The Mummy meets terracotta warriors

By Liu Wei (China Daily)
Updated: 2008-08-29 14:32

Jet Li plays the title role in The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor. File photos

The mummy has come to China. Or rather, the third installment in the popular film franchise, The Mummy, is set in China and its cast includes three well-known Chinese actors.

Though The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor is not the only Hollywood blockbuster to feature Chinese elements in recent years, it is among the most prominent.

Kungfu maestro Jet Li plays the Dragon Emperor, who has been cursed by a witch, played by Michelle Yeoh, to suffer as a mummy - in an unending state of limbo between life and death. Hong Kong actress Isabella Leong plays Yeoh's daughter.

In one of the most exciting scenes, the emperor unleashes his terracotta army, which has been buried underground for nearly 2,000 years.

The plot draws upon the true history of Qinshihuang, the First Emperor of the Qin Dynasty. Discovered in 1974, the tomb located near the city of Xi'an, Shaanxi province, has attracted visitors and archaeologists from around the world to see the 7,000 terracotta soldiers and hundreds of chariots and horses made for the emperor's tomb.

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