The Emperor and the Assassin

Rating:
Summary: Awful
Review: Beautiful cinematography, but that's it. The movie is way too slow, and Gong Li is getting worse with each movie. She is not even among the most talented Chinese actresses since the 80s.

Rating:
Summary: No Shame in Going Retro
Review: Chen Kaige's THE EMPEROR AND THE ASSASSIN is both grand and intimate. The movie is set during a time when a soon to be created China was divided into seven separate kingdoms. THE EMPEROR AND THE ASSASSIN is a visually stunning rendition China's first uniter - the emperor Ying Zheng. Ying fights six wars to unite all the kingdoms under into the Kingdom of Qin. As luck would have it, there is always complexity. Emperor Ying (Li Xuejian) is, as the movie depicts him, is an astute planner. We are introduced to him as he conspires to invade the kingdom of Yan. The conquest of Yan would cause a domino effect that would make the conquest of the other kingdoms simply a matter of time. As part of his plan, Emperor Ying banishes Lady Zhao (Gong Li), who while 'seemingly' cast out to Yan solicits the services of an assassin. Drawing the support of the Yan rulers - Lady Zhao precipitates the conflict. Zhao through her duplicity provides an excuse for the invasion. Moreover, Ying is seen as a man of destiny by escaping death so heroically. I might be wrong in making this observation but most movies of this genre follow the formula of huge and spectacular on the one hand and intimate and personal on the other. There is a plot twist... While the entire world is turned upside down Zhao escapes while Ying lifts all restraints and sets out to destroy Zhao's hometown after a revelation concerning his origin is too painful to handle. Zhao decides on the assassination for real but does not factor in falling in love with the assassin Jing Ke (Zhang Fengyi). The story becomes even livelier when both conspire seriously when previously it was simply a hoax. My suggestion is to go 'retro' and simply enjoy the duality of spectacle and intimacy. With $240M Hong Kong dollar epic HERO all the rage, movies about Qin Kingdom development like THE EMPEROR AND THE ASSASSIN are in danger of disappearing from view. The irony is, the reverse should be true.

Miguel Llora

Rating:
Summary: major history mutilation
Review: Ever since I read the story of the assasination of Jin Ke on Emporer
Chin (Ying Zheng) in Historical Records by the first, great Chinese
historian (written c. 2000 yr ago) in high school in Tawain, i have
been fascinated by the Waring States Era. There have been more than
one renditions of this story on screen. Each would "enhance" or
mutilate to different degree. Understandably, a love interest is always
added. This movie has been the most ambitious work I've seen.

First, things i like about this movie: the set, costumes, the acting,
especially the ambivalence of the emperor & his relationship with his
mother the queen.

Which brings me to this age issue, i'm not criticizing the actor who
played Ying Zheng who's a fine actor & I enjoyed his
performance. However, he's simply too old. Ying-Zheng became the king
at 13 & set out to unify all warrings states (kingdoms) when the
emperor became irreverent. It took him 25 yrs to conquer all states
when he was 38. This movie covers the events that spanned from his
early 20's to mid 30's.

Now things I dislike --- major mutilation of history & gratuitous
violence. (I'm no historian & only interested reader.)

The biggest historical inaccuracy is that the movie makes it sound
like it was all Lady Zhao's plotting. In fact it was Prince Yan who
asked Jing Ke to do it. Second, Jing Ke was _not_ a professional
assasin who's like a criminal killing innocent for $; he was a
literati perhaps aristocrat, in addition to swordsman. There're also
few historically important players who are omitted & downplayed, e.g.,
where is Jing Ke's musician friend? who blinded himself to finish his
friend's mission, assasinating the emperor for the second time? In
the movie, he was reduced to only sing the obligatory farewell song in
his departure @ the river! Way too much time is spent on the
fictitious Lady Zhao! I have no problem of adding a love interest.
However, to attribute almost all credit to her is just blatently
wrong. They should've realy hired a historian as a consultant for this
story is well-known by Chinese. Plus this movie is very long, there
should be enough room to allow introduction other historically
important figures by shortening the gratuitous & fictious parts. In
my opiniont, the real events are dramatic enough & do not need much
alteration.

other minor gripes & comments:

. the language they speak is a little too modern. I know that there is
no way we can replicate how ancient people spoke --- they didn't even
speak Mandarin. but the dialogues, pharases just sound too
modern. This is only a problem for this movie tries to be a
_historical_ drama.

