For generations the Zhao family has wielded power, until their mortal enemy TU’AN GU slaughters the entire clan, determined to wipe out their influence forever. But one Zhao baby survives hidden by CHENG YING the doctor who delivered him. When Tu’an Gu learns of the baby’s escape he seizes every infant in the city, vowing to kill them all unless the Zhao baby is surrendered. As the tyrant’s soldiers arrive at Cheng Ying’s home the frantic doctor hides his wife with their own baby whilst surrendering the Zhao child as his own. But his family is discovered; his baby is presumed to be the Zhao heir and murdered along with his wife for harboring the infant. Now set on revenge Cheng Ying enrolls the Zhao orphan into the service of the Tu’an Gu household, plotting to use him as an instrument of vengeance when he comes of age.
Direction
Chen Kaige stages mass infanticide with operatic restraint.
Acting
Ge You's face holds fifteen years of secret grief.
Production
Warring States era recreated with brutal, muddy authenticity.
Director
Chen Kaige
Ge You
Yin Cheng
Wang Xueqi
Tu'an Gu
Huang Xiaoming
Jue Han
Fan Bingbing
Mrs. ZhuangJi
Vincent Zhao Wenzhuo
Shuo Zhao
Hai Qing
Cheng Ying's wife
Zhang Fengyi
Gongsun Chujiu
Arthur Chen
Xin Jun
Li Dongxue
Ti Miming
Wang Jinsong
Advisor
Bao Guo-an
Zhao Dun
Peng Bo
Prince Ling
Dong Wenjun
Lin Zhe
Liu Yajin
Pacient
Zhao Wenhao
Zhao Guo (child)
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Adapts the Yuan dynasty play 'The Orphan of Zhao,' one of China's oldest surviving dramas and the first Chinese work translated in Europe (1731).
Chen Kaige restructured the original to focus on the doctor's impossible choice, making the villain's household the setting for the boy's upbringing—a radical compression of the revenge timeline.
CN
