The movie The Banquet is set in China's Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms, and it mainly tells the story of a royal struggle triggered by the desire for power. In this film, Zhang Ziyi plays the ambitious queen Wan, who was childhood friends with the prince. The two hit it off, but out of power and desire, Wan Hou entered the palace and became the mother of the queen and the prince. The prince was puzzled by this, and because of his taboo status, he deliberately alienated the Empress Wan, so Empress Wan was very lonely in the palace.
However, the death of the first emperor immediately triggered a royal struggle. The younger brother of the first emperor took advantage of the fact that the prince was still playing tricks outside to usurp the throne, calling himself Emperor Li and exterminating the descendants of the royal family such as the prince in order to preserve his position. In order to save herself and the prince, Empress Wan can only choose to continue to be the queen of Emperor Li, and Yin Taitai has been subjected to political pressure many times.
However, the power struggle was officially opened in the banquet of the ministers. After the Empress Wan committed herself to Emperor Li, she had a desire and longing for power. She doesn't want to be the queen of others, she wants to be a new generation of emperors and become the emperor of the world. So she carefully planned a plot to murder emperor Li, and she was poisoned by Li's wine. But just when Emperor Li wanted to drink, dancers such as Qing Nv appeared.
However, the young woman accidentally drank the poisoned wine prepared by Queen Wan for Emperor Li in advance and died. Li seems to understand that the person who wants to poison his beloved woman Wan Huang is actually himself, so he resolutely drank the poisoned wine. At first, when the prince saw the young woman's death, he burst into tears. At this time, he took the opportunity to stab the unscrupulous queen Wan, but was stopped by the prince. Wan took the opportunity to kill him, and in a short time, the prince was poisoned.
In the last scene in the camera, Empress Wan finally became the emperor she dreamed of. In the whole process of pursuing power, she killed both those who loved her and those she loved. But when she reached the highest position, a cold sword stung her hard, and everything ended here, and the cause of death of Empress Wan in the play has always been a mystery.
Many people speculate that the prince is not dead. He deliberately faked his death and secretly assassinated Empress Wan after she ascended the throne. Perhaps even the prince who loves Empress Wan can't see her ambition expanding day by day. Death to Empress Wan is actually the best relief. He didn't want to see Queen Wan feel lonely and unhappy, even if he got power. Ten thousand queens made repeated mistakes and finally paid the price for their actions.
The movie The Banquet also begins and ends with tragedy. The prince and empress dowager who fell in love at the beginning could not be together because of power. Later, because of the expansion of desire, the characters in the film died one after another in her plot. Even if Empress Dowager Cixi gained power, she was mysteriously assassinated to death.