The Emperor and the Assassin
by Kaige Chen
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Haifeng Ding, Li Gong, Xiaohe Lu, Xuejian Li, Yongfei GuDirector: Kaige Chen
Brand: Sony
DVD: 2 Layers, Region Code 1
Audio: Mandarin Chinese (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround; Spanish (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround; English (Subtitled); Spanish (Subtitled); French (Subtitled)
Format: Anamorphic, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD-Video, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
Picture Format: Anamorphic Widescreen, 1.85:1
Running Time: 161 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2000-06-13
Audience Rating: R (Restricted)
Studio: Sony Pictures
Movie Reviews of The Emperor and the Assassin
Movie Review: More functional than completely inspired
Summary: 3 Stars
Chen Kaige's The Emperor and the Assassin was one of the more expected Chinese flops of the 90s, coming so soon after the previous telling of the same tale, The Emperor's Shadow had failed to set the box-office alight and long before the stylised Hero would become a breakout international success. Indeed, the running joke at the time was that Chen Kaige thought The Emperor's Shadow only flopped because he didn't direct it.
China seems to have the same attitude to its First Emperor (Li Xuejian) as France does to Napoleon, alternating between admiration for the best of his achievements and condemnation for the methods he used to pursue them, and the film does at least embrace these contradictions in its portrait of an often childish but visionary Emperor wanting to end 550 years of hell and unite all of China under one benevolent ruler through increasingly ruthless means. Unlike previous versions of the story, here he even plans to manipulate a rival kingdom into sending an assassin (Jing Ke) to kill him to give him an excuse to invade, despatching his childhood love (Gong Li) as agent provocateur to arrange it only for her to find her sympathies shifting as the Emperor becomes increasingly merciless...
Less political than Shadow (though the film was heavily cut by the Chinese censors) and more down to Earth than Hero (the visual palette is much more subdued, favoring earth tones over vivid colors), despite the huge budget, Kaige doesn't really have a feel for spectacle and it's not exactly directed with a surfeit of imagination: the battle scenes are often more functional than inspired despite their scale while the massive sets are rarely employed to their best advantage. Nor is the film's structure always helpful: divided into various chapters of varying degrees of success, it sometimes lends the film a disjointed feel. As a result it's a film that tends to work in fits and starts rather than feeling like a completely successful film, with sideline characters like Kaige's Prime Minister or Wang Ziwen's Marquis constantly playing the fool to avoid being seen as a threat often far more vivid than the central trio. It's far from a disaster, but it wears its length and importance a little too heavily to make for a fully satisfying film.
The DVD has an acceptable though not outstanding 1.85:1 widescreen transfer with an English language director's commentary and US theatrical trailer the only extras.
Summary of The Emperor and the Assassin
Ying zhen the king of qin has one driving ambition to unite chinas 7 kingdomes into one empire under his sole control. But a devastating discovery about his lineage causes his lover lady zhao to hire the infamous assassin jing ke to take up arms against the kings tyranny. Studio: Sony Pictures Home Ent Release Date: 06/13/2000 Starring: Gong Li Li Xuejian Run time: 161 minutes Rating: R Director: Chen KaigeArt House & International DVD Video
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