It's a Canadian and Chinese co-production. It's a recitation of the life and death of the First Emperor of China who reigned from 247BC to 220BC. The filming has hundreds of Chinese extras. The production is pretty unspectacular. There is no real acting going on. It's more like a silent movie or a TV reenactment. It's an old fashion documentary. The narration is supposed to be Christopher Plummer although I couldn't really tell. It's rather stiff. It's an enlightening documentary for beginners. I think it's a good starting point for any English speaking students. It's nothing that is compelling narratively but has a good listing of the facts.
4 Reviews
For fans of the History Channel only
Eegah Guy16 March 2001
Short but dull history lesson about Qin Shihuang, the one man who founded the nation of China. This is the kind of stuff we all slept through when we took World History classes in high school or college. I saw this on DVD so it might have been more impressive in its original IMAX presentation but I doubt it.
A fine product
dimitriskats25 October 2002
I saw this on the history channel and it was great
zzmale2 December 2003
in fact, better than the TV-Movies made by Chinese themselves, but then again, this a documentary, which has to pay close attention for historical accuracy. You have to watch the Chinese made TV-movie in order to really appreciate this documentary because the Chinese made TV-film was totally a flop: for example, it neglected the most basic things such as using furniture that did not appear in China until more than a thousand years later. The Chinese public criticism was so widespread that the state owned TV stations never aired it again and the governmental film bureau was forced to issue an statement of asking film makers to pay a little more attention to historical facts.
See also
Awards | FAQ | User Ratings | External Reviews | Metacritic Reviews
