The Emperor and the Assassin

Though it received some acclaim in the festival circuit, it got little fanfare upon it's release in the US, and has since been overshadowed by Zhang Yimoh's "Hero", another movie with a similar premise. I've always felt this film was overlooked despite being a gem of an epic about a person whose significance cannot be overestimated, and who I've never elsewhere seen portrayed in such a way. Long, sprawling, and epic, it is also quite accurate historically and paints a not always flattering portrait of the man who would be the first to unify China.

Please note: Entries about media reviewed in this blog are written from the perspective that the reader has already seen the work in question and desires further commentary or explanation. Plot twists and endings will sometimes be examined.

The movie opens with a man on his deathbed shouting a beration at Ying Zheng (played by actor Li Xuejian), who I'll simply refer to as "the emperor" from this point on for simplicity's sake. "Have you forgotten your vow to unify All Under Heaven?", he wails. "Never!", the emperor replies resolutely before the man falls dead. As the emperor begins to leave the room, another younger man repeats the challenge. "Have you forgotten your vow to unify All Under Heaven?", and again the emperor replies defiantly. I've never quite understood this opening, who this man is who is dying and why the younger man takes up his call. I thought once that the dying man was the emperor's father, but something the younger man says later makes me almost believe that they simply men hired solely to ask the emperor this question day after day so he won't forget to do what he promised. That would be ancient China for you, with people filling roles that we cannot even comprehend today.

The events of the movie take place 200 year BCE when the monolithic China, unified by culture and language that we know today, is at this point still a group of large nation states in a constant state of either war or uneasy peace. But fast is approaching the point when one of them will gain enough power to subject all the others. That state will be the Qin (for whom China is now named), the state from which the future emperor comes.

We see in an early battle scene, that the emperor himself is a brave man and a mighty warrior. He fights alongside his men, and is even gracious when one of them praises him who doesn't know his rank and status. The emperor is determined to unify China, but the major obstacle standing in his way is possibility the other nation states will realize the extent of his ambition and band together in defense to overpower him. The next major charcter to be introduced is Lady Zhou (actress Gong Li) who is concubine to the emperor, but has a genuine love for him, and wants to help him succeed. Dan (Zhou Sun), the Prince of Yan, is living in the custody of the emperor, in a manner similar to the way princes and princesses of medeival europe were taken as wards to ensure the behavior of unruly kingdoms. He is resentful and mistrustful of the emperor, but close to Lady Zhou and knows of her intimacy with the emperor. Together with the emperor, Lady Zhou comes up with a plot to hire an assassin for the Yan to make an attempt on the emperor's life, giving him a politically acceptable reason to declare war on the Yan state. Knowing that Dan might suspect something if she suggests an assassin, she has her own face branded to make him believe she and the emperor have had a falling out. The two then depart for Yan together, while the emperor remains to continue his plans.

Above: The Emperor

Below: The Lady Zhou

Things are not all well at court for the emperor either. He dismisses his chancellor, Lü Buwei (played by the director, Chen Kaige, himself) after a public argument. He ridicules and bullies the Marquis Changxin (Wang Zhiwen) who acts giggly and silly and cowardly, but we see from a very scene is crafty and calculating.

The final major character is Jing Ke (Zhang Fengyi), the assassin. At the time the story takes place, he is living impoverished and absolutely filthy. The Lady Zhou finds him in a dungeon being tortured and has him pulled free when she finds our who he is and believes he might serve her purpose. The trouble with him is, he no longer has any desire to kill. We see him try to save a child caught stealing from being beaten and he allows himself to be humiliated by man who caught her, refusing to fight back even when the man pulls a knife on him (the event leads to the irrate man's death and Jing Ke's imprisonment). We see in an earlier flashback the event that caused him to quit his profession as an assassin. Hired to kill a family of blacksmiths, he dispatches them little effort. His movements are very quick and economical and we can tell just by watching him how efficient he is as a killer. What leaves him traumatized is the young, blind daughter of the blacksmiths whom he refuses to kill because she cannot see (and therefore identify) him. Even though she begs him for death saying she'll die anyways because what he's done, he refuses. This leads her draw a knife of her own and stab herself through the heart right in front of him, a sight which shakes him badly enough to quit. We're left with a sense that this man is plagued by what he's done even enough to make futile gestures like help the thieving child to make amends.

