More functional than completely inspired
Chen Kaige's The Emperor and the Assassin was one of the more expected Chinese flops of the 90s, coming so soon after the previous telling of the same tale, The Emperor's Shadow had failed to set the box-office alight and long before the stylised Hero would become a breakout international success. Indeed, the running joke at the time was that Chen Kaige thought The Emperor's Shadow only flopped because he didn't direct it.

China seems to have the same attitude to its First Emperor (Li Xuejian) as France does to Napoleon, alternating between admiration for the best of his achievements and condemnation for the methods he used to pursue them, and the film does at least embrace these contradictions in its portrait of an often childish but visionary Emperor wanting to end 550 years of hell and unite all of China under one benevolent ruler through increasingly ruthless means. Unlike previous versions of the story, here he even plans to manipulate a rival kingdom into sending an assassin (Jing Ke) to kill him to give him an excuse to invade, despatching his childhood love (Gong Li) as agent provocateur to arrange it only for her to find her sympathies shifting as the Emperor becomes increasingly merciless...

Less political than Shadow (though the film was heavily cut by the Chinese censors) and more down to Earth than Hero (the visual palette is much more subdued, favoring earth tones over vivid colors), despite the huge budget, Kaige doesn't really have a feel for spectacle and it's not exactly directed with a surfeit of imagination: the battle scenes are often more functional than inspired despite their scale while the massive sets are rarely employed to their best advantage. Nor is the film's structure always helpful: divided into various chapters of varying degrees of success, it sometimes lends the film a disjointed feel. As a result it's a film that tends to work in fits and starts rather than feeling like a completely successful film, with sideline characters like Kaige's Prime Minister or Wang Ziwen's Marquis constantly playing the fool to avoid being seen as a threat often far more vivid than the central trio. It's far from a disaster, but it wears its length and importance a little too heavily to make for a fully satisfying film.

The DVD has an acceptable though not outstanding 1.85:1 widescreen transfer with an English language director's commentary and US theatrical trailer the only extras.

A good movie that could have been better had it had an actual English Dub!
I'm starting to think that Sony Pictures Classics (for foreign films) means "movies we don't expect to sell well, so we won't spend the money on a dub that might actually make them sell well..."

It seems that several good movies have failed to get a decent dub, including the Emperor and the Assassin and The Legend of Suriyothai (which I very much wanted to see, only to be disappointed at no English track)...

The lack of an English track (despite having a Spanish track {!}) aside, the movie was quite a good drama. However, for some reason I was expecting it to be a martial arts movie (since it was suggested when I was viewing other martial arts movies).

I don't know whether I liked it as much as Curse of the Golden Flower or The Legend of the Black Scorpion, which were both something of dramas but had plenty of martial arts action as well. In any event, I still rather liked the movie despite its language and martial arts deficits. It was quite entertaining. So, if you're into foreign dramas, epic war / politics dramas, you might like this one (keeping in mind it's not especially a martial arts piece, and it's not in English in its current release incarnation).

Ancient China Story
The Emperor and the Assassin is loosely based on the first Emperor of early China. During the time of Ying Zheng's rule, the collection of states had been unified after much war and fighting. At the start of the film, Zheng is on his throne, powerful but paranoid. Perhaps there is good reason for that. A court official plots against him. His wife (actress Gong Li)is spying for him in her home state, which is still resentful of being forced to submit to the king. Or is she really a double agent? And can Zheng even trust his own mother? An assassin is sent to kill Zheng, but the assassin is reeling from a recent tragic event that he himself caused.

The cast features a ton of famous Chinese actors, even comedians who here play serious roles. The acting is hilariously over-the-top. The costumes and sets bring the viewer back to the time of the Qi Dynasty. Recommended, but there is a disturbing scene of the murder of two children, an actual historical event. Sorry, if you don't like subtitles, the film is only available in Mandarin audio with English subtitles.

Two words ... Gong Li
If you're a fan of Gong Li, you have to watch this movie. Forget about Chinese history, this movie is about Gong Li. I have watched all her other movies, but she's absolutely gorgeous in this movie as are her acting and the costumes. Like one of the reviewers (Vu H. Vo) wrote, "As for Gong Li,who plays the Lady Zhou, what can you say? Just that her smile alone makes my heart ache as I realize I can never again be content with a woman any less than she."

Confusing for Westerners
The ups and downs of a fuedal Chinese king, it isn't King Lear, and it's sort of predictable with a dash of Kung Fu, Grasshopper. There's plenty of extras in 2nd Century battle gear though not much battle as in Kubicks's Spartacus. The motives of the main characters are assumed for Eastern audiences, but Westerners may be scratching their heads.