Plot
The film covers a great deal of Ying Zheng's life, from his early life as a hostage to his dominance over China, and depicts him essentially as an idealist seeking to impose a peace or unity on the world and defeated by various betrayals and losses. Its story consists in the main of three incidents: the attempt by Jing Ke to assassinate Ying Zheng; the rumour of a Chief Minister's having sired the latter before transferring his concubine to become Queen Mother; and the (possibly fictitious) story of an official having sired children by the Queen Mother herself. The first incident is shown only at the end of the film, but is foreshadowed in early acts; whereas the other two occur between the fictional genesis and historical manifestation of the first.
In the film, Ying Zheng sends his concubine Lady Zhao to the Yan state as a spy to enlist a Yan assassin to attempt to assassinate him, and use that a casus belli to start a war against Yan. Lady Zhao persuades Jing Ke to perform the assassination. After witnessing Ying Zheng's massacre of the children in her home state of Zhao, the lady desires the assassination in earnest. The attempt fails, but Ying Zheng is furious when none of his associates attempt to stop the assassin and he is forced to kill Jing Ke himself, and further saddened when Lady Zhao returns to Qin only to retrieve Jing Ke for burial.
Read more about this topic: The Emperor And The Assassin
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