DVD & Blu-Ray Release date: 2nd June 2008
Running time: 131 mins approx
RRP: £17.99
Cert: 15
"Outstanding.. The martial arts set pieces are as good as anything I've ever seen"
**** Chinatown Magazine
“A magnificent visual feast…simply superb, this film is not to be missed…prepare to be gobsmacked by a denouement that should shock you out of your seat before stunning you into submission with its mesmerising finale” – Morning Star
“A feast for the eyes, and great flamboyant cinema” - David Aldridge, Radio 5 Live
DIRECTED BY FENG XIAOGANG (ASSEMBLY)
SPECTACULAR ACTION CHOREOGRAPHY BY YUEN WOO-PING
(KILL BILL, THE MATRIX TRILOGY, CROUCHING TIGER, HIDDEN DRAGON)
Loosely inspired by Shakespeare’s Hamlet, The Banquet is a visually spectacular and emotionally charged journey about a fight for power, and the quest for revenge. Unfulfilled in her royal boudoir, Empress Wan (Zhang Ziyi) harbours forbidden desires for her stepson Prince Wu Luan (Daniel Wu) who stays away from the palace favouring a life of studying the arts.
But his quiet life is soon disturbed after the sudden death of the Emperor and the immediate succession of his devious brother Li (Ge You). A troop of soldiers are dispatched to assassinate the young Prince Wu Luan. With danger never far away, the Prince must decide whether to fight for his place as ruler or to accept his fate under Li. But as the politics of the situation threaten to erupt into ferocious combat, the motivation of all involved must be called into question - and the Prince’s decision will have consequences that will reverberate throughout the entire Empire.
