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The Emperor's Shadow (1996)

The Emperor's Shadow (1996)
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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, Rovi

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Starring:
Jiang WenGe You, (more)
Director(s):
Zhou Xiaowen
Format(s):
DVD
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Synopsis of The Emperor's Shadow

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, Rovi

Theatrical Feature Running Time:
123 mins

Complete Cast of The Emperor's Shadow


Director(s):
Zhou Xiaowen
Writer(s):
Lu Wei
Producer(s):
Chen KunmingZhang Pimin
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Member Reviews
 
Gabe L.

Well cruel for sure, saw it back to back with the Emperor's assassin, same story with a slight variation- Cruel driven king ambition to unite China and become it's first Emperor- He succeeds but at what cost? Though historically interesting, visually grand with fine acting I don't ever want to see another movie on this subject. You may, if you have a stronger stomach than I do.

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WALT T.

The story line is good but unfortunately the acting is odd in the sense that it has some modern flavor to it.

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Denna B.

For completists that must see every movie involving China's first emperor, this is a good title to add to your queue. However, the movie is more about Jianli, the aging musician, than the emperor. And despite the synopsis describing this as the most expensive film produced in China at that time, it is nowhere near the quality of recent, glossy period epics like "Curse of the Golden Flower". While the acting and directing are a notch above "The Emperor and the Assassin", the story is basically confined to whether or not Jianli will create an anthem for the emperor. On a positive note, there's an awesome river scene that had to be dangerous to film. The picture quality ranged from slightly bleached out to too dark. The audio defaults to stereo. As for extras, there's a trailer for the movie and a "Filmographies" option for the director and three main actors. Recommended.

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