THE EMPEROR AND THE ASSASSIN A film review by Steve Rhodes Copyright 2000 Steve Rhodes RATING (0 TO ****): **
Beautiful, baffling and boring. THE EMPEROR AND THE ASSASSIN by Chinese director Kaige Chen (FAREWELL MY CONCUBINE and TEMPTRESS MOON) uses mainly claustrophobic interior scenes to tell the bloody story of Chinese unification in 221 B.C. Long episodes of palace intrigue are enacted so slowly that you'll swear the projectionist must be running the print at half speed.
Periodically, we get a breath of fresh air, as the picture moves outdoors for a few fast, battle sequences. After these brief respites, we head back inside the palace walls so that the protagonists can proclaim various awkward platitudes that they usually don't mean, since everyone appears to be part of some cabal. The characters, whose motivations remain largely an enigma, strut around, periodically breaking into laughter in strange bits of bravado.
The King of Qin (Xuejian Li) wants to crush the other six Chinese kingdoms and form a single country under his rule. He -- surprise! -- isn't such a nice guy. Among his more despicable acts are having two young boys, his brothers, crushed to death, lest they become rivals to his throne. The audience has to endure this and other acts of horrific violence.
As the scheming Lady Zhao, Gong Li plays the woman who hires an assassin (Fengyi Zhang) to kill the King of Qin and thereby stop the slaughter of the other kingdoms. The script by the director and Peigong Wang uses chapter headings to delineate the various parts of the narrative, but the opaque story makes for one long, confusing history lesson.
Fei Zhao's lush cinematography and Jiping Zhao's sweeping music are so striking that you'll wish that they'd been saved for a more compelling motion picture. Their presence in this film is actually counterproductive, as the tendency to fall asleep during the long, dull passages are only accentuated by the dreamy music and the gorgeous visuals.
The obviously ambitious film really has very little to say. This brings me to my rule for directors. If you have little to say, don't take forever saying it. Instead of taking almost three hours of the audience's time, trim your film back to the standard length of one and half to two hours. Your picture will be more focused so that your audiences are more likely to appreciate it, and, if they don't, they won't get mad at you for wasting so much of their time with a film that's badly in need of more editing and better pacing.
THE EMPEROR AND THE ASSASSIN runs 2:40. It is in Mandarin with English subtitles. The film is rated R for language and strong violence and would be acceptable for older teenagers.
The film opens nationwide in the United States on Friday, February 4. Locally, it will be playing at one of the Camera Cinemas in the San Jose area and one of the Landmark Theaters in the Palo Alto area.
Email: Steve.Rhodes@InternetReviews.com Web: http://www.InternetReviews.com
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