Synopsis
< All the King's Men > is a period piece set at the end of the Tang dynasty. It deals with the last Tang emperor and his descent into madness at the hands of a Daoist mystic. The prime minister employs the talents of a doctor, a painter and a thief to help save the emperor from falling further into the clutches of the Daoist, but to no avail. The emperor dies and the general of the imperial guard is elevated to the Dragon Throne, thus establishing the Song Dynasty. Apart from re-assembling Hu? familiar stock company (Tian Feng, Zheng Peipei, Sun Yue, Chen Huliu), < All the King's Men > takes the viewer back to Hu? review of Chinese dynastic periods, after the modern-day setting of < The Juvenizer > (both films were made in Taiwan). However, though a period piece, the film seems to depart from Hu? regular run of period adventures and action films. For one thing, it? set in a different dynastic period and does not deal with notions of heroism or valour. (Stephen Teo)