Hero (2004)
Director: Zhang Yimou
Cast: Jet Li, Tony Leung, Maggie Cheung, Zhang Ziyi, Chen Dao Ming, Donnie Yen
In 221 B. C., Ying Zheng unified China and proclaimed himself the First (shi) Emperor (huangdi) of the Qin Dynasty. Indeed, he was the first man to rule the whole of future China.
After many assassination attempts, he grew paranoid. He heard of a prefect known as Nameless that had defeated the Emperor's three greatest adversaries: Broken Sword (Tony Leung), Flying Snow (Maggie Cheung) and Sky (Donnie Yen). The Emperor called the Nameless in to learn how he had accomplished such a task.
The movie makes use of the flying martial arts techniques so recently developed.
The movie is beautifully filmed and the actors are good, but I don't know how much history there is here. Many assassination attempts were made on the emperor and he grew very paranoid (obviously, with reason). But a movie about four assassins with the accent on action does not reveal much.
Historical Background:
See the Emperor and the Assassin (1991).
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