Even though he refuses to help her with her assassination plot, the Lady Zhou has Jing Ke freed believing she can turn him. He tells her his story and what happens instead is that she begins to feel for him even as she desires to make use of him for her own ends.


While this is going on, an important subplot is taking place in the emperor's court. It is revealed that the Marquis Changxin is having an affair with the emperor's own mother, and even has some illegitimate children by her. He has ambitions of power too it turns out. The emperor discovers this himself on a chance visit to see a his mother, when one of the children appears and calls Changxin "papa" (Changxin is supposed to be a eunuch). Knowing his secret and life are at risk, the Marquis attempts to kill the emperor himself with a small group of armed men in an attempted coup that fails horrendously. The emperor, knowing that the Marquis is coming, has a much larger force of armored men waiting for the strike and quickly surrounds and over-powers the smaller group. He then kills all the would-be usurper's men right in front of him, and then has the children (his own half brothers and sisters) put in a sack and beaten to death. It is at this point, when he no longer has anything to lose, that the Marquis reveals to the emperor, Lü Buwei's true identity as his father. Note: This particular point is quite contested in history, but many believe that Lü Buwei, a former merchant, and machiavellian political player in his time, succeeded not only in putting a man of his own choosing on the throne, but managed to secretly do so with a child he conceived himself. While it is true that the emperor's own mother did have an affair and even children to the Marquis, and that she was implicated in a coup, there is of course only circumstantial evidence (historical documents claiming so) as to the theory of Lü Buwei being the emperor's father. Regardless, the movie follows this interpretation of the events, and takes them quite seriously as it sets up it's next scene and makes its next point about the emperor.

The emperor confronts Lü Buwei, who admits his relationship to him as father, in an emotional reunion where the son professes a love for the man and a desire to raise him up and let the truth be know to all. Lü Buwei, however, tells him only one thing during his time acting as his father, explaining that this would be impossible, because the people would make a mockery of it and the emperor's enemies would only rally more people against him and all the fiercer with knowledge that his claims of nobility are false. "Why didn't you tell me?", asks the emperor. "I wanted you to be king." Lü replies revealing all. When the emperor becomes distracted by an attendant, Lü Buwei leaves the room quietly and kills himself to protect his son's identity. The whole event hardens the emperor, having learned that his own mother plotted against him (in real life, the emperor was extremely mistrustful of women and never married for perhaps just this reason), and that his own father was so close to him in proximity his whole life but that the whole thing was kept a secret from him. Whatever softness or mercy there was within him melts away at this point, and why wouldn't it, when the only lesson your father teaches you is that achieving your ambitions is more important than love or sentimentality.

While the previous event marks a critical juncture for the emperor, the film's turning point comes when he renegs on a promise to the Lady Zhou in invading her homeland. Seeing the aftermath of the his brutality firsthand, in the form of countless dead children, whom he promised would live, causes the Lady Zhou to decide to try and make his assassination an actuality rather than a mere ploy, even though the risks are great because the emperor knows it's coming and the fact that she has grown to care about Jing Ke and doing so will sacrifice him. The affection she has for Jing Ke is shared by him, and when he sees the devestation the emperor's actions have had on her, Jing ke relents and decides to carry out the assassination plan.

