Ye Yan

Alternative title
Banquet, The Deadly Banquet, The Legend of the Black Scorpion
Synopsis
Feature film which borrows from the plots and themes of Hamlet and Macbeth. Set in the Period of Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms (A.D. 907-60), a time of royal instability in the north and warring states in the south, the Emperor, the Empress, the Crown Prince, the Princess, the Minister and the General all have their own quests for supreme power. The Empress set up a secret coalition with the Princess and the Minister in attempt to take the throne for the Crown Prince, but her real goal is to take the power for herself, and the Crown Prince wants to use the Empress’ plan for his own quest for the throne. The conflicts finally erupt at a night banquet, at which the Empress starts executing her plan of killing the Emperor, and the Crown Prince takes the opportunity to eliminate his own enemies...
Language
Chinese - Mandarin (PRC)
Country
China
Medium
Film
Technical information
Colour / Sound
Year of release
2006
Duration
131 mins

Credits

Director
FENG Xiaogang
Producer
John Chong; WANG Zhongjun
Cinematographer
Li ZHANG
Screenplay
QIU Gangjian; SHENG Heyu
Music
DUN Tan
Art Direction
Timmy Yip
Cast
Daniel WuPrince Wu Luan (Hamlet)
GE YouEmperor Li (Claudius)
ZHANG ZiyiEmpress Wan (Gertrude)
MA JingwuThe Minister

Additional Details

Production type
Fiction Films
Plays
Hamlet; Macbeth
Keywords
Shakespeare, William (1564-1616)

Notes

Notes
Mandarin with English and Chinese sub-titles.
Figures
$22,205,648 (12 October 2006) IMdB. Estimated budget $15,000,000.
Reviews
Derek Elley. Variety. (September 3 2006).
Rosenthal, Daniel. 100 Shakespeare Films. London:BFI, 2007, pp51-2.
Issue 4.2 of Borrowers and Lenders: The Journal of Shakespeare and Appropriation focuses on "Asian Shakespeares on Screen: Two Films in Perspective," edited by Alex Huang, and contains 14 multimedia essays on MAQBOOL and The BANQUET.
To view the issue, go to http://www.borrowers.uga.edu (accessed 6/2010). The essays are available in PDF and web formats, though only the web version contains film clips.

Production Company

Name

Huayi Brothers Production

Name

Media Asia Films

Archive

Name

Folger Shakespeare Library

Email
reference@folger.edu
Web
http://www.folger.edu External site opens in new window
Phone
(202) 544 4600
Fax
(202) 544 4623
Address
201 East Capitol Street, SE
Washington
DC 20003
USA

Distributor

Name

Retail outlets

Online Retailer

Name

hkdvdstore.com

Web
http://shop.hkdvdstore.com External site opens in new window
Notes
Company, loctaed in the US, specialising in Asian and Hong Kong imports.

How to cite this record

Shakespeare, "Ye Yan". https://learningonscreen.ac.uk/shakespeare/search/index.php/title/av66981 (Accessed 26 Nov 2024)