Clash of Emperors

***Clash of Emperors*** is a Chinese stop-motion drama film loosely based on William Shakespeare's play *Macbeth*. The film is set in a fictionalized version of ancient China and is the company’s 149th feature film.

It went on to win the Best Picture at the 2015 KB Awards.

## Plot

### Act I

The film is set in a fictionalized version of early Ming-dynasty China and begins with a funeral of Chen Singlong's and Hong Fenghuang's child, who was killed by the Mongol army, with both parents grieving for their loss. Chen, who supports the reigning Emperor in a war against the Mongols, is leading the imperial troops into a final battle. Chen emerges victorious, but with heavy losses, including many young male soldiers. The battle is observed by three mysterious fortune tellers with a small girl and an infant. They approach Chen and Lee Ban Kuo, hailing Chen as a Grand Chancellor and future Emperor, and Ban Kuo as a father of Emperors, before disappearing in the mist.

### Act II

Elsewhere, the Emperor hears about Chen's victory and is brought the current Grand Chancellor who, deemed to be a traitor because he has allied with the Mongols, is stripped of his title and executed. The Emperor orders his servants to take the title of Grand Chancellor to Chen, who reacts uncertainly. He sends a message ahead to Fenghuang, telling her about the three fortune tellers' prophecies. Fenghuang then prays to the dark spirits in the village’s temple asking them for guidance. When Chen and his soldiers return, and her husband tells her that the Emperor will stay one night as their guest, she urges Chen to assassinate the Emperor to fulfill the prophecy from the fortune tellers. The Emperor arrives to the village and a feast is being held, where the Emperor pronounces Admiral Wudang as his heir. Chen still hesitates and Fenghuang persuades him to commit the deed, while she slips a sleeping potion to the Emperor's servants. After the feast ends, Chen sees a ghost of one of the young male soldiers who had been killed during the battle who gives him a sword and leads him towards the Emperor’s tent. Chen follows and brutally beheads the Emperor. Wudang enters the tent and seeing what Chen has done, flees in fear. Shaken, Chen goes to his consort and gives her the sword he used to kill the Emperor. Fenghuang rebukes him that he should leave them in the tent and goes herself to place the sword in the hands of the sleeping general. Later she meets Chen in the royal garden where they both wash their hands from blood and with Fenghuang telling him that the water has washed their deed away.

### Act III

In the morning, Supreme General Pang Hutou enters the tent to wake the Emperor, only to discover that he is dead. Chen summarily executes the sleeping servants to prevent their confession. Pang and Yi, a Manchurian noble, discuss that as Wudang has fled to the south that puts him under suspicion of being involved in the murder. They also admire Chen’s justice on the supposedly-treacherous servants in the rightful fit of anger. With Wudang gone, Chen is asked to become Emperor of China. After the coronation he sits in a sour mood in his chamber where Fenghuang comes to him. He complains that killing the previous Emperor was for nothing as he has no heirs to inherit after him and that the crown will pass to Ban Kuo and his son according to the prophecy. He invites Ban Kuo with his son to a banquet and finds out that they both plan to leave. Seeing how Ban Kuo is becoming suspicious, Chen sends three assassins to murder him. Ban Kuo is killed, but his son escapes to the woods.

During the evening, Chen is waiting for Ban Kuo to arrive and makes a comment about him not keeping his promise to show up for the feast. When the assassins arrive to the feast, Chen asks if they succeeded and is enraged when he finds out that Ban Kuo’s son escaped. Then he sees Ban Kuo's ghost in his armor standing among other guests next to the table. Chen is afraid and starts to talk to the ghost which is unseen by everyone else. Fenghuang tries to calm everyone by claiming that her husband is unwell, but Chen continues to rave, which prompts Pang and his consort Ling Lau Ying to leave the feast despite the Emperor ordering them to stay. Fenghuang dismisses all the guests and takes Chen back to their chamber.

