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Sacrifice(赵氏孤儿)

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China · 2010
Rated R · 2h 8m
Director Chen Kaige
Starring Ge You, Wang Xueqi, Huang Xiaoming, Fan Bingbing
Genre Action, Drama, History, Thriller

For generations, the Zhao family has wielded power, until their mortal enemy Tu’an Gu slaughters the entire clan. However, one Zhao baby survives, hidden by the doctor who delivered him. When Tu’an Gu's soldiers kills the doctor's family, he plots to use the Zhao orphan as an instrument of revenge when he comes of age.

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What are critics saying?

75

San Francisco Chronicle by

Ultimately, the film works because the doctor's relationship with the general - and both of their relationships with the doctor's young boy - is just as complicated as the action-packed coup.

63

Slant Magazine by Bill Weber

A historical melodrama that retains an ancient, elemental pull even as it insufficiently charts motivation and the self-denying values of antiquity.

40

Time Out by David Fear

The Fifth Generation filmmaker has aced such recipes before (e.g. The Emperor and the Assassin); this time, both the spectacular and the human elements have apparently been offered to the gods.

70

Variety by Leslie Felperin

Sacrifice is practically a chamber piece, and duly draws its strength from its performances, especially those of Ge and Wang.

50

Boston Globe by Mark Feeney

Sacrifice wants to have it both ways. It's willing neither to give itself up to the goofy sincerity of genre conventions nor to make the demands on viewers that serious drama requires. The sacrifices Chen's characters make would signify that much more if he'd made a sacrifice or two himself.

40

Village Voice by Nick Schager

Chen's attention to character over spectacle pays minimal dividends and is compounded by the fact that his battles - full of standard-issue slow motion and hacked-off limbs - are as dull as an overused blade.

88

Chicago Sun-Times by Roger Ebert

In Sacrifice, about a father who loses his son to the power of the state, it is difficult to miss the parallels with Chen's own life.

75

The A.V. Club by Sam Adams

Chen can't seem to decide whether he's making a fable or something more down-to-earth, but Sacrifice works either way, if not both at once.

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