In pre-unified China, the King of Qin sends his concubine to a rival kingdom to produce an assassin for a political plot, but as the king's cruelty mounts she finds her loyalty faltering.
Not far from Shanghai, in a country town stands the palatial home of the Pang family. Old Master Pang is an addict who brings up his beautiful daughter Ruyi on opium smoke. Her older ... See full summary »
A violin prodigy and his father travel to Beijing, where the father seeks the means to his son's success while the son struggles to accept the path laid before him.
China 2.200 years ago. It's the time of the Qin dynasty. The emperor seeks immortality by busily letting his alchemists search for a formula and building the famous terracotta army from the... See full summary »
To save the only child of the Zhao Family, whose entire clan was massacred at the hands of a nefarious minister, a doctor sacrifices his own son; after the Zhao child grows up, the doctor becomes intent on seeking his vengeance.
A provincial boy related to a Shanghai crime family is recruited by his uncle into cosmopolitan Shanghai in the 1930s to be a servant to a ganglord's mistress.
'Yellow Earth' focuses on the story of a communist soldier who is sent to the countryside to collect folk songs for the Communist Revolution. There he stays with a peasant family and learns... See full summary »
A blind man's master told him that after he has broken 1000 strings on his Banjo, he can open the Banjo to get a script for his eyes. After 60 years he broke the 1000th string...
At the beginning of the twentieth century, Yu-liang leaves a brothel in a small Chinese town, to become the second wife of Mr. Pan. While Pan is away at the revolution in Yunnan, Yu-liang ... See full summary »
A woman married to the brutal and infertile owner of a dye mill in rural China conceives a boy with her husband's nephew but is forced to raise her son as her husband's heir without ... See full summary »
In the 3rd Century BC, Ying Zheng, 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 to the Han Kingdom as a spy, to enlist an assassin he can conquer. Zhao persuades Jing Ke, but falls in love.Written by
<ssrich@cityu.edu.hk>
At the time, this was the most expensive Chinese production ever. See more »
Alternate Versions
On the Chinese (region 6) DVD edition (anamorphic with 5.1) Zhou-sun's scene, the blind girl pleading for death after the assassin had killed her whole family, is completely replaced by the assassin's verbal depiction of the incident. The end credits, however, did include Zhou-sun. See more »
Chen Kiage (Farewell My Concubine) and Zhang Yimou (Red Sorghum, To Live) have been always considered two of the greatest director of modern China cinema history. This time Chen took three years after his previous film and came back with a movie about the first Chinese emperor Qin and his legendary story with a woman he loves, his adversary and an assassin in very ancient China of 221 BC. Assassin Jingke stab emperor Qin is a well know story that nearly every Chinese know it so well. Assassin Jingke was considered a biggest hero in the history for his great sacrifice spirit and the brave suicide assassination, although his action was failed. Zhang Fengyi is one of my favorite actor (I like his performance in Farewell my concubine), his assassin Jinke is silent and full of passion in the heart, that is convincing. Li Xuejian is honorable actor but just miscast here, His King Qin is always with tears in his eyes and feels miserable. I can not understand why Chen decides to make this most tyranny emperor in the Chinese history always crying. The most attractive role in the movie is Marquis Changxin, he married Qin's mother and most time he looks like idiot but actually he has his own ambitious plan. Marquis Changxin is convincingly played by Wang Zhiwen, I like him so much.
The movie do have some memorable moments, one is Jingke took a assignment to kill the whole family of ironsmith, but when he facing the angelic blind daughter of ironsmith, he cannot do his job. Late, the daughter killed herself. That event had a biggest influence for the rest of Jingke's life, also a big impact for the audience.
The movie has some most popular Chinese comedian (Pan Changjiang for prison officer and Zhao Benshan for Gao Jianli) for the friendly cameo, when they appears in the screen, audience shout and smiled. This would not happened when this movie is showed in country outside China.
I don't know if it is the biggest budget film in China, but it is surely one of them. They built Qin's palace especially for this movie and now becomes a tourist sight. It is near my city. I didn't go there but my father did. He said it is great building.
Overall, this is the excellent movie for the people like ancient Chinese costume and culture. The photography is very beautiful. Compared to the greatest "Farewell My Concubine", Chen does not make it reach that level. I give it *** for the rate from * to ****.
3 of 3 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful to you?
| Report this
Chen Kiage (Farewell My Concubine) and Zhang Yimou (Red Sorghum, To Live) have been always considered two of the greatest director of modern China cinema history. This time Chen took three years after his previous film and came back with a movie about the first Chinese emperor Qin and his legendary story with a woman he loves, his adversary and an assassin in very ancient China of 221 BC. Assassin Jingke stab emperor Qin is a well know story that nearly every Chinese know it so well. Assassin Jingke was considered a biggest hero in the history for his great sacrifice spirit and the brave suicide assassination, although his action was failed. Zhang Fengyi is one of my favorite actor (I like his performance in Farewell my concubine), his assassin Jinke is silent and full of passion in the heart, that is convincing. Li Xuejian is honorable actor but just miscast here, His King Qin is always with tears in his eyes and feels miserable. I can not understand why Chen decides to make this most tyranny emperor in the Chinese history always crying. The most attractive role in the movie is Marquis Changxin, he married Qin's mother and most time he looks like idiot but actually he has his own ambitious plan. Marquis Changxin is convincingly played by Wang Zhiwen, I like him so much.
The movie do have some memorable moments, one is Jingke took a assignment to kill the whole family of ironsmith, but when he facing the angelic blind daughter of ironsmith, he cannot do his job. Late, the daughter killed herself. That event had a biggest influence for the rest of Jingke's life, also a big impact for the audience.
The movie has some most popular Chinese comedian (Pan Changjiang for prison officer and Zhao Benshan for Gao Jianli) for the friendly cameo, when they appears in the screen, audience shout and smiled. This would not happened when this movie is showed in country outside China.
I don't know if it is the biggest budget film in China, but it is surely one of them. They built Qin's palace especially for this movie and now becomes a tourist sight. It is near my city. I didn't go there but my father did. He said it is great building.
Overall, this is the excellent movie for the people like ancient Chinese costume and culture. The photography is very beautiful. Compared to the greatest "Farewell My Concubine", Chen does not make it reach that level. I give it *** for the rate from * to ****.