Son Le

chinese 3050

The Emperor and the Assassin

The movie, "The Emperor and the Assassin" and the story of Ching K'o had quite

a sum of similarity. The historical event took place in the 221 B.C., the king of Qin,

"Ying Zheng" also known as Qin Shi Huang Di, whom has conquered all 6 kingdoms by

military force. Although there are many historical event and legend surrounding Qin Shi

Huang Di; however, we shall focus more on the assassin, "Ching K'o" and the

comparison between the story versus The Emperor and the Assassin. Ying Zheng

wanted to invade the Yan, to the south. However, he needed an excuse to attach Yan

without criticism from other southern kingdoms. So, Lady Zhao decided to burn her face

to show that she was punish by Ying Zheng. She then leave with the prince of Yan to

the kingdom of Yan. Lady Zhao finally gain the trust of Prince Dan, she decided to find

an assassin who are capable of killing Ying Zheng; however, Ying Zheng already known

that in advance. As stated in the text Ching K'o was a native of Wei and his family

origin are from Ch'i. He love reading books and practice swordsmanship. Ching K'o was

discontent with the way King of Wei treated him. After an argument with Lu Kou-chien

over a chess, Ching K'o decided to leave the Wei and roaming around, he finally settled

in Yen or Yan. While in Yen, he made a dog butcher named Kao Chien-li and became

good friend with him. In movie, "The Emperor and the Assassin", Ching K'o was an

assassin for hire, while he was killing of his targets. He accidently caused a blind girl to
commit suicide due to the death of her family. As a result, Ching K'o vowed not to keep

again.

Now, those were some difference between the movie and the story. Kao Chien-li

was never mention in the movie and Lady Zhao is a fictional character to make the

movie more interesting; moreover, she was not even mention in the story either. Lady

Zhao founded Ching K'o or Jing Ke when he was helping a little boy who was stealing

steam dumpling from a cook. Ching K'o accidently kill a cook with a butcher knife

caused him to be arrested and put in prison; moreover, he ended up meeting the prince

and Lady Zhao. As we referring back to the text, Ching K'o was introduced by T'ien

Kuang to Prince Tan of Yen. Later on, T'ien Kuang commit suicide to show loyalty to the

Prince, stating that he did not betrayed the secret. As the situation in the nation

becomes sever, Prince Dan ask Ching K'o to assassinate the king of Qin; however,

Ching K'o said, "This is a matter of grave importance to the state. I am a person of little

worth and I fear I would be unfit for such a mission." Day after day, the prince offer

Ching K'o: title, luxuries, food, carriages, women and other gift hoping that Ching K'o

would change his mind. Ching K'o told the king that I need to get closed to the king to

kill him; moreover, he need general Fan's head and a map of Tu-k'ang region of Yen in

order to gain the trust of the king of Qin. Ching K'o told General Fan about the

humiliation of his family caused by the King of Qin. General Fan was convinced by

Ching K'o and he slit his own throat. The prince introduce Ch'in Wu-yang, a murderer at

the age of thirteen to accompany Ching K'o. Ching K'o armed with a blade coat with

poison and a box of general Fan's head in it. They set out to the Qin upper throne room

to assassinate the king. The director did not adopted to the text effectively because in
the book it says that while Ching K'o was chasing the king around the throne room, a

physician battered Ching K'o with the medicine bag. In the movie, nobody was helping

the king when Ching K'o chased him around the room. Furthermore, the king finally

manage to pull out his sword and strike Ching K'o across his left thigh. Ching K'o throw

his dagger and missed, the king then attack him in eight places. Referring to the movie,

Ching K'o did throw the knife and missed but he was not strike on the left thigh but it

was to the left abdomen. Ching K'o was stabbed six times not eight places as stated in

the book. Kao Chien-li was not shown in the movie at all. Lady Zhao influence Ching K'o

to assassinate the king, while in the book it was totally different. One of the most

interesting aspect that the director put in the movie was the bowling ball that the king

was throwing. Finally, I believe that the visual aspect of the movie gives the viewers a

clearer image of the protagonist, Ying Zhang or Qin Shi Huang. All in all, I believe that

the movie was an enlighten educational experience and refreshing view for me to better

understand the work of Sima Qian and the Chinese literature.