The Emperor and the Assassin

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 ...more

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 ...more