Main Cast: Gong Li, Zhang Fengyi, Li Xuejian, Sun Zhou, Wang Zhiwen, Lu Xiaohe
Release Year: 1999
Country: CN/FR/JP
Run Time: 160 minutes
MPAA Rating: R
Plot
A lavishly produced historical drama from China, Jing Ke Ci Qin Wang/The Emperor and the Assassin tells the complex, multi-facetted story of the man who became the first Emperor of a unified China, another man who has sworn to kill him, and a woman who is loved by both men. Late in the Third Century B.C., when China was comprised of seven rival kingdoms, Ying Zheng (Li Xuejian) was the leader of Qin. Ying Zheng had a dream in which he joined together the seven kingdoms into a single utopian state, and taking this as a mandate from God, he invaded the nearby state of Han as the first step toward this goal. However, not everyone in the neighboring states was happy with Ying Zheng's crusade, which seemed to indicate a lengthy war with many casualties. Lady Zhao (Gong Li), Ying's lover, devised a scheme to help Ying Zheng take over the nearby and uncooperative state of Yan; she fabricated a fake assassination plot against him, and framed the leader of Yan, once Ying Zheng's childhood friend, as the man behind the murderous plot. However, Lady Zhao did not choose the would-be assassin wisely; while Jing Ke (Zhang Fengyi) loved her and was willing to do her bidding, Jing Ke's previous assassination assignment caused the unintended death of an innocent blind girl, which left him full of regret and a bit unstable. When Jing Ke learned a closely guarded secret about Ying Zheng's past, he became blindly determined to kill the would-be emperor, whatever the cost. Produced on a lavish budget by Chinese standards ($15 million), Jing Ke Ci Qin Wang/The Emperor and the Assassin was directed by Chen Kaige, best known to Western audiences for the international success Farewell My Concubine. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
Review
Working with by far his largest budget to date, Chinese master Chen Kaige orchestrates an epic -- and epically melodramatic -- reproduction of the bloody unification of China in The Emperor and the Assassin. From the first moments, with the massive title cards bearing down on the massive battlefields, everything about this film is big. Yet it's Chen's trademark skill that he can focus down to the minute emotional nuances of his characters, allowing the big and the small to exist harmoniously in the same material. It's also pretty impressive that he can maintain a sense of suspense, especially when the outcome of the central narrative is known to all students of Chinese history. Li Xuejian portrays the emperor as a man occasionally conflicted about what he must do, but he also ends up with so much blood on his hands, tempered by so little pity, that viewers almost require his eventual destruction as a precondition for their catharsis. The fact that it's not as simple as that doesn't diminish the experience of watching the climax. Chen has gone to great lengths in the decorating of these sets and the recreation of this era, but still has plenty left for a juicy and interwoven political narrative. Certain revelations verge on the stuff of soap opera, but Chen embraces their operatic side, rather than their soapy side. The soul of the movie is Gong Li's Lady Zhao, forced to confront what she's refused to acknowledge her entire life, and Zhang Fengyi's weary assassin, as doomed by his prior choices as by anything that lies ahead of him. The Emperor and the Assassin leaves the melancholy impression that even virtuous actions carry heavy costs, and that the eventual verdicts of history are of little consolation in the present. ~ Derek Armstrong, All Movie Guide
The Emperor and the Assassin (Chinese: 荊柯刺秦王; pinyin: Jīng Kē cì Qín Wáng) is a 1998Chinese historical romance film. The movie was directed by Chen Kaige and stars Gong Li, Zhang Fengyi, Li Xuejian, and Zhou Xun (in her feature film debut). The movie was well received critically and won the Technical Prize at the 1999 Cannes Film Festival.[1] It was the most expensive Chinese film made at the time costing $20 million. [2]
In the 3rd Century BC, Ying Zheng (Li Xuejian), heir to the Kingdom of Qin, seeks to dominate the remaining six Chinese kingdoms. Ying's strategy is to seem invincible. Ying sends his concubine Zhao (Gong Li) to the Kingdom of Yan as a spy, to enlist a Yan assassin to attempt to kill Ying. The assassination attempt is to be used as a basis to start war with the Yan. Zhao persuades Yan assassin Jing Ke (Zhang Fengyi), to perform the assassination. However, Zhao falls in love with Jing Ke, and after witnessing the aftermath of Ying's bloody massacre of the children in her home state, the Kingdom of Zhao, takes allegiance with the Yan and helps them try to kill Ying. The assassination attempt fails, but Ying is disgraced as none of his associates attempt to stop the assassin and he is forced to kill Jing himself. Ying's disgrace is completed when Zhao, Ying's former love, comes back to Qin only to take the dead body of Jing Ke back with her to Yan so as to give him a proper burial.
The movie covers a great deal of Ying Zheng's life, from his early life as a hostage to his dominance over all of China.
Chen noted upon the film's premiere at the Cannes Film Festival that he hoped The Emperor and the Assassin would hold relevance to the events of the time, notably the conflict in the Balkans.[4]
