I haven't fallen asleep watching a film in the theater in ages, since I was a small boy. And, yes, I'd had a long day. I could not keep my eyes open during "The Emperor and the Assassin." Perhaps if you were an Asian history scholar, your opinion would be different. But, otherwise, there is not much here to entice you.

This is the story of the first Chinese emperor, the man who united all the territories that became the country hundreds of years ago. The story of this event, should be filled with war and battles and intrigue and strategy. Some of that is evident here. But it's far to convoluted and mangled to make much sense.

And I suppose this is a horrible racist-type thing to say, I don't mean it like that; I can't tell the characters apart here. They all look the same. This probably says more about my own Eurocentric upbringing than it does about the film, but so be it. I could not tell one character from another. When a female character in the film gets her face branded by a hot iron, I thought, "Well, at least I'll be able to recognize her throughout the rest of the film."

There are some interesting visuals in the film and even some remarkable scenes. A sequence where a small army is "captured" and annihilated by a larger force is gorgeous in it's visual precision. But overall there's no heart and no soul here. There is nothing going on to make us care about any of the characters. We don't understand them and we certainly don't understand their motivations.

For me, "The Emperor and the Assassin" was like cinematic Nyquil. Static and unrelenting in it's boredom.

More of Lodger's reviews indexed alphabetically! Just click your favorite letter to go there.

a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z

HOME