"I’m the only person who could have made this film," Chen Kaige explained matter-of-factly in a telephone interview about his stunning epic, The Emperor and the Assassin. He’s probably right, for it’s hard to imagine anyone but this renowned, hard-working Chinese filmmaker taking on such an ambitious project. Winner of the prestigious Palme d’Or at Cannes and a Golden Globe Best Foreign Film Award in 1993 for Farewell, My Concubine, Chen takes viewers back to the China of 2,000 years ago in this superb film. 

"This is a very special movie -- a type of film you hardly ever see anymore," Chen declared. No doubt a movie like this would cost too much to film in most countries today. (At $20 million, Chen’s film holds the record as the most expensive Asian movie to date.) There’s also the controversial nature of the film’s theme. Chen pointed out that The Emperor and the Assassin "tells the story of Ying Zheng’s (Li Xuejian) brutal struggle to unify the country but also raises serious issues of human rights, betrayal, and corrupted leadership."

One of Chen’s greatest challenges involved staging the movie’s battle scenes. "We had 5,000 soldiers to move from place to place in big trucks as well as to costume," he recalled. "We had to get up in the middle of the night because we needed seven hours to put wardrobe on these soldiers. Some people joked with me by saying ‘Now you are a real emperor on the set.’ And I almost had that feeling."

Besides the problems of logistics, Chen had to decide how to film the battles without imitating other directors. "I didn’t want to copy directors like Kurosawa, and I didn’t want to show excessive bloodshed or the details of killing --- I wanted the scenes to be more poetic," he said. He made the right decision, for by emphasizing the aftermath of violence, these incredible scenes carry tremendous impact.

Gong Li, a veteran of Chen’s films, plays the role of courageous Lady Zhao and looks even more gorgeous than in Farewell My Concubine or in Temptress Moon. "Gong Li shows great dramatic power and understands her characters very well," Chen exclaimed. "It’s not just on the surface. She’s more concerned with feelings and emotions than with the lines her characters say."

Chen also complimented other cast members and rightly so. Li Xuejian delivers a dynamic performance as the ambitious leader who sacrifices everything for his political ends. In addition, playing a reformed assassin recruited by Lady Zhao to kill the Emperor, Zhang Fengi makes viewers believe completely in his redemption and honor. Surprisingly, the director cast himself in the role of a banished Prime Minister who turns out to be the Emperor’s real father.

According to Chen, he assumed this role as a kind of homage to his own parent, now deceased, who was also a film director in China. When Chen was 14 years old, he denounced his father as part of the Cultural Revolution, but his father forgave him. "I was obsessed with that --- with the sacrifices made to unify the whole country," he admitted. "There’s a connection between me and my father and the Emperor and Prime Minister as depicted in my film."

Chen said he plans to direct a love story for Miramax Films soon. It’s based on Martin Cruz Smith’s novel, The Rose. "I think Miramax wants one of its rising young stars for the female lead and already has decided on the male lead, but they haven’t told me yet," he said cheerfully, perhaps relieved at not having more huge battle scenes to oversee.

A former basketball player for the Chinese army, Chen has very little time for the game now. "I work so hard, run around so much, then fall apart," he complained. After watching his monumental Emperor and the Assassin, it’s easy to see why.

(Released with English subtitles by Sony Pictures Classics and rated "R" for violence.)