THE EMPEROR AND THE ASSASSIN (JING KE CI QIN WANG)
Reviewed by Harvey Karten Sony Pictures Classics Director: Chen Kaige Writer: Chen Kaige, Piegong Wang Cast: Gong Li, Zhang Fengyi, Li Xuejian, Zhiwen Wang, Kaige Chen, Xiaohe Lu, Haifeng Ding, Benshan Zhao, Changjiang Pan, Xun Zhou
There is no one so insufferable as a reformed smoker or a rehabilitated alcoholic. He becomes an immovable force, a man consumed with a lust for changing the bad habits of others. The assassin in Chen Kaige's sumptuous feast of a movie, Jing Ke (Zhang Fengyi), is a hit man who has killed many people for money. Now, customarily in areas of China during the Third Century B.C., an assassin would be hired to wipe out an entire family. When in the process of doing just this, something happens that causes Jing to think about a career change. He becomes appalled with the idea of taking human lives and consequently furious at those who do so, whether they be contract killers or heads of government who lead their people to war.
This theme is just one of the elements of the complex, multi-plotted drama, "The Emperor and the Assassin," which is said to be the most expensive film ever produced in Asia. Its cost of $15 million might be considered chump change in Hollywood, but given the hundreds of disciplined extras involved in the lively and gory battle scenes, the money raised from sources like Taiwan, Japan, and a consortium in Europe was well spent. Considering the lavish banquet for the eyes, does the movie--by the director of the erotic and exquisite "Farewell, My Concubine"--pass muster as drama? Alas, only partly. For while director Chen Kaige appears influenced by Shakespearean histories and in particular by Akira Kurusawa's epic film "Ran," the romance between his leading lady and the titled assassin and between the woman and the emperor seem more influenced by Plato than by Eros. What's more, the staging is so diffuse that we often lose sight of the central focus, which should be on the characters in the ancient romantic triangle while we try to follow the Machiavellian machinations of some very ambitious people.
Based on actual historical documents from the Third Century B.C., at a time that Hannibal was preparing for war against far-away Rome, "The Emperor and the Assassin" pits two dogmatic forces against each other. The Emperor of Qin, Ying Zheng (Li Xuejian), has been mandated by his ancestors and by heaven (he thinks) to unite the seven kingdoms of China under his rule. China was divided into seven dominant kingdoms: Qin, Han, Qu, Wei, Zhao, Qi, and Yan, with Ying concentrating his attention on Han, Zhao and Yan. To drum up a pretext for invading Yan, he has his lover, Lady Zhao (the great Gong Li), travel to Yan to hire an assassin, who would journey to Qin. When the plot to eliminate the emperor is uncovered, the emperor would be free to invade Yan, gaining the untroubled backing of his own people and of some of the kingdoms to the south. But the killer had become sickened when a pretty, blind teen commits suicide just after a wipe-out of her family, and becomes devoted to destroying people who remain like the former Jing. That pits him seriously against the emperor, whose armies have been ordered to kill, kill and kill and even to bury children of one of his enemy kingdoms alive. The plot is complicated by an attempted coup at the hands of the previously smiling Marquis Changxin (Wang Zhiwen), who serves the emperor graciously and subserviently.
The 161-minute movie is divided into two parts so diverse that you could cut the story with a sword. The more involving segment is a series of beautifully staged battles involving hundreds of warriors on both sides. They attack with shields in mechanical discipline like the soldiers of modern computerized video games and, in fact, could have been refugees from movies like "Robocop" and the latest of the Jean-Claude Van Damme series. Defenders atop their castles ply their attackers with stones while the assaulters, in one pulse-racing incident, roll what resembles a huge bowling ball into the castle door, breaking it down like a SWAT team from the LAPD. Some of these segments are so boldly filmed that if Kurusawa were alive today, he'd be influenced mightily. Chen Kaige uses state-of-the-art technology in filming his campaigns but for some puzzling reason did not shoot the work with wide-screen lensing.
When the time comes to make love and not war, you'd think that this movie and the 1993 "Farewell, My Concubine" were directed by two different people. "Concubine," which also featured the wonderful and gorgeous Gong Li, was also about a Chinese warlord period, but there the focus is squarely on the pugnacious 52-year relationship of two male childhood apprentices in the Peking Opera. By contrast, when Chen focuses here on his three principals, we long to return quickly to battle. You'd never know that Lady Zhao and Jing had fallen deeply in love, though the way Chinese showed their emotions before the first millennium might explain this in part. Nor are we convinced when the emperor begs his great love not to leave him, recalling their childhood days when, both hungry and cold, they romped happily in the haystacks. If the dialogue seems pedestrian (even though the performers often speak their lines with effectively stentorian and highly stylized timbre) live with the translator. Still, since the long movie never really drags despite its flaws, "The Emperor and the Assassin," makes for a solid spectacle that would cater to an audience that might find the also lavish "Anna and the King" too dated and too tame.
Not Rated. Running Time: 161 minutes. (C) 1999 Harvey Karten, film_critic@compuserve.com
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