Hero - the movie

The first part of the movie is made in the shades of grey and water. The traditional Chinese art of this part is a game translated as chess. The game was played on a gigantic board with stones the size of saucer that were put on the board with a large fork. The whole board is not shown but it is safe to assume that the game was weiqi.

Harleqin: it is. I've seen a chinese version, and the hero uses the word weiqi.

jvt: The boards seem to be 8x8. The stones are played in the center of large squares. An empty square in the middle has no visible use.

HolIgor: Probably this is some other game. Does anybody know what?

MK I guess it is gomoku - five in a row. But the board seems small for it.

Niklaus: The context of the scene where this game is played strongly suggest to me that the game is indeed weiqi. Such as the old man playing the qin, the musical instrument that was one part of the four arts every educated Chinese was trained in (qinqishuhua 琴棋书画: the qin, weiqi, calligraphy and painting), weiqi being another, and the whole following fight being fought in the minds of the two contenders, only delivering the decisive blow in reality. I guess the director was just more interested in style over realism (what other reason might the be for using those strange forks?), so that the game looks strange to the experienced weiqi player.

ubique?: If it indeed is the 5-stones-in-a-row-game, black is doing a vital mistake at the moment. White has 3 stones in a row elsewhere.

Shaydwyrm: But white has 3 stones in a row in two places actually, so perhaps black is just resigned to his fate...

Thomas: IMO it's an abstraction of a game. Just like on old chinese Paintings a go board could have any size and the positions are more or less random. Take it as a symbol. Just look at the way certain martial arts techniques are re-interpreted in the movie :-) Same happens here with the board game.