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 take them in.

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.

Composed of three shorts by female directors that each depicts a snippet of ordinary people grappling with the trivial realities rendered by the pandemic, Hero is the least bombastic and most nuanced of the pandemic films that have been released since 2020. It is a good place to start analyzing the human cost of the previous three years, and how to make art about it.

Hollywood has tackled this topic with harmless romantic comedies (Alone Together, written and directed by Katie Holmes, dramatizes a locked down love affair, for example), or dystopian thrillers (Safer at Home depicts the collapse of the United States as the death toll climbs into the tens of millions).

By comparison, mainstream Chinese filmmakers have generally treated the topic with solemnity and patriotic sentimentality, building from With You, a 20-part TV series released on iQIYI in late 2020, which established a general type for filmic responses to the ongoing events: rather than attempt to depict the overall situation from the top down, the series worked with a range of relatable characters to form a narrative mosaic larded with messages about self-sacrifice. Answering the Call, a film released in 2020, builds on this model, focusing on unassuming figures who must work together to save the locked down city of Wuhan, with heartrending scenes of family separation and altruistic sacrifice. Andrew Lau’s Chinese Doctors, released in 2021, is equally pure in its emotional appeals, depicting the Herculean efforts of the people of Wuhan in their fight against Covid-19.