The Emperor and the Assassin

"He used to be such a good person, now he's a ruthless killer." On the Redundant Expository Dialogue scale, this one rates a solid eight, especially since it comes during the squirreling-resentfully-in-your-seat third hour of Chen Kaige's (Farewell, My Concubine) butt-numbing 161 minute bio-(e)pic of 3rd century king Ying Zheng's mow-em-down streamlined approach to combining China's seven kingdoms into one. Divided into chapters, this handsomely lensed production splits before the halfway point to follow the linked tales of 1) Zhing Yeng's (played by Zhang Fengyi, who brings more teary-eyed introspective theatrical soul searching to the role than the historical timeframe can comfortably bear) woes with internal would-be-usurpers and 2) his main squeeze Lady Zhao's (the radiant Gong Li) plot to hire an outside assassin (Li Xuejian) to make a futile attempt to take out Yeng, thereby giving Yeng an excuse to retaliate. While the scenes featuring the proverbial cast of thousands engaged in awe-inspiring and chilling battle are impressively and meticulously mounted, the human drama simply doesn't measure up. Oddly, this is the second recent filmed bio of Zhing Yeng; the other is the superior The Emperor's Shadow (Fox Lorber Home Video). Optional. (R. Pitman)