Visual Beauty from Start to Finish

Rating: 8/10 (6 June 2003)

It is not the story of the movie that makes it remarkable, although the story too has its significance. It takes place during Qin dynasty, when the emperor's desire to expand and centralize the neighboring states under one unique power gained him a few determined enemies, among the people he conquered. The confrontation emperor vs. emperor's assassins ultimately raises a few issues to consider: the obvious and not so obvious meanings of war, death, revenge. The strength of the movie lies in the visual means of telling the story. Images, settings, colors (there is a dominating type of color for each important sequence), characters' appearances and moves, they are all perfectly selected to suggest the different moods and attitudes involved. The music is also effective. It all gave me the impression I was watching a ballet dance, or an absorbing painting, or reading a forcefully suggestive poem, or all these altogether.