Customer Reviews

China's First Emperor

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

History Channel is known for its colorful re-enactments, life-like costumes and talented actors. This two-disc set has both. For viewers who like re-enactments, this is a good set. I am more into archival maps, letters and place settings without all the drama.

However, I found the first disc overdone on drama. Although the history of the first Chinese emperor, Qin Shi Haungdi obviously would have little archival documentation, I found the long segments of re-enactments, much of that in Chinese with subtitles followed by dramatic music, a bit overdone. The first disc could have been told much faster without all the drama. But this sort of re-telling is the forte of History Channel productions.

Having said all that, for people who like Chinese history this isn't a bad production. It goes into great detail not on just the young Qin Shi Haungdi and his torturous reign, but on China's prehistory of marauding nomads across the Chinese steppes and the six smaller kingdoms of Zhou, Qin, Chu, Yan, Han, We that he united after bloody conquests.

Chinese and American historians and archeologists are interviewed for this production and explain parts of the history before a lengthy re-enactment follows.

Many mysteries of ancient China and the battles of Qin Shi Haungdi's armies were revealed when the discovery of the Terracotta Warriors and cross-bow triggers were unearthed in 1974 in western China and subsequent diggings of other ancient graves of the time. However, under the current Communist regime sharing the information with westerners has been slow. The few achival photographs in this video are from the unearthing of this vast collection of statues. Much of the new information on ancient China came to light after finding these Terracotta figurines. The use of bronze metals and "advanced warfare" for the time is truly amazing. It all gives a new light to China's real history.

The second disc deals with the building of the Great Wall of China under this emperor, meant to keep the kingdom united. Leonard Nimoy's narration is at times sonombulous, but the aerial footage of this great human construction is quite phenomenal, especially knowing that among that wall are remains of humans.

What brought down the review for me were the lengthy re-enactments and the often-repeated scenes in this production.

Of the several productions about China's first emperor, this is one of the best -- essentially a full-lengh docudrama which includes much important detail omitted from the shorter efforts.

Thoroughly recommended.

The second DVD -- "China's Wall of Doom" -- though a bit shorter is also excellent as compared with others.

All in all, as a two-disc set a superior bargain.

This review is specific ONLY to the History Channel documentary, CHINA'S FIRST EMPEROR. Note please that wherever else it may show up at AMMY, my review is posted on a page with product details for ONE DISC only. Details also list a running time of 250 minutes, as does the snapcase that my copy is housed in. This is incorrect. The program is only 137 minutes in length.

"China's First Emperor" features costume re-enactments (in Chinese, with subtitles), plus authority commentary, to tell the story of a man who conquered more land than Alexander the Great, united the seven provinces of ancient China by taking six of them through force of arms, and ruled despotically for 13 years.

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In 238 BC, Zheng, aka Qin Huang, the 21-year-old king of Qin (pronounced: Chin) province, foiled a murder plot hatched by his own mother, her lover and several others. He spared his mother's life but had her two out-of-wedlock sons beheaded and the other conspirators executed, saving a special death for her lover. The man's family was also slain.

A few years later, Qin Huang raised an army of a half-million. Armed with triggered crossbows and extra-long chrome-coated swords, innovations the West wouldn't see for numerous centuries, Zheng's forces defeated the armies of other provinces one-at-a-time, until the last little state surrendered in 222 BC.

To solidify unification, he relocated 120,000 aristocratic families from defeated states, building them mansions deep inside Qin province. Qin Huang, who now called himself Qin Shi Huang Di, roughly Supreme God King from Chin, standardized weights, measures and currency and mandated a unified script for all his subjects. For protection against northern Hun invasions, existing small walls were ordered linked into a 4,500 hundred mile long Great Wall. This was accomplished with nearly a million conscripts, 10% of whom died during construction.

With increasing public unrest and following an assassination attempt by a musician he'd previously had blinded, Qin Huang grew paranoid. Acting on some bad advice that he should eliminate comparisons to previous dynasties, Huang had most books in the empire destroyed, thus obliterating hundreds of years of Chinese history and thought. His many spies turned in dissidents, who were quickly executed. It was a time of terror equal to or greater than any seen later.

As he advanced through middle age, Qin Huang, who hoped to live forever, sought a magic youth elixir from alchemists. One of these mercury-laden formulas may have hastened his death at age 49. Qin Huang's legacy is the unifying reforms of his early dynasty, which live on in modern China, a nation named for this very first emperor.

China's First Emperor has some slow moments, especially when discussing political and military events. This is what one reviewer refers to as over dramatization. The costumes and actors are generally good. Unfortunately the DVD has a sub-theme, which is that the Qin Empire was progressive and ahead of its time, especially technologically. This may be true, but the theme apparently forces the writer(s) to manipulate facts to underscore it. To show how advanced King Qin's 500,000-man army, outfitted with crossbows, was, the narrator notes that Rome went to war against Carthage with just 6,000 soldiers, Napoleon 2,000 years later could only field 100,000 troops, and it would be another 1000 years after King Qin before Europe knew what a crossbow was. This makes it hard to understand how the Romans lost over 40,000 soldiers at the Battle of Cannae, how Napoleon lost nearly 500,000 in Russia, or how Greeks were killing enemy with crossbows a hundred or so years earlier than King Qin...and how Romans were knocking down enemy with crossbowlike artillery pieces. The trouble is that these are rather obvious mistatements...who knows what else is incorrect?

The first disc depicts the rise and fall of the First Emperor and the founding of China. The Acting, action, colorful sets and costumes are great. The actors do a wonderful job and you feel that you are not only watching a documentary but a movie as well. The History Channel lives up to its reputation by creating wonderful film that should be shown in schools for the education and enjoyment of our youth. At a run time of 2 hours and 17 minutes it's time well spent.

The second disc that in included is an episode called China's Wall of Doom. The only thing that it has going for it is that its narrated by Leonard Nimoy and has some colorful pictures of ancient China. It's not well done and it contradicts a lot of the things mentioned in the first disc. It not only puts down the Chinese culture, it is just a not well done episode at all. It is an episode that you most likely won't want to watch a second time.

Also if you are able to find a copy on DVD you MUST check out the Discovery Channels version "The First Emperor: The Man Who Made China." It is AWESOME! Whereas the fist disc doesn't allow you to see inside of The Emperor's Tomb, the DC version shows you 3D images and scans of what's inside and a LOT more detail.