Li Xuejian

Shanghai Triad -- Absorbing tale of Chinese underworld in the 1930s, focusing on a boy who's hired to be the silent servant of a pampered nightclub queen (Gong Li) the mistress of one of Shanghai's gangland bosses.

The charms of an alluring prostitute are used as bait between feuding ganglords against a dramatic backdrop of 1930s Shanghai in this exotic and utterly captivating thriller. Award-winner Zhang Yimoudirects his enigmatic muse, Gong Li, in the latest in a long line of memorable collaborations (Red Sorghum, Ju Dou, Raise the Red Lantern, The Story of Qui Ju and To Live).

From the acclaimed director of Farewell, My Concubine comes The Emperor and the Assassin a visually stunning epic, exploring the devastating price one country pays for peace and one man pays for power. Ying Zheng, the King of Qin, has one driving ambition: to unify China's seven kingdoms into one magnificent empire. Impressed by her lover's convictions, Lady Zhao (Gong Li) helps Ying Zheng concoct an assassination plot that would justify the conquest of Qin's most powerful enemy. When Ying Zheng's peaceful mission explodes into a brutal holocaust, a disillusioned Lady Zhao is forced to question her loyalty and her lover's destiny.

Mandarin, subtitled in English. The Emperor And The Assassin explores the devastating price one country pays for peace and one man pays for power.