The Emperor's Shadow

Released Jul 18, 1997

1 hr. 56 min.

History

Drama

List

80%

5 Reviews

Tomatometer

73%

100+ Ratings

Audience Score

During childhood, Ying Zheng (Wen Jiang) forges a friendship with Gao Jianli (Ge You) due to the fact that Gao's mother is his wet nurse. The two take different paths in life: Ying Zheng is crowned king, while Gao develops into a famed musician. In the midst of King Zheng's initiatives to unify China, he kidnaps his old friend to coerce him into writing an anthem for him. Their reunion, albeit forced, leads to spirited debates between them about various public and personal matters.

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Audience Member

The set designs are truly epic, a fabulous recreation of the era. Unfortunately it also feels a little dry like a museum piece, in spite of the scope of passion and drama that unfurls.

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

01/23/23

Full Review

Audience Member

(** 1/2): [img]http://images.rottentomatoes.com/images/user/icons/icon13.gif[/img] A bloated epic. I liked the story from the beginning and was intrigued but the film became overlong and it seemed like the focus of the film drifted toward emphasizing the killing of thousands of people (mostly the empire's slaves) instead of the story of the emperor, his "brother" and the creation of a national song.

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

01/18/23

Full Review

Audience Member

An overlooked Chinese spectacular about personal relationship between the first emperor of China and his childhood friend which is a genius composer. Directed by one of the Chinese 5th Generation directors, Xiaowen Zhou. Unlike other big-scale Chinese film setting in ancient kingdoms, it does not have a single scene of martial arts or sword fighting, but it is still a first-class entertainment. What makes this film great is definitely performances by the two best actors of China today, Wen Jiang and You Ge - It is like DiCaplio and Pitt are in the same film. Especially You Ge plays the difficult role so professionally. Besides it is a good political suspense, it is also a great love story between the heroin who's the daughter of the emperor and You Ge's character, and the beauty of Qing Xu, who plays the heroin, is outstanding. Putting aside the question whether this story is really based on the real history, it has great performances and some unforgettable scenes which inspires me a lot.

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

01/28/23

Full Review

Audience Member

A memorable film with great performances by Jiang Wen & Ge You.

Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars

02/24/23

Full Review

Audience Member

Very nicely done Chinese period piece.

Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars

02/07/23

Full Review

Audience Member

Chinese period pieces are awesome because you know everyone knows martial arts. Even the people who clearly don't have the physical aspects down pat are clearly able to spout nonsense about "the way of heaven". The movie itself was pretty good. Makes royalty look fucked up. I'm pretty certain they are. I like the more decorative ones in general but this historical drama was definitely interesting.

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

02/14/23

Full Review

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Xiaowen Zhou

Director

Wen Jiang

Ying Zheng

You Ge

Gao Jianli

Qing Xu

Ying Yueyang

Ge Zhijun

Actor

Qingxiang Wang

Actor

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Susan Stark

Detroit News

Rated: 3/4

Jan 1, 2000

Full Review

Roger Ebert

Chicago Sun-Times

The movie is not subtle or especially insightful, but it is intrinsically interesting (when have you seen these characters or situations before?), and sumptuously mounted and photographed.

Rated: 3/4

Jan 1, 2000

Full Review

Jim Lane

Sacramento News & Review

Rated: 4/5

Aug 7, 2008

Full Review

Emanuel Levy

EmanuelLevy.Com

Rated: 2/5

Oct 30, 2005

Full Review

Richard Porton

Film Journal International

Unquestionably a vigorous example of old-fashioned storytelling that compensates for its occasional clunkiness with a great deal of narrative zest.

Jan 1, 2000

Full Review

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Synopsis

During childhood, Ying Zheng (Wen Jiang) forges a friendship with Gao Jianli (Ge You) due to the fact that Gao's mother is his wet nurse. The two take different paths in life: Ying Zheng is crowned king, while Gao develops into a famed musician. In the midst of King Zheng's initiatives to unify China, he kidnaps his old friend to coerce him into writing an anthem for him. Their reunion, albeit forced, leads to spirited debates between them about various public and personal matters.

Director: Xiaowen Zhou
Screenwriter: Wei Lu
Distributor: Ocean Releasing
Genre: History, Drama
Original Language: Chinese
Release Date (Theaters): Jul 18, 1997, Wide
Box Office (Gross USA): $77.5K
Sound Mix: Surround