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The Emperor And The Assassin
1999
A visually stunning epic exploring the devastating price one country pays for peace and one man pays for power. Read more
| Starring | Li Gong, Fengyi Zhang, Zhou Sun, Xiaohe Lu |
|---|---|
| Director | Chen Kaige |
| Genres | Drama, World Cinema |
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The Emperor And The Assassin
A visually stunning epic exploring the devastating price one country pays for peace and one man pays for power.
| Starring | Li Gong, Fengyi Zhang, Zhou Sun, Xiaohe Lu, Zhiwen Wang |
|---|---|
| Director | Chen Kaige |
| Studio | COLUMBIA TRI-STAR HOME VIDEO |
| Run time | DVD: 2 hrs 41 mins |
| Certificate | |
| Genres | Drama, World Cinema |
| Language | Mandarin |
| Dubbed | English |
| Subtitles | English |
| Released | DVD: 11 Feb 2002 Production year: 1999 |
| Format | DVD |
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Critics' reviews (6)
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Despite four attempts at reworking this five-chaptered historical epic, Chen Kaige has again succumbed to the pictorialism that blighted Temptress Moon (1996). Embroidering the fragmentary facts known about Ying Zheng's unification of China in the late third century BC, Chen concocts a story of such complexity and specialised significance that it's difficult not only to keep track of events, but also to invest much emotional energy in the central characters. Gong Li is elegant but detached as the royal mistress whose bellicose schemes backfire when the man she hires to stage an enemy assassination attempt proves to be dangerously unstable.
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An epic of the violent emergence of the first Emperor of China, with some spectacular battle scenes; but the narrative gets bogged down in detail.
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Most helpful member's review
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12 out of 13 people found this review helpful
Slow but beautiful
Chen Kaige gives us magnificent depth of atmosphere. Yes, it's a 'period piece', but Chen's artistic use of imagery makes it something more. The actors often behave like players using the stylised diction, postures and facial expressions of Peking Opera. All the actors in a scene play to the 'back wall' even when addressing each other. They are like spirits of the past enunciating with powerful clarity a story with urgent meaning for those in the present. Combined with close attention to scale and masterful cinematography indoors and out, The Emperor and the Assassin is a stunning tale told with great reverence in its own idiom that captivates completely.
It is a great movie, but it must be said a little long. This really is a movie to watch on your own, so that you can lose yourself in the sweeping cinematography and not feel awkward in the long silences. Worth watching on a Sunday afternoon. -
Most recent members' review
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7 out of 7 people found this review helpful
The other side of Hero
If you enjoyed Hero, you might be interested in this. It's set in the exact same period, but tells the story from the Emperor's point of view.
Having said that, it's never clear what his point of view is - is he a noble leader bringing peace to the known world, or genocidal sociopath spreading death and destruction to compensate for deep personality flaws? Thank God that sort of thing doesn't happen these days.
Great set pieces, without the fantasy element of Hero (or the budget - when they need a hail of arrows, they need real people firing them - many of them obviously not professional archers).
As usual, it's not worth listening to the English soundtrack. It's great if you're learning Mandarin, though - being set in the court, most of the dialogue is formal and slow paced and pretty easy to follow. -
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A visually stunning epic exploring the devastating price one country pays for peace and one man pays for power.... -