Like most conquerors throughout history, he isn't squeamish about taking lives on the path to his dream. Moments of tenderness and mercy quickly fade to orgies of mass murder. The Emperor and the Assassin revolves around such contrasting images. The battle scenes are blitzkriegs of dynamism with cameras riding hoof level or dollying just above the charging chariots, or thrusting into spears and arrows as if mounted on galloping horses. Cut to the carefully choreographed, pin-drop quiet ritual of court life, where every servant and noble moves with wooden stateliness.
Daylight is filmed with honeyed luster and night with jeweled shadows.
Gong Li, one of China's leading actresses and a star of Farewell My Concubine , plays Ying's concubine, a self-assured woman who loved him back when he was, if not a good man, then at least an average one. Concubine's Zhang Fengy plays the film's most enigmatic character, a crazed killer turned Zen-like mendicant commissioned to assassinate the man who would be emperor. The movie's moral is implicit in its end titles. Ying's dynasty collapsed shortly after his death, but his concept of a united China continues through contrasting periods of conflict and harmony. History moves inexorably and often devours those who pretend to understand its ways.