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(Chinese/Mandarin-language w/English subtitled.) Art/Foreign and Romance Based on the true story of China's first emperor |
 The story is put together in five chapters. Chapter One:The King Of Qin Chapter Two:The Assassin Chapter Three:The Children Chapter Four:Lady Zhao Chapter Five:The Emperor And The Assassin This plot is complex but basic history here will help. China was separated into Five Kingdoms that were at war for 550 years. Set in 320 BC, Ying Zheng was the heir to the throne of the Kingdom Of Qin. The King of Qin believed that he was the man who was to conquer all the other kingdoms and merge them into one, under his rule, for the betterment of all the people. He was to become China's first emperor. Of course, most saw him as a ruthless and power hungry ruler. He believed that he was to be the Emperor of all the lands under the stars. To prepare for his attacks his concubine and childhood sweetheart devises a plan with the King to make himself seem unstoppable. Lady Zhao truly believes that Ying Zheng really is and will be a beneficent ruler that will help China. She has no qualms in helping him. THe plan is simple first she will have her face branded to show that she has fallen in disfavour with the King. Then she will go to the Prince of Han who is the prisoner/guest of Ying and they will run away to his home land where they will hire an assassin to go and kill King Ying Zheng. When the assasssin attacks the King he will be prepared and people will believe him to be invincible, at least that's the plan. This would also give the Emperor to be an excuse to attack the Kingdom Of Han. The second chapter begins with a flashback sequence where a master assassin, Jing Ke is hired to eliminate a family of master swordmakers. We see him in action as a masterful assassin but something happens. One of the family remains alive, a young blind girl. He refuses to kill her even though she insists on it. She does not want to live blind and alone resorting to begging. She kills herself he could not stop her in time. Later on in the film we learn that even as she was dying she planned his death. Jing Ke is devasted from this and gives up being an assassin and becomes a peddler that will not fight anyone. This is the point where Lady Zhao meets him in the Kingdom Of Han. She decides to hire him to assasinate Ying Zheng but he is not interested and refuses even at the risk of his on life as we see in an excellent torture scene called the swing of death. Eventually she falls in love with Jing Ke who she sees is an honourable man. Now let's move to the Queen Mother and the Marquis. The Marquis has been playing the gay fool in front of the King so as to avoid any suspicion being placed on him. The marquis is secretly wed to the Queen Mother and they have some children. He is also formulating a plan to overthrow the King who has become more and more ruthless. The Marquis tries to enlist the help of the Prime Minister who is in the outs with the King. The Prime Minister refuses. This will lead to an incredibly planned battle sequence which shows the ruthlessness of Ying. Ying finds out he has brothers and sisters and their disposal is not particularily pleasant. Some fast bits here. The Marquis tells him a secret which only the Prime Minister can collaborate. Ying goes to him and learns a startling secret and rather than the secret get out the Prime Minister hangs himself. All this causes Ying Zheng to become even more manical. Jing Ke is eventually tricked to go after the King while Ying orders the destruction of Zhao. Lady Zhao, now realizing the King has gone insane, tries to help the Kingdom of Zhao. During this battle I guarantee you will be horrified to what extent the people will go to defy Ying Zheng. I am not going to tell you more about this as it is best left for you to see. There is a meeting, eventually, between Ying and Jing Ke to disasterous effect. You will me astounded by all the happenings as the story draws to an end. Actually this movie will astound you at every turn. A scene that affected me the most occurs at one of the battles. The King bends over to a fallen horse and shows the dead animal so much respect and honour and yet he does not even notice or cares about all the fallen human cannon fodder. At he end of this film I walked away with a question nagging at me. How could such an intelligent, cultured and honourable society be so barbaric. You will be amazed at this film so if and when it shows up in a community near you head off and catch it, you won't regret it. |
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RATING CANADA... Rated AA for violence |
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vjm@metrocity.com