The Emperor and the Assassin
Short description
Set in the third century BC, during the wars that preceded the unification of China, The Emperor and the Assassin follows Ying Zheng, the king of Qin, as he pursues his ambition to bring the separate kingdoms under one rule and become the country's first emperor. Lady Zhao, his companion since childhood, devises a false assassination plot to give him a pretext for invading the neighbouring kingdom of Yan. She goes there to recruit a suitable assassin, Jing Ke, but the king's escalating brutality begins to turn her loyalty into doubt.
Chen Kaige directed and co-wrote the screenplay with Wang Peigong, and also appears in the cast as Lu Buwei. Gong Li plays Lady Zhao, Zhang Fengyi plays Jing Ke, Li Xuejian plays Ying Zheng, Wang Zhiwen plays Marquis Changxin and Sun Zhou plays Prince Yan Dan. The film was released in 1998 and runs 162 minutes, a substantial length for a historical drama, and it was a co-production between China, France and Japan. It is the second of the thirteen films Chen has directed, arriving after Farewell My Concubine and before Killing Me Softly.
On IMDb the film holds a critics' rating of 7.3 out of 10 based on 36 reviews, while on TMDB it has a rating of 6.9 out of 10 from 87 votes, showing a fairly close level of appreciation between critics and general viewers, with the critics slightly ahead.
What's left behind the scenes
- The film was edited multiple times. A 176-minute version of the picture was shown at a test screening in Japan. There was also a 140-minute version, but it was only shown to foreign distributors. Approximately 300 changes were made to the film, and finally, a 160-minute version was screened in Beijing in October 1998. A different version of the same length was shown at the Cannes Film Festival in 1999.
- The costumes for the film were commissioned from the renowned Chinese couturier Mo Xiaoming. He spent two and a half years visiting ancient monuments and read over a hundred historical books. Only after this did Xiaoming agree to become the costume designer after receiving an offer from director, screenwriter, and producer Chen Kaige. While developing the 400 necessary costumes, Xiaoming consulted constantly with the director and created thousands of sketches.
Auditions in India
Casting calls in USA
Castingi w Polsce
Кастинги в Україні
