The Emperor's Shadow

1996
The Emperor's Shadow
7| 1h56m| en| More Info
Released: 31 October 1996 Released
Producted By: Xi'an Film Studio
Country: Hong Kong
Budget: 0
Revenue: 0
Official Website:
Synopsis

Epic drama about China's first emperor (221 BC) who struggles to make his childhood best friend, now China's greatest composer, succumb to his will and compose a grand anthem to his exploits.

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Reviews

Allen Rubin I cannot say enough about this film. The production value was TOPS. The locations, story, acting, music, and everything else involved in it was extraordinary. I watched it 10 times (Each time forcing others to watch, which they all agreed with me). It should have won an Oscar, but since there are probably big politics with Mainland China vs Hong Kong, it never got a mention. I am not Chinese, but do appreciate a fine film. WATCH IT!!! TRUST ME. You will agree. The music writer scored many other Top Chinese films like Farewell My Concubine, Ju Duo, and Raise The Red Lantern, just to name a few! WoW! The acting was superb. Natural and realistic. I cried each and every time I watched it. What can I say? I definitely think it was one of the best made films I've seen in many years. I am an actor and have produced a few action films (nothing that compares to this, or even gets close...PLEASE! I wish!). This has every emotion and is to be considered an EPIC of Extraordinary Proportions!
wobelix When exploring the Asian epics it is wonderful to find out that all the critics and the general ideas are wrong. First of all, not all Asian pictures are filled with martial arts nonsense. Far from it, I'd say.And here is a truely great epic. It has been compared with Kurosawa's RAN, which is rather silly since that film has been made by one of the Founding Fathers of cinema, and also with BRAVEHEART, which comes pretty close.Somehow this film keeps the mind spinning; the wonderful stories of Jorge Luis Borges about this First Chinese Emperor twists and turns in the back of the mind. The refusal of using too bright a' colours in wardrobe keeps you asking why we needed all these glistening colours with Bertolucci's tale of the LAST EMPEROR anyway.Is this epic true to history ? I really couldn't tell. It might be... I do know it is a wonderful lush film, and within its grand scale it has found a way to talk about the small yet important things. It is a gorgeous epic, and romantic without the silliness we westerners usually mix in our grand stories...
Hunky Stud This is an excellent, excellent movie. It seamless linked all those major stories that happened during the lifetime of first Chinese emperor. Jiang, Wen is a well-known actor. Sometimes it is hard to actually see a famous actor as the actual character. However Mr. Jiang has done a great job. Even though his face is so familiar to many of us, but in this particular movie, he is indeed the first Emperor of China.Best of all, it is not boring to watch this movie at all. Sometimes it is hard to follow through a lengthy old historic movie, which one can not reflect upon oneself. However, this film grabs audiences' attention, and one wants to watch it till the end.Ge You the other main character is also so excellent. It is definitely an epic. It has love, hate, massacre, etc. It may not have the fancy elegance as Titanic, but it is absolutely more meaningful.
camel-9 When Zang Xiao Ping died three years ago at the age of 91, Richard Holdbrooke, the US Ambassador to the UN said that he will be remembered as relentlessly trying to bring a long-lasting period of peace, away from food famines, war, instability, financial dependence to foreign nations. The king in this motion picture, while claims that a national anthem will conquer hearts and minds of the eventually united kindoms that make China, also ponders on unifying scales and measures, trade protocols, language. Interesting parallel with modern-day China of Zang, the king's daughter is cripple from a fall off a horse. Zang's son was crippled from a fall off a window in the late sixties trying to escape the Red Guards during the Cultural Revolution.