The final confrontation comes after a lot of set up and exposition. There isn't any kind of dramatic conversation or debate over ideals when it comes, but what the scene does have, is a sort of tenseness to it (especially if one doesn't yet know how history played out). What does transpire is something like a battle of wits as Jing Ke realizes when he sees his companion too scared to move or act, that he too must pretend to be frightened and meek if he's to pull of his mission. He even admits to the emperor that he's there to kill him, a feint to diffuse the emperor's apprehension by making him think the attempt won't even come because all the witnesses know now anyways. This buys Jing Ke some time and a chance as well to get close to the emperor and make his move, but when the knife is sprung and he lunges for his target, the emperor sees and runs. Then follows a very nervous few minutes as the emperor flees with the assassin in pursuit, while the guards run and follow but none tries to help. The emperor ends up having to kill the assassin on his own, and only after he's given an opening when Jing Ke finds out that his sword has been sabotaged in advance. The emperor angrily curses at his men, furious that none tried to step in. But he now has what he wanted, an excuse to invade Yan, and the conclusion is inevitable at this point as well.

The movies concludes with a final meeting between Lady Zhou and the emperor. She's come not to see him but to retrieve Jing Ke's remains, and the final words which pass between them are polite but forced, formal, but masking her hate for him, any lingering pining for her. She's sad and bitter, he, blinded with success and anticipation, knowing soon he'll achieve his unification. The movie ends with a crawl of words explaining that while the emperor was successful in conquering and unifying the lands, his dynasty was extremely short-lived; the kingdom fell apart very soon after his death, only to split and reform many times after as other kings and dynasties rose to do what he only happened to be the first.

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Some thoughts on the film and the historical emperor

The movie portrays a very different picture of its first emperor than one might expect. This is not the benevolent caricature of noble intentions that other media like paint, but rather a complex portrait of an shrewd and ambitious but very flawed human. Melt away the mythical aspects that have been attached to him and what you have left is the man. Machiavelli would have had his readers believe that a strong and competent ruler need be absolutely cold and made of iron. Although he starts out a hopeful and sympathetic man, by the end of the film, the emperor's transformation has been completed and he has become much the sort of ruler Machiavelli would have described. Maintaining control and achieving the things he wants have taken precedence over love, over trust, and over the promises he has made.

From what we know of his later life, the building projects like the Terracota army, standardizations of everything from language to measurement, we can see the man was certainly both very controlling and also very vain. Looking at the sociopolitical factors that were adding up at the time, as well as the number of times China has subsequently been conquered and unified, and the fact that his kingdom crumbled within a short time after his death, it somewhat diminishes the achievement. He simply was the first. Great admiration has always followed those who are the first to do anything, and the man has had a lasting influence not only on the country itself but through it much of the world as well. Of course, not all of this is apparent from watching the movie. We have only the events as they transpired on screen to look upon, and what the movie does do is give us a face and a character and a personality to this figure of history.

Comparisons to "Hero"

It's almost impossible to see this film and not think of Zhang Yimoh's Hero, which was thematically quite similar in that it too had an assassination plot at its center. And while I'm also sure there are no doubt more people than I can count (quite possibly "all under heaven") who disagree with me on this one, I also personally believe Emperor and the Assassin to be superior in many ways. To be certain, they are quite different in tone and realism, and Hero certainly isn't a bad film. It's strong points are those of stunts, action, coordination, and effects. There were scenes of unreal beauty, a compliment to its cinematography and imagery both, and yet I've always found it lacking in story. It's not simply the use of unreliable narrators so much as the way it repeatedly showed speculation and ploys as if they were real that all led to a lack of coherence and multiple death scenes that just derailed the thing for me. Most of all was the sappy ending which I felt made nearly every mistake I've mentioned in this entry (glorifying and ennobling the figure as if he were some sort of christ-like figure). I've heard it told before that the Chinese government forced the director to make changes to suit it's own desires and its overly sentimental "All Under Heaven" line which inspires the assassin enough not to strike absolutely reeked of propaganda. I remember wondering where the word crawl was when that film ended. When it comes right down to it though, I also can't help but wonder why The Emperor and the Assassin emerged unscathed. Its greatest strengths lie in the realism and historical accuracy which give us a more down to earth version of the man.