Cataline Sergius critiques Rogue One, and this line stood out:
The film grammar, the pacing, the tone are all straight out of Chinese film epics. It is a long damn movie, one with an oppressive sense of fate and tragedy through out. You know these characters aren’t getting out of this alive because you never see or hear of them in the first trilogy. They start off as goners.
The People of the Han eat that shit right up.
I don’t know Chinese culture that well, but have absorbed enough Japanese movies and stories to “get” a little bit of the fatalism the Japanese have. So after seeing Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, and Hero, I figured that the only good hero who stands out from the crowd allowed in Chinese culture is a conveniently dead one. Fate and tragedy are certainly woven deeply throughout those movies.