### Act IV

Chen travels in the night to talk to the three fortune tellers. Once he finds them, they show him a vision of slain soldiers who tell him to beware Pang, and he shall be Emperor until Wugui Wood comes to the imperial palace. Finally the ghost of the slain young soldier who gave him the sword tells him that he won’t be slain by any man born from a woman. The Emperor is found wandering the hills by Yi who passes the news that Pang fled to the south. Fearing this with a fit of rage, Chen orders his family and servants to be executed. Ling is executed by flying guillotine and her children are captured and burned alive, while a distraught Fenghuang watches the execution. After the burning she takes out the sword that was used to kill the former Emperor and repeatedly washes it.

Meanwhile, Pang meets up with Wudang, who is gathering troops in the south for the march to the capital. The Admiral informs him about the murder of his family and servants. Stricken with grief and anger, Pang swears revenge and both he and Wudang (who supports Pang) join forces to overthrow Chen.

### Act V

Haunted by guilt, Fenghuang returns to her village, now abandoned, and laments on the terrible deeds that were done and how her hands are covered in blood stains. She then sees the ghost of her dead child which she urges to go to bed. She then walks among the hills and sees the three fortune tellers. Later, Fenghuang, wracked by guilt, committed suicide by strangling herself.

In the imperial palace, rumors spread that Chen went mad and his subjects fear his anger and tyrannical behavior. Chen is told by a messenger that the Empress is dead. He then lifts her body and carries her around the chamber in despair, reciting the famous soliloquy in Chinese, starting "tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow" (also known by the lines in it beginning "Out, out, brief candle!"). His soldier then brings him news that Wudang is leading an army against him and Chen orders his armor to be brought to him.

Pang and Wudang set the Wugui Wood on fire, with the smoke and ashes blowing towards the imperial palace, making the prophecy come true. Chen leaves the castle to face the attacking army and engages in a duel with Pang. Chen is confident that he will win as "no man born of woman" can kill him. Pang then tells him that he was ripped from his mother's womb and, using Chen's distraction, he stabs him. Chen refuses to admit defeat and bow to him and so he engages Pang once again. After an intense battle, Pang finally kills Chen in the battlefield and is later hailed as the new Emperor. The three fortune tellers that were observing the battle leave after witnessing Chen’s death.

In the last scene, Emperor Pang is seen leaving the throne room while Ban Kuo's son takes Chen's sword and charges through the empty battlefield, disappearing into the smoke.

## Release

Clash of Emperors premiered at the 2015 Asian Fan Fiction Film Festival in Shanghai on 23 May, where it won the coveted Golden Samurai with *A Brief History of Whales*. The film was released in China on 2 October 2015.

## Accolades

* Golden Samurai at Asian Fan Fiction Film Festival Shanghai 2015 (joint winner with *A Brief History of Whales*)
* KB Award for Best Film 2015 (won)
* KB Award for Best Actor 2015 - Chen Singlong (won)

## Trivia

* This is the first KB film to be entirely in the Mandarin Chinese language.
* Being an adaptation of William Shakespeare's play *Macbeth* set in early Ming China, the film had a similar concept with the 1985 Japanese film *Ran*, which is an adaptation of King Lear - another of Shakespeare's works - set in Sengoku-era Japan.
* Lee Ban Kuo is named after the character he was based on, Banquo, being Sinicized.
* A flying guillotine is used to execute Ling Lau Ying in the film, which was set around the same time as the Ming Dynasty. The flying guillotine actually first originated from the time of the Yongzheng Emperor during the Qing Dynasty.
* Chen Singlong (as Emperor), Pang Hutou and Hong Fenghuang reappeared in *KB Girl Squad: Attack of the Downfall Zombies* (2018). In the film’s climax, the three work together with Ada Wong to battle the Nazi zombies that overran their world’s Ming China. Hutou’s wife Ling Lau Ying was seen tortured by Nazi zombies at a concentration camp.

### Jin Yong novel references

* Most of the film’s characters’ names are based on characters from three Jin Yong novels: *Return of the Condor Heroes*, *The Smiling Proud Wanderer* and *The Deer and the Cauldron*.
	+ Pang Hutou is based on Wei Hutou (韋虎頭) from *The Deer and the Cauldron*.
	+ Hong Fenghuang (藍鳳凰) is based on Lan Fenghuang from *The Smiling, Proud Wanderer*.
	+ Admiral Wudang is named after the Wudang sect from *The Smiling, Proud Wanderer*.