. Yin Zheng did not releaste prince Yan. Prince Yan escaped from Chin.

. Jing Ke did not obtain the sword or dagger from an innocent young
girl he killed. The sword was bought from the best swordmaker & then
they "cured" it by poison. Prince Yan's plan was trying to capture the
emperor alive as a hostage to get him sign a treaty. Failing that,
they would just kill him.

. "Branding" (ching) is tatooing characters on faces of criminals, not
burning of the faces. i suppose it made Lady Zhao's sacrifice bigger.

. At the Jing Ke's departure, they all wore white (funeral color for
his suicidal mission).

. In the Chin court, on one came to the emperor's rescue because no
one was allowed to carry weapons by law.

. Ying-Zheng was unlikely the bastard of Lui Bu Wei (the ex-prime
minister). According to another great historian's work c. 1000 yrs ago
in Sung Dynasty, ONE yr after Lui gave his own concubine to Ying's
father, Ying Zheng was born. She was not pregnant before marrying his
father.

. Furthermore, Lui did not hang himself in the Chin ancetral temple;
he poisoned himself at home for falling out of favor. also the
subtitle of Ying-Zhen's words "kill his family" after Lui's
death. What he said was "kill 9 clans" or "kill 9 families of his" 9
clans include his father's clan, his mother's clan, his wife's clan,
etc, including children, babies, servernt/slaves of each clan. It was
the severest punishment for a traitor, very cruel. (although I can't
find anything that confirms the killing of 9 clans in real history.)

. Ying-Zheng had his mother the queen prisoned after killing her 2
sons with the supposed castrated marquis (enuich) (who was a gift to
the queen from Lui)

Rating:
Summary: Epic
Review: Everything is first rate in this movie: cinematography, scenery, story, acting. It is truly the epitomy of "epic". But one problem I had: it didn't grab me and pull me in. It was a good story and I liked it, but I've seen better Chinese movies.

Rating:
Summary: Character development on an epic scale, literally.
Review: First of all: I'm in love with Gong Li.

Second of all, the film: I was expecting an epic war film or something derivative thereof because I only knew the title and that Gong Li was in it before watching it. Well, obviously I was wrong, but nonetheless I was not dissappointed.

The Emperor and the Assassin is epic. The historic setting is a great backdrop for the plot, which more or less is very simple but very well developed.

The acting is great: I was especially amazed by Xuejian Li's performance as the King of Qin. He plays one of the most dynamic characters I've ever seen in film, and he does it very well. I could never tell if he was serious or if he wasn't, which, in this case, was good because it left an air of suspense/surprise roaming in the air.

It took a while to get things rolling, but soon after, the film definitely had my attention. Early on, the plot is a bit hard to comprehend, but soon everything falls into place.

In the end, it's a beautifully filmed cinema. The music is classically atmospheric. The characters are well developed (note: "well" developed, but "amazingly greatly" developed) and it kept my attention well.

The ending didn't ruin it, as I thought it may have. Recommended highly if you're an East Asian History fan or if you simply like drawn out storylines with a pinch of epicness.

Rating:
Summary: If you aren't familiar with Chinese history - PLSE READ THIS
Review: First off, I am not by any means an expert on ancient Chinese history. But I know enough to know that this film is historical fiction and does NOT a good history lesson make. I think the director intended this to be fiction inspired by historical events.

This film is especially provocative because of the director's interpretation of the Qin King Yinzheng, later to be known as the First Emperor. Traditionally Yinzheng has been regarded as a bloodthirsty tyrant, until in the 1960's and 70's Chairman Mao - who so obviously identified himself with the First Emperor - held him up as a symbol of national unification and anti-feudal "progress". In the Deng-era the status of the First Emperor fell into limbo, which is to say ripe for revisionism by avante-garde film directors. It may be more fair to interpret this film as Chen's commentary on Mao than any piece of historical scholarship.

