A warrior known as Nameless (Jet Li) wants to stop the Qin
Emperor (Daoming Chen) before he kills anymore people in his attempt to unite
the kingdoms of China. He uses the three best assassins of the time in order to
get close to the Emperor but when he does, the situation is not as black and white as he
first thought.
Nameless has the Emperor believe that he killed Sky (Donnie
Yen), Broken Sword (Tony Leung Chiu Wai) and Flying Snow (Maggie Cheung) and in
doing this, the Emperor invites him to the palace in order to explain his
success. This was Nameless’ plan all along as he needed to get past the guards
and be within 10 paces of the Emperor in order to be able to kill him. As he
tells the story of how he defeated the three assassins, it is obvious to the
Emperor that it can’t have taken place like how he is told. Nameless says that
he managed to defeat Broken Sword and Flying Snow through jealousy, saying that
Flying Snow had slept with Sky. The Emperor knows Broken Sword and Flying Snow
to be honourable and so this pettiness would not have taken place. It’s
revealed that the assassins were not killed by Nameless but instead two offered
to help him. Broken Sword, however, told Nameless that the Emperor could not be
killed because he would unite the kingdoms and it would result in peace. Even
if there had to be war and great loss of life to get there, it would still be
preferable to separate kingdoms. Nameless takes this on board and decides to
still get within 10 paces of the Emperor but when his opportunity comes, he
decides against killing him. As a result, he must be executed but is given a
hero’s burial.
The film is visually stunning. The colours used throughout
are so striking and it makes the film memorable for those alone. That’s not all
though, the story is also very interesting and how it’s told is done
wonderfully. The fighting scenes between the three assassins, Nameless, and
Moon (Ziyi Zhang) are beautiful to watch and seem more like dancing than
fighting. When Flying Snow kills Broken Sword and then herself, it seems to
cement their love and make sense for their relationship. Their swords were
always together as they were always together in life, and so they must be in
death. It managed to be sad and lovely at the same time, which is rare.
8/10
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