A royal epic

>> Top-notch period blood and guts in The Emperor and the Assassin

by MATTHEW HAYS

While watching Chen Kaige's latest film, The Emperor and the Assassin, my mind kept flashing back to Mel Gibson's Oscar-winning Braveheart. Not because of the films' similarities, but rather their dissimilarities. Kaige's bold and ultrarealistic battle scenes, the performances he manages to cull from his cast and his overall directing ability put Gibson and his wildly overrated film to shame.

Set in 3rd century B.C., the film recounts the life of Ying Zheng, the Chinese historical figure who worked to collect all seven Chinese provinces together under one leader (namely him). His ambitions initially appear noble, intent on ending the various wars between sparring regions. But in the spirit of Shakespeare, even the best-intended ambitions soon lead to rather nasty tin-pot dictatorship behaviour. Ying is soon burying children alive, murdering vast numbers of people and showing no mercy in his quest for power.

Lady Zhao (played to perfection by Gong Li) is his mistress, an innocent who, slowly but surely, comes to recognize the evil in Ying. She soon decides the only way to end the carnage and horror of Ying's reign is to plot his assassination. Enter Jing Ke, an ace assassin who retired years earlier after slaughtering an entire family put him off the biz.

Chen's cunning film is epic, both in its form and in the grandeur of its performances (Chen even appears in the film himself in a supporting role, as the prime minister). One of the film's most striking features is its depiction of torture. Beware, queasy types: there are skewerings, hot-iron brandings and executions of children galore. Chen never allows his film to remain in typical historical-epic stylistic territory; like Shekhar Kapur did in Elizabeth, he even employs a series of jump cuts during one sequence.

Chen's success isn't so surprising when one considers his oeuvre, including Farewell My Concubine. The auteur reportedly spent a decade raising the $20-million budget for the film, and the money has been well spent (and the figure is glaring, considering that's the asking price for Hollywood's A-list stars like Tom Cruise, Mel Gibson and John Travolta). This summer, I urge you to skip Battlefield Earth or Mission: Impossible 2 and go see The Emperor and the Assassin. You'll actually leave the cinema satisfied. :

The Emperor and the Assassin opens Friday, May 26