The Qin King Yinzheng in this film is an ambiguous character torn between his ideals and his sense of duty and his darker impulses for revenge and power. He is a man who has learned to justify every act of brutality with the end of unifying the empire and bringing peace and prosperity to the land, and is so sincere in his self-deceit that he is genuinely shocked as those closest to him abandon him one by one, even as one kingdom after another falls before his armies. At the end of the film as the King prepares to bring yet another kingdom to certain annihilation, the love of his life (Lady Zhao, played by Gong Li) turns her back on him and walks out of his palace for the last time. The King, now alone in his cavenous audience chamber, looks toward the sky and howls, "King Yinzheng of Qin, have you forgotten your ancestors' great goal of unifying the empire?"

The Qin King Yinzheng as depicted in this film is an archtypical Faustian figure, who gains the world but loses his soul in the process.

As a side note, it's much easier to draw universal messages about the human condition from films like this than any specific political messages. You can't really go wrong saying that the message of this film is that men and women who endeavour to accomplish great things must be forever vigilant lest their means destroy their ends. But to say that the film clearly shows that "the unification of China is not worth the costs" and apply the lesson to Tibet and Xinjiang, well, that's just stretching it too far.

Rating:
Summary: This is what DVD's are all about my friends ...
Review: From the opening scenes of Chinese warriors on horseback and charriots (Far Eastern versions of the Roman style) the director tells the viewers that this is not going to be a movie made for mother.

I first saw this film a few years ago and enjoyed it immensely, my second viewing on a lazy Sunday afternoon I was surprised about how much I really missed the first time aound. Yeah the story was the same etc etc but what really blew my mind was that I began to realize this movie, although fictional, is based on real events at an apococlyptical time of Chinese history and cultural development. There may be considerable argument about the licence the director takes with history but, I mean, if we have drag em out arguments about written history then Chinese history, that was handed down as fables, tales and songs for childern, would probably stir even the most brain dead of Chinese historians.

With some of the excellent reviews here detailing the intricacies of the plot, love story etc etc suffice it to say that one should see this movie in the context of the historical importance on China's first unifying Emperor. The Emperor that I understand gave us the great wall of China the terracotta soldiers of Xian etc etc .... so just sit back to enjoy and marvell at a visually stunning and spectacular epic of the conflict of the times....

Rating:
Summary: A great Chinese movie
Review: Here is a quote from the reviewer "Andrew West":

"The movie's primary political message is: China's unity is not worth the suffering and murder accompanying it. This directly refers to the situation in Tibet, Xinxiang province, and Taiwan. It's hard to imagine a person who has seen this movie cheering for "Chinese national unity" as the Communists require."

Well, this was your own political message, please don't put it together with the movie or with Chinese people.

The movie itself is great, but the english translation can't be said in the same way. If you can't understand Chinese, the english translation won't help you understand 30% of the meanings.

Rating:
Summary: A beautifully directed epic
Review: I am really impressed by this beautifully directed movie. It tells a story that most Chinese have heard some time in their lives, but the director tells it from a rather different perspective, and with such a passion and intensity, it actually brings an all new feeling. Yes, it is an extremely disturbing story with lots of haunting images, but it is about one of the most disturbing time period in the Chinese history when humanity were totally disregarded. I applaud the director's effort in retelling the story and depicting these long lost images in such a realistic way.

I found that the movie was a bit hard to follow. Personally, I heard a much simplified version of the story when I was a little kid, but didn't know anything about the complicated plot leading to the main story. So I had to pay a lot of attentions to follow the development of the story.

I highly recommend this movie. Most people probably didn't realize the Qin had not only created a united nation, but had also left a distorted mentality.

Rating:
Summary: Maybe I just wasn't in the right mood...
Review: I bought this movie because I really liked Shanghai Triad (which also starred Gong Li). Unfortunately, I was disappointed - Emperor and Assassin is really more like a Shakespearean play than a movie.

By that I mean that the plot, staging, and dialogue are all very contrived. It's more like watching a very long play than a movie. You see the characters, and you can understand what's going on and why they're doing what they're doing, but the kind of emotional involvement with the characters that you get with a movie never happened for me. The characters all just seemed very one-dimensional...