The Emperor and the Assassin

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william d As beautifully filmed as it is, the story lacks coherence. There are superfluous plot lines and the story repeatedly jumps forward in time without warning or explanation. Rated 3/5 Stars •  Rated 3 out of 5 stars 03/31/23 Full Review camille l En matière de production design, The Emperor and the Assassin est magnifique. Entre les costumes, les batailles et les décors, le film de Chen Kaige est visuellement éblouissant. Malheureusement, The Emperor and the Assassin est aussi particulièrement lent, long et surtout ennuyeux à mourir. Les 3/4 du film se passent dans des pièces fermées, avec des dialogues particulièrement empesés, des séquences entières qui auraient pu être coupées du film et qui semblent être des personnages qui répètent ce que l'interlocuteur vient de dire. Chen Kaige nous prend par la main tout du long et nous guide dans un épisode de l'histoire dont on parle très peu souvent en Occident mais qui peut paraître simpliste pour un film de 2h42. C'est dommage, car cela affaiblit énormément le film. Rated 2/5 Stars •  Rated 2 out of 5 stars 03/31/23 Full Review Audience Member awesome historical pic Rated 4/5 Stars •  Rated 4 out of 5 stars 01/21/23 Full Review Audience Member This was a large scale Chinese historical epic. It was rather long at 162 mins. The story concerns the ancient struggle to consolidate China into one state or country. There are a few battles. There is a lot of palace intrigue. It was mildly interesting, here and there, in some scenes. The overall story did not hold my interest. There is a much better film about this same period, HERO. The sets, costuming, and cinematography were all very good. Gong Li, as the concubine, Lady Zhao, is very good; and easy-on-the-eyes. I would skip this movie and check out HERO instead. Rated 3/5 Stars •  Rated 3 out of 5 stars 02/01/23 Full Review Audience Member Though filled with weak dialogue and shoddy editing, never the less "The Emperor and the Assassin" is a frustrating but grand epic that ultimately fulfills most of its many ambitions. One of the most expensive films ever made in China, the film looks great-- the costumes, the sets, and every battle sequence is simply breathtaking, with a very cinematic score to boot. The problem is though, is at a run time of 2 hours and 42 minutes, "The Emperor and the Assassin" is often tedious and boring-- but every inspired bit is astounding, and eventually it adds up to something. It may not be the best epic seen by audiences, but it still beats many. The film is a historical romance that tells the story of Ying Zheng (Li Xuejian), the first emperor of China, Lady Zhao (Gong Li), his lover, and Jing Ke (Fengyi Zhang), an assassin. Zheng hopes to destroy all of the seven empires of China and create one big one, while Lady Zhao, sick of her lovers psychopathic ways, hires Jing Ke, hoping to bring peace back to the land she once knew. For such a simple plot, "The Emperor and the Assassin" should be about an hour shorter. It's often interesting, and Kaige Chen does an excellent job of creating scenes and characters, but ultimately the film gets drowned in everything-- it's so long that an hour into it it's difficult to remember what happened before. The performances are faultless-- particular from Gong Li and Li Xuejian, but the problem is that "The Emperor and the Assassin" can't keep our attention, when it should. The film looks great, but there could've been so much more. I'd say this film could have been a masterpiece with Zhang Yimou at the helm. "The Emperor and the Assassin" is still a great epic, but I'd see a few more Chinese films before attempting to watch this one. Rated 3/5 Stars •  Rated 3 out of 5 stars 02/03/23 Full Review Audience Member Quite long, slow and struggles to keep coherence in it's plot. However, there's no denying the visual impact of the sumptuously created sets. Rated 3/5 Stars •  Rated 3 out of 5 stars 01/23/23 Full Review Read all reviews

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