Epochal Ruler, Epic Treatment

China’s last monarch, described in Bernardo Bertolucci’s film “The Last Emperor,” was an impotent puppet who could barely feed and clothe himself. In contrast, China’s first emperor, Qin Shihuang, was a classic tyrant whose power and brutality have awed and disgusted Chinese for centuries.

But leading Chinese director Chen Kaige is making a movie about Qin Shihuang that shows a hint of sympathy for him. “Despots are not born that way,” he insists.

Chen’s new movie, “The Assassin,” is a lavish epic, the biggest independently financed film ever made in China and a major gamble considering its politically loaded story--in fact, Chen admits he has no idea whether it will make it past the censors and be shown in China’s theaters. After that, Chen is headed for Hollywood to become the first mainland Chinese director to make movies in America.

His American directing debut will be another historical epic: Chen is rewriting the script for Charles Dickens’ classic “A Tale of Two Cities.”

“I believe I can tell this story well,” Chen says of the Dickens tale. “I see many things in the French Revolution that are comparable to what I went through during China’s Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution of the 1960s.”

Mel Gibson and Daniel Day-Lewis top the short list of candidates for the lead in the picture, which Chen will make for Warner Bros.

On the set of “Assassin” at the Beijing Film Studio, Chen’s deep voice and imposing presence match the gravity of his mission. “I feel very strongly I’m doing an important piece of work,” Chen says. “Its significance transcends just the movie.”

The film tells the story of the attempted assassination of Qin Shihuang, who was the first emperor to rule over a united China. Qin Shihuang completed his conquest of five other kingdoms in 221 BC and founded a short-lived but crucial dynasty.

The antiquity of the story only serves to highlight the deep roots of the problems addressed in the film: political succession and the corruption born of absolute power. In the more than 2,000 years since Qin Shihuang’ reign, China has almost never changed ruling dynasties without massive civil war.

“Clearly this is one way to do it, but I believe it is not the best,” Chen says.

Historically, the first emperor is a towering figure, overseeing the building of the Great Wall of China. But he was obsessed with his own power, and to preserve it he put dissident scholars, inhabitants of conquered states and potential court rivals--including members of his own family--to the sword.

Chen says he believes the emperor started with a populist vision of ending warfare and unifying China. Qin Shihuang is credited with many innovations that still survive: He gave China its earliest bureaucracy and legal codes, and built networks of roads that rivaled those of the Roman Empire.

The real hero of Chen’s story, however, is a philosophical swordsman who rejected the emperor’s revolutionary vision and, according to Chinese historical records, tried to kill him.

In addition to directing, Chen Kaige will don a false mustache and court robes to play the part of the emperor’s loyal minister. Stunning Chinese actress Gong Li plays the emperor’s concubine, and mainland star Zhang Fengyi acts as the assassin. This leading duo helped Chen win the 1993 Palme d’Or at Cannes for his last epic film, “Farewell My Concubine,” which examined the slow death of Peking Opera.

The $22-million budget of “Assassin,” which includes Japanese investment from Nippon Film Development Co., is huge by Chinese standards. The large budget has allowed Chen to stage massive battle scenes using thousands of armor-clad soldiers from the People’s Liberation Army and to build an imperial palace the size of a major airport in southern Zhejiang Province.

Although the scale of the film may be grand, it looks natural, with coarse fiber clothing and earthy tones. Chen’s narrative is straightforward, and historians hover around the set to advise him on historical accuracy.

Sony Pictures has obtained the international distribution rights for “Assassin.” Filming will wrap in January or February, and it is expected to be released later next year.

The foreign investment also allows Chen to do his post-production work outside China, keeping the film away from censors’ scissors. Chinese officialdom has been critical of Chen’s historical dramas--and those of Chen’s colleague Zhang Yimou--saying that they pander to Westerners’ appetite for China’s feudal-era decadence.

In the future, Chen hopes to shuttle between directing projects in China and the U.S. “I’m sure there will be other problems in Hollywood as I adjust to the system there,” Chen says. But he adds that working in the U.S. will be a welcome vacation from the headaches of making films in China, from poor distribution networks to implacable censors.

Although Chen’s venture into international filmmaking is a long-awaited triumph for Chinese cinema, a wave of mainland directors is not likely to hit Hollywood like two other Chinese directors, Hong Kong’s John Woo or Taiwan’s Ang Lee.

Aside from being one of the mainland’s most accomplished directors, Chen is virtually the only one with the necessary linguistic and cultural skills to make movies in America. He speaks fluent English and was a visiting scholar at New York University’s film school in 1987.