The Emperor and the Assassin is a Chinese historical drama about the first emperor to unify the warring kingdoms of China. His lover, played by Gong Li, is an impetuous headstrong woman who comes up with a plan to allow him to start a war with a neighboring kingdom: She will recruit an assassin, who will fail in his mission, giving the emperor a casus belli, and an aura of invincibility. But the assassin just wants to leave in peace.
This plot takes up only about 1/3 of the movie. The rest is politics, pageant, and the emperor going mad with power. It is set ca. 200 BC, and the sets and costumes are said to be quite historically accurate. It certainly looks interesting, and the story is a great one, even at 3 hours. I'm not even a casual student of Chinese history, so this was all new to me. It's not an action or military movie, although there is some of that. The character development gets a bit operatic (or Shakespearean, like King Lear?), but you can't say it's boring
Chai Lai Angels: Dangerous Flowers, on the other hand, is a ridiculous Thai imitation of Charlie's Angel. It is full of lazy, wire-fu fights, supposedly sexy women, bad jokes, jaw-dropping plot developments, and at least one transvestite. It looked like it would be fun and it was on streaming, so I watched it in a moment of weakness. Don't make the same mistake.
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