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The Emperor's Shadow (1996)

Director: Zhou Xiaowen

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From Time Out Film Guide

Although designed and staged on a fairly spectacular scale, this Qin Dynasty epic is at heart a chamber tragedy centred on the love-hate bond between Ying Zheng, China's first emperor, and his one-time blood brother, a musician named Gao Jianli. The unapologetic modernity of Jiang Wen's great performance as the emperor suggests that Zhou Xiaowen is less concerned with history than with present-day relations between the artist and the Chinese state. But the film feels more like an aesthetic adventure than a political commentary, and Zhou (director of Ermo) makes it all the more extraordinary by stressing the homo-erotic feelings which run just beneath the surface of the central relationship.

Author: TR

Time Out Film Guide

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Cast & crew

Director: Zhou Xiaowen

Producer: Jimmy Tan

Cast: Jiang Wen, Ge You, Xu Qing full cast

Genre(s): Epics

Duration: 116 mins


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