The Emperor and the Assassin

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The Emperor and the Assassin

DVD case cover
Directed by Chen Kaige
Produced by Beijing Film Studio
Written by Chen Kaige
Wang Peigong
Starring Gong Li
Zhang Fengyi
Chen Kaige
Distributed by Sony Pictures Classics (U.S.)
Release date(s) December 17, 1999 (U.S.)
Running time 162 min
Language Mandarin
IMDb profile

The Emperor and the Assassin (荊柯刺秦王) is a 1999 Chinese historical romance film made in the People's Republic of China. The movie was directed by Chen Kaige and stars Gong Li, Zhang Fengyi, Li Xuejian, and Zhou Xun. The common transliteration of the film's Chinese title is "Jing ke ci qin wang". The movie was very well received critically and won the Technical Prize at the Cannes film festival in 1999.

[edit] Synopsis

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 Han Kingdom as a spy, to enlist an assassin he can conquer. Zhao persuades Jing Ke (Fengyi Zhang), but falls in love.

The movie covers a great deal of Qin Shi Huang's life, from his early life as a hostage to his dominance over all of China.

The 2002 film Hero, covers a highly fictionalized continuation of the story of Qin but from a radically different perspective and with a much narrower focus.

[edit] External links

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