his life.
In “A Tiger-Fighter is Hard to Find”, Wang Huping is set to play the hero of the film. He is tall, handsome, smart, strong, brave, and loved by all. In movies, this is typically what we as society expect a “hero” to look like. However, doctors, nurses, firefighters, parents, etc. don’t all appear to be handsome or strong, yet we still consider them to be heroes. For these reasons, I believe that the author, Ha Jin, may be poking fun at heroism. After shooting the first tiger-fighting scene, Huping is mentally unwell, constantly saying that he killed a tiger. When they shoot the scene a second time, Huping goes running up a tree and hides after the tiger approaches. Determined to get the scene correct, they kill the tiger and wrap a truck driver in the tiger skin. Huping nearly beats the driver to death and again refers to himself as a tiger-killer, claiming that he didn’t know the driver was under the skin. Clearly Wang Huping is mentally unstable, and I believe that Ha Jin is trying to point out that what we typically see in movies isn’t true heroism.