Movie
China, France
Mandarin, Polish
Drama, History
1998
CHEN KAIGE
Chen Kaige, Ding Haifeng, Gong Li
162 min
7.0
The Staff
TLDR
If we could just remove the sepia filter, it would be leagues better.
What it's about
China, 227 BC. Following a mandate from his ancestors, Ying Zheng of the Qin Kingdom, sets out to conquer the other six kingdoms to unify and rule them all. As such, he sends his concubine, the Lady Zhao, to spy in the neighboring rival Yan state, though she finds her loyalty faltering when she meets the crown prince Jing Ke, and when the king’s cruelty escalates.
The take
If you wanted to watch an epic historical drama about the three assassination attempts against the first emperor of China, 2002’s Hero is the better known, and better acclaimed, choice. Nevertheless, the drama that depicted this four years earlier, the Emperor and the Assassin, is a fairly decent watch, with nearly three hours to parse out Ying Zheng’s career with extravagant production design and excellent performances to marvel at. The film is also slightly more accurate, taking its characters from actual historical record. The Emperor and the Assassin may not be perfect– it’s aggressively sepia-tinged, and it does struggle to maintain the plot’s focus– but it depicts the history well, regardless.
What stands out
The production design. Because of the cost, the film was the most expensive Chinese film at the time, but it looked great on screen.
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