a very great movie . a big love story . lot of sword fighting . huge battle scene . hero and villain . real history . few in the west know much chinese history . chin zchaundi found china . the country be in fact name after him . some be familiar with the terra cotta army recently unearth . this be a historical epic of how he end the period of contend state and unified china . he found a dynasty that only last 14 year but it be immediately replace by the han dynasty that permanently define chinese civilization ever since . chin ( or the king of zheng a he be know before he found the empire ) be roughly contemporaneous with scipio and hannibal and and fabius in the west . the parallel roman world dominance ( west and east world ) be achieve without a single towering personality like chin . it would not be for another century before the west produce caesar the near comparable western figure . chin be show very sympathetically here in the beginning but he develop over the course of the film into a ruthless despot . history only record the ruthless despot part but the sympathetic beginning leave room for real character development over the course of this long film . the famous story about the meeting with the assassin be as true a any two thousand year old anecdote can be . gong li be lovely . she be the emotional core of the story . it all make for great movie making .