`THE EMPEROR AND THE ASSASSIN' A LONG BUT BREATHTAKING SPECTACLE.

Byline: Bob Strauss Film Critic

Absolute power corrupts pretty thoroughly in ``The Emperor and the Assassin,'' Chen Kaige's ravishing, complicated and morally obvious epic about the bloody unification of China in the third century BC.

From swords to voluminous silk gowns to massive palace pageantry, the movie doesn't make an aesthetic misstep. And while its battle scenes will inevitably be compared to Kurosawa's, Chen's staging actually evokes a more abstract, specifically Chinese design.

The action is gorgeous and sweeping, but of a harmonious piece with the film's smaller, quieter sequences.

Both of which are about equally confusing.

It's probably safe to say that the nearly three-hour movie faithfully depicts the intricacies of forging China's seven warring kingdoms into the short-lived Qin Dynasty.

But the scenario presents such a bewildering skein of ploys, deceptions, shifting allegiances and unwelcome revelations, close attention must be paid - at times through soporific expositional stretches - in order to keep on top of the plot.

The story's implications are much easier to follow. In fact, they're classic: Great man betrays both his ideals and the love of his life in order to achieve his primary goal; a woman's passion and ethics collide tragically; a warrior's psychic armor is breached by the actions of an innocent, et cetera.

Chen, who made the magisterial ``Farewell My Concubine,'' once again calls on that film's charismatic leads, Gong Li and Zhang Fenyi, then pits them against the equally formidable talent of Li Xuejian.

Li is Ying Zhen, King of Qin, whose dream of a peaceful, united China - under Qin rule, of course - is at odds with the actions he takes to realize it.

Gong's Lady Zhao has been Ying Zhen's lover since their youth and plots with him to justify the invasion of a neighboring kingdom.

While she goes there in faux exile, really to search for an assassin to send back to the Qin court and provoke an incident, Ying Zhen learns a devastating secret about his ancestry that propels him into a bloody reign of terror.

Shocked by her lover's brutality - and there are few more striking moments in this year's cinema than the sight of Gong, the most exquisite beauty in all of world cinema, madly digging children's corpses out of a shallow mass grave - Lady Zhao becomes enamored of Jing Ke (Zhang), the assassin she'd been tricking into carrying out her plot.

Now she really wants Jing Ke to kill Ying Zheng, but the former hit man has his own traumatic past to overcome first.

Predictable as some of this is, ``The Emperor and the Assassin'' possesses undeniable mythic resonance, which Chen and his superb cinematographer Zhao Fei (whose fine work is also on display in Woody Allen's couldn't-be-more-different ``Sweet and Lowdown'') never fail to reinforce with imposing, brilliantly composed imagery. Chen's movie is a long, sometimes slow haul, but it's ultimately, breathtakingly worth the commitment.

The facts

The film: ``The Emperor and the Assassin'' (R; violence, language, children in jeopardy).

The stars: Gong Li, Zhang Fenyi, Li Xuejian.

Behind the scenes: Directed by Chen Kaige. Written by Wang Peigong and Chen. Produced by Han Samping, Shirley Kao and Saturo Iseki. Released by Sony Pictures Classics.

Running time: Two hours, 41 minutes.

Playing: Laemmle Colorado, Pasadena; Laemmle Music Hall, Beverly Hills; Laemmle Monica, Santa Monica.

Our rating: Three stars.