Wang de Shengyan

Obvious, it is a beautiful film. For admirable cinematography, for the great political lessons, for atmosphere, for the wise way to remind old, fundamental truths. So, just delightful, for a sort of grace of storytelling, for profound moral, for the portrait of conquest of power and its not real reasonable price, for the manner to write history . And for the truths behind apparences.

A beautifully shot movie with an intricate plot that unfolds amid a brooding atmosphere. Stellar cast and great performances all around make this an epic to be savoured if you like films with substance. It's a shame that great productions like these receive so little attention on IMDB.

The movie is beautifully shot and is drastically different to the many iterations about this classic eternal tale. The shots are crude, gritty and dirty. You can almost say it's akin to the spaghetti take on western with the catch that there is no action here whatsoever and the entire movie is about a delirious dying rascal who found himself an emperor because of chance (arguably luck ? His ability to endure and survive ?) and a wife that is trying her best to survive the currents after she finally became an empress but having to resort to cruelty (and the historical records spare no time telling of this).

There are some great shots that left me staggering like when the empress' shadow looms and covers prime minister Xiao, then there are some cheap CGI that are just outta the place, but when taken with the fact that Liu Bang is on his deathbed and delirious does do the job.

There is a general lack of ambition that I respect. It almost feels like the movie concedes that the emperor and his ministers are just a punch of rascals from a small county who lucked out, but again the scenery is just amazing for what it shows.

You can watch this after you do King' War tv series to have a conclusion. It does it better than the show. Qin Lan plays Liu Bang's wife Lady Lu in there as well.

I actually wonder if there are similarly shot movies now...

To make commercial movies with the idea of making literary and artistic films is to elaborate the black screen of history, but the entry point is not accurate enough. The whole film has a slow rhythm and no fluctuation. The story line, especially the old Liu Bang, seems particularly confused.

In fact, the atmosphere and the beauty of scene may be the best among films about this topic. The first emperor of Han Dynasty Liu Bang and his wife told us a golden rule in politic: kill your politic ennemy as soon as possible if you could. Another from Xiang Yu: Never overestimate morality.