The Emperor and the Assassin
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The Emperor and the Assassin (荊柯刺秦王) is a 1999 Chinese historical romance film made in the People's Republic of China. The movie was directed by Chen Kaige and stars Gong Li, Zhang Fengyi, Li Xuejian, and Zhou Sun. The common transliteration of the film's Chinese title is "Jing ke ci qin wang". The movie was very well received critically and won the Technical Prize at the Cannes film festival in 1999.
In China, during the Warring States era, the king of the State of Qin (Li Xuejian), later known as Qin Shi Huang, will stop at nothing to become emperor. To conquer the State of Yan he sends Lady Zhao (Gong Li), his concubine, to find Jing Ke(Zhang Fengyi), a skilled swordsman and assassin for hire. When the time arrives, the king would kill him instead, so he can get a reason to invade Yan. But during the process, Lady Zhao falls in love with Jing Ke and her feelings for the king of Qin turn into hatred after he destroyed her homeland, so she and Jing Ke plan to murder the king, for real.