What on earth? 'The Emperor and the Assassin' is abysmal. The widescreen composition is terrible. Almost every second shot is a frontal medium close-up. The story has no rhythm. Even the artifice reminds me of low budget Hong Kong. Chen Kaige seems to want to make epics these days but I'd prefer if he went back to the social ensemble structure of 'The Big Parade'. It seems to me Zhang Yimou is slipping as well. The Chinese Fifth Generation capitulated after 'To Live' in 1994.