Starring Gong Li, Zhang Fengyi, Li Xueman, Sun Zhou, Lu Xiouhe, Wang Zhiwen, Chen Kaige, Gu Yougfei Zhao Benshan, Ding Haifing. Directed, Co-Produced and Co-Written by Chen Kaige. Set in the years around 221 B.C., Ying Zheng, the King of Qin (Xuejian) has made a promise to the heavens - he will unite the seven kingdoms of China under one ruler. That ruler will be him. His childhood sweetheart Lady Zhao (Gong Li) has returned from her home province of Zhao to be with Ying. He tells her he wishes to unite China as the only way to end inter-kingdom fighting that has gone on for 550 years. He promises her that he will be a benevolent ruler working for prosperity for all his subjects. She believes in his cause so much that she has her beautiful face branded. She works with him to create a pretext to invade the powerful northern Yan Kingdom without upsetting the other kingdoms. Zhao plans to go to Yan province with the Yan Prince (Zhou), and arrange for an assassin to be sent back to Qin. Once the assassin makes a play for Ying, who will be ready for the assassination attempt and can use the provocation as the reason to attack Yan. But when Lady Zhao is gone, things change for the worse. Ying's mother (Yongfei) has been having a secret affair with the king's Marquis (Zhiwen), and when the King appears to discover their two illegitimate children, the couple plan to stage a coup. The King finds out, and kills the Marquis and his own two brothers. He also finds out some family secrets from his ex-Prime Minister Lu Buwei (Kaige) which disturb him greatly. The King becomes more and more ruthless, slaughtering whole villages and laying waste to towns as he conquers his foes. He even buries alive the children of a city when it doesn't surrender to him. Lady Zhao realizes the King is no longer the man she knew. She hires the retired assassin Jing Ke, and together they devise a plan to attempt to stop the King and end his murderous regime. But will it succeed? In the works for the past 10 years as Kaige worked to get financing, The Emperor And The Assassin is a sprawling epic reminiscent of Kurosawa and such films as Ran. Several scenes include literally thousands of soldiers marching the countryside, and hundreds attacking magnificent walled cities. The battle scenes are beautifully shot, with plenty of bloodshed, horses and chariots, burning and mayhem. Like many of Kaige's and fellow countryman Zhang Yimou's films, this film is a veiled reference to the similarities between China's emperors and the current communist rulers. The Qin (pronounced Chin) King began the crusade with the noblest of intentions. He wished to end the warring between different Kingdoms. He wanted to be a different kind of King, making his subjects lives prosperous. But through hubris and increasing seduction of power, he began to emulate kings of the past, slaughtering families of those who threatened his power, murdering innocent people who did share his grand vision. Consider Mao's goal in giving power to the masses, the blind faith of ordinary Chinese people and their willingness to go along with Party propoganda, and the eventual purges of those who threatened the Party's power. Rules by the emperors of China were bloody and ruthless, it's easy to understand why the Communists were originally warmly received and accepted, and how the promise of a new group of rulers often results in many of the same abuses that the new group came to stop. After a subpar outing in Wayne Wang's Chinese Box, Gong Li is back on form. The camera constantly zooms onto her face, and Li skillfully conveys her characters feelings. When she is on screen, the film is given an added electricity that is sometimes missing when she is not around. Fengyi is so stoic, he makes Clint Eastwood look gushing. But especially with his eyes, he is able to convey the pain he feels for his murderous past, and his empathy for abuses children endure. An outstanding scene involves a young blind girl who he refuses to kill after he has killed her entire family, even when she begs him to do it. And with merely a held hand and an embrace, Li and Fengyi produce chemistry that most Hollywood films do not come close to capturing. Xueman's eyes could pierce through sheet metal and he beautifully conveys the strength of a king and insecurity as some of his weaknesses are exposed, but he has a tendency to overact in the more emotional scenes. In support, Zhiwen is excellent as the treacherous Marquis who plots his coup with a sly smile on his face. There is nothing surprising in this story, and the themes are fairly obvious, but the story is consistently compelling and well told. If you would like to respond, please click the E-Mail Press Here To Go To The Review List Page