- Title: VARIOUS: "THE EMPEROR AND THE ASSASSIN" SHOWS AT THE 52ND CANNES FILM FESTIVAL
- Date: 19th May 1999
- Summary: CANNES, FRANCE (MAY 16, 1999) PHOTO CALL OF GONG LI WITH DIRECTOR CHEN KAIGE ACTRESS GONG LI DIRECTOR OF EMPEROR AND THE ASSASSIN
- Embargoed: 3rd June 1999 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: CANNES, FRANCE AND VARIOUS FILM LOCATIONS
- Country: France
- Reuters ID: LVACPBCT16V0D7YV9CKQ5MINPM7B
- Story Text: With "The Emperor and The Assassin", Chinese director Chen Kaige's sweeping epic set in ancient China, the 52nd edition of the Cannes Film Festival competition finally got its teeth into a mega-production.
Many of the other Palme d'Or entries have been small, inexpensive films, but Chen's work, which lasts more than two and a half hours, uses extravagant costumes and decors, and contains several battle scenes with thousands of extras.
Set in the third century B.C.in a fragmented China made up of seven warring realms, the film follows the power struggles and conquests of King Qin Shu Huangdi, the man who united China and is now regarded as its first emperor.
But the unification is reached through a series of cruel and bloody battles.
"I've been wanting to make this film for 10 years," said Chen, who won the Palme in 1993 for "Farewell my Concubine"."I admire this emperor but I deplore the methods he used.As a human being, I have to say that he's a loser."
A rival realm threated by Qin's massive army decides to hire an assassin to kill the king.Unfortunately, the assassin has given up killing and turns down the job.
Only with the intervention of the Lady of Zhao, played by the exquisite Gong Li, does the assassin finally accept the task, disgusted by the atrocities King Qin commits in order to rule all of China.
"History is always a mirror that reflects what is also happening today,"
the Beijing-born director said, with a nod to the Kosovo conflict.
"I mean, I believe NATO has good intentions, killing for peace.But doing bad things for a good result, I don't believe in that," he said.
In one of several powerful and graphic scenes, Gong Li's character, a childhood friend of King Qin who is deeply in love with her, returns to her hometown, Zhao, to find that Qin has massacred its inhabitants and buried the children alive.
"I researched the historical figure very carefully but it's not necessary to follow the historical elements closely in a work of art," he added.
It was a personal experience that led Chen to play Qin's chancellor, who hangs himself so as not to reveal that the king is in fact his son, and not the child of the previous king.
"I took this role because I was forced to denounce my father during the Cultural Revolution.The nationalists thought he was a spy.It destroyed our relationship.My father never forgave me," Chen said.
The film is co-produced by Kaige, and firms in China, Japan and France, and Sony will distribute it in the United States.
Several figures have been thrown around, but not even Chen knows the full cost of the film.
That's largely because the gigantic sets -- various royal palaces and fortified cities -- although built for the film, were paid for by companies who are going to transform them into theme parks.
Asked why his friend Zhang Yimou had pulled his own film out of the Palme d'Or competition, Chen was unable to shed light.
Zhang had explained his move in a letter, saying Cannes organisers had painted his works in unwanted political overtones.But insiders were not convinced, given Zhang's past problems with Chinese censors.
Chen did add: "There's still censorship in China.But if you're not a film-maker, you're very free. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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