:
Wen Jiang,
Ge You,
Xu Qing,
more...
:
Zhou Xiaowen
see all cast/crew...
: Not Rated
: Fox Lorber
: Drama, Foreign, Hong Kong, China
: 123 min.
: Mandarin
: English
see additional details...
|
|
The most expensive film ever made in China up to the time of its release, Qin Song (1996) is an historical epic of that country's first emperor. Jiang Wen stars as Ying Zheng, king of China's Qin province in the third century B.C. Determined to unite the land's six disparate kingdoms under his control, Qin has embarked on a campaign of conquest and unification. In the kingdom of Yan, however, Qin orders his men to spare the life of Gao Jianli (Ge You), a childhood companion whose mother cared for and even nursed both boys. Jianli is now a musician, and Zheng has plans for his old friend. Desiring a national anthem, Zheng commissions Jianli to compose such a tune, but the crafty and righteous Jianli has other plans, wooing Zheng's paralyzed daughter, Princess Yueyang (Xu Qing), who is promised to a high-ranking general. ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide
|
| Not Your Usual Epic
by tboot
June 24, 2002 - 11:01 AM PDT
|
|
|
6 out of 6 members found this review helpful
|
| Two of Mainland China's hottest actors butt heads in 210BC. Jiang Wen (Red Sorghum) is Ying Zheng, determined to unite China through sheer force and become its first Emperor. He's a capricious tyrant who runs his kingdom by whim, but wise enough to realise that you can't conquer China with merely a sword. To win the hearts and minds of a nation, you also need a good theme song. He enslaves his favorite musician, Gao Jianli (Ge You), to compose an anthem that will commemorate his takeover of China. Directed by Zhou Xiaowen, who also made the wonderfully wry Ermo in 1994, The Emperor's Shadow is not your usual epic, though it sports most of the familiar elements -- the cast of thousands, the sweeping vistas, the falling empires. What's thankfully missing is the ponderous pageantry and spectacle for its own sake, replaced with plenty of earthy humor and a fine eye for detail. The film focuses on the intimate battle of wills between Gao and Ying, as well as the warlord's daughter who falls in love with Gao. Ying, especially, is a marvelous character, an impetuous despot with a deep appreciation for beauty, genius and the absurdities of awesome power ("Are you kidding, or making a decree?" asks a minion. "Jokes and decrees can be the same thing," says the kidder-tyrant), combined with a casual brutality that allows him to respond to the umpteenth attempt on his life by simply killing every living thing within a 3 mile radius rather than bothering to search for the assassin. |
|
|
GreenCine Member Rating
(Average 6.41)
17 Votes
add to list 
|
|
|
Your cart
LJensen
© 2006 All Media Guide, LLC. Portions of content provided by All Movie Guide®,
a trademark of All Media Guide, LLC.