Between shock and awe

Rating: Null/10 (27 August 2004)

This film left me with very ambiguous feelings. Wonderful cinematography, elegant and inventive fight scenes, some of my favorite actors (though underemployed here) - but:
I saw this as a German, and I currently live in Taipei with my Taiwanese wife. So the Court of Qin looked like a Nazi Party rally to me(compare THE TRIUMPH OF THE WILL), and the ending just reinforced this side of the story. Yes, there is a commitment to peace here, but it's only on the side of the swordsmen - for the emperor (both in the film and in history) that was just paying lip service. You also have to take into account that this story, while historical, is told now and could be told in totally different manners - Chen Kaige's "Emperor and the Assassin" is less impressive visually, but gives a much more ambivalent portrayal of Qin Shi Huang Ti. When the message of the film was finally revealed - "The Reich must be united!" - I just had to think about the missiles pointing to Taiwan from the mainland and the constant saber-rattling from Beijing that accompanies all major elections here. It spoiled the film tremendously.
This is not to blame Zhang Yimou for everything. Look at his follow-up, "House of Flying Daggers". It prefers love over politics in its storytelling, and it's much more humane: Forests instead of deserts, mixed colors instead of primary colors...