All the King's Men

The account turns around a court. On the throne is the emperor Chai Rong. The emperor’s health has failed. There is a man who gives him medicine. He is a charlatan who calls himself immortal. The mixture he gives does not heal. It makes the condition worse instead. Those at court begin to notice. But each of them has a reckoning of his own. Some hold back from telling the truth. Some want to turn it to their advantage. Meanwhile the country is at war. The account is set in the tenth century. One court intrigue follows another. Tien Feng and Cheng Pei-Pei take the leads, with Tang Pao-Yun also in the cast, in King Hu’s Taiwanese film of 1983.