The Emperor and the Assassin (Jing Ke ci Qin Wang (1998)): 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. (7.3)
Director: Kaige Chen
Stars: Li Gong, Fengyi Zhang and Zhou Sun
Language: Mandarin (w/ English Subtitles)
The story is about Ying Zheng becoming the King of Qin and the Emperor of China, but Li Gong as Lady Zhao steals the show. In this epic of a movie, Li Gong lives her character and delivers yet another commanding performance (as she does in "Farewell my Concubine"). While I do not understand Mandarin, her acting and the delivery of lines is powerful, it takes your breath away. My only qualm with the movie is the decision to use sepia tone to give the film the "old look." But, as shown in Mongol the full color works even for the period epic movies. Great set, acting, story, etc. (I picked out lots of words I'd heard from the song in the movie "Myth" :-)) My Rating: 7.5
