Dark Stone - Reign of Assassins

Excellent wuxia pan with Yeoh in top form dramatically as well as in weapons work. It was refreshing to see the pan-Asian casting done for specifically appropriate characters and acting ability, but without much overt typecasting. Wang Xueqi anchors the film opposite Yeoh more than Jung perhaps, but in the best genre fashion the villains are given gradation and more complex motive and arc than one often sees in action film.

An initial introductory sequence put me off, with a lot of intermittent cinematography and freeze-frames on specific characters. Fortunately, this device is not repeated or characteristic. Kam's score is more understated than usual, and plays well with string accompaniment to the more tightly choreographed parts. Leon Dai's assassin styles and names himself after a Taoist Magician, which initially seemed too light. However, this changed quickly, and although he lent much color to later scenes the overall tone fit well.

It's got a very classic feel, applying wirework sparingly and focusing on the intertwined dialogue and motives of a large cast within the jiang hu milieu. The fights are intricate, concentrating on exotic weapons and styles, but mixing it up with some proxy fighting and concealed technique. It neatly avoids recently popular pitfalls such as overt cgi spectacle, massing sheer volumes of Mainland extras, or lingering on glamour shots of pecs and shimmering hair weaves. Instead, we get clearly delineated spaces for a series of crafted set pieces which fit into a whole - not something to be written around by committee. Hopefully, fans will respond and more filmmakers take notice.

In the Ming Dynasty, there was a legend about the mystical powers of the missing remains of an Indian Buddhist monk that would be capable to heal anything and would become a great kung-fu fighter.

When the leader of the Dark Stone gang Cao Feng (Xueqi Wang) discovers that Prime Minister Zhang possesses half of the powerful remains, he sends a team of assassins to kill the minister and his son Zhang Renfeng (Xiaodong Guo). However, the skilled Xi Yu (Kelly Lin) flees with the remains and kills Renfeng, who fall off a bridge in a river. Then Xi Yu meets the monk Wisdom that advises her that she has four flaws fighting with her sword and she might be killed by Cao Feng that has trained her.

Xi Yu goes to the renowned plastic surgeon Dr. Li that changes her face and she decides to start a new life in a small village. She assumes the identity of Zeng Jing (Michelle Yeoh) and poses of merchant, and soon she marries the quiet and clumsy Jiang A-sheng (Woo-sung Jung). When there is a robbery in the local bank, Zeng Jing is forced to fight to protect her and her husband from being killed, disclosing her skills to Cao Feng. Now he sends Lei Bin (Shawn Yue), Lian Sheng (Leon Dai) and Ye Zhanqing (Barbie Hsu), who are his three best assassins, to retrieve the remains and kill Zeng Jing and her beloved husband.

The talented Michelle Yeoh is one of the most beautiful Chinese actresses and her movies are usually great. In "Jianyu", a.k.a. "Reign of Assassins", we have not only Michelle Yeoh, but also the hands of John Woo. The result is a great film of the genre, with predictable but not less engaging twists and a romantic conclusion.

The choreography of sword fights is breathtaking and the music score is wonderful. Fans of the genre will certainly adore the awarded "Jianyu". My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "Reino dos Assassinos" ("Reign of the Assassins")

English Title: Reign Of Assassins Original Title: Jianyu Year: 2010 Country: China Language: Mandarin Genre: Action Director: Chao-Bin Su Writers: Chao-Bin Su Cast: Michelle Yeoh Woo-sung Jung Xueqi Wang Kelly Lin Shawn Yue Barbie Hsu Leon Dai Hee Ching Paw Yiyan Jiang Zonghan Li Xiaodong Guo Pace Wu Matt Wu Feixia Wu Rating: 7/10

My gut feeling after the first view of this film is mixed with some relief and a shred of disappointment. Last year, it was propagandized as a John Woo's work in order to infuse some incentive into this star-studded kung-fu film to conquer the local cinemas. Shamefully this trick stumbled quite severely as it was largely overshadowed by DETECTIVE DEE (2010) at the box office with the same release period (during Chinese National Day, October 2010).

Its reviews were generally favored though, which should be merited to Chao-Bin Su, the real man behind-the-wheel and whose previous director works SILK (2006) and BETTER THAN SEX (2002) have won him some reputation as a gifted and emerging Taiwan director.

As a Chinese, the fact is that we tend to be immune from domestic Kung-fu films much more than foreigners, because since our infancy, we haven been surrounding and tested by myriad films like these, so it is difficult to make a fuss about it unless there is truly something special in it.

So speaking of this film, in spite of that it has many plot holes which doesn't make sense (even in the time of Jiang Hu, to name a few, our heroine's initial motivation of stealing the half buddha body in the first place; the plausibility of face-lifting technology; the sudden intensifying kung-fu mastery of our hero, etc.), the film converges some genuine talent to entertain its audience, especially the dreamlike cinematography successfully builds a ruthless world of Jiang Hu as well as its innovative fighting design which embodies each main character their own personality.

The cast is solid for an action film, it's the first time since CROUCHING TIGER HIDDEN DRAGON (2000), Michelle Yeoh finally collected a decent leading role as a martial fighter, which is well-done too judging by the criterion of acting. I do have high expectation of her to take a leap in the upcoming Aung San Suu Kyi's bio-pic THE LADY (directed by Luc Besson).

To sum up, I am pleased to watch this film and sincerely hope Su will become a big name in the near future.

I really enjoyed this movie and have to say its one of the best movies of this genre that I have seen in awhile.

The fight scenes were good, nothing that disregards the laws of physics and gravity too much. Quick action sequences, no shots that goes in slow motion and focuses on the flow of the hair kind of effects. The characters are so-so. I will not say that they are overly interesting but they don't distract from the story either.

The best part of the movie for me was how it actually caught me off guard. The plot twist actually made me laugh as I never saw it coming and I thought I have seen it all in martial art movies.

There are some parts that are funny some that are sexy. parts that are exciting and parts that are wholesome. I really recommend this movie. Don't let the rather formulaic and somewhat confusing opening throw you off. Its good :)

As the story goes, a group of assassins called Dark Stone, led by Wheel King (Wang Xueqi) has come into possession of half those remains, but Kelly Lin's Drizzle took flight with that and plenty of gold to become a fugitive of her own group – Leon Dai as The Magician, Shawn Yue as Lei Bin and new rookie Zhang Qing (Barbie Tsu) who had joined the team. In a Face/Off turn, she goes under the knife and now has the face of Michelle Yeoh (whoa!), living in disguise in the city, flying below the radar and effectively living the simple, ordinary life she yearns for, with absolutely no need for picking up the sword, though always kept handy at home just in case trouble comes knocking.

The pan-Asia A-list cast is something that will draw attention to the film, coming from Taiwan, Hong Kong, China and Korea. It's been some time since I last saw a wuxia film that featured a female swordsman as the lead, and being the anti-heroine at that as well. Starting off as a killer, Michelle Yeoh's Zeng Jing is unfortunately dubbed over, though I suspect for a valid reason that we'll have to live with in this film. In fact, more than one more character has voice issues that I cannot elaborate, and when revealed you'd start to wonder whether martial arts films can ever distance itself from that kind of villain from the courts, which is rather clichéd. Yeoh will undoubtedly bring comparisons with her other famous martial arts role from Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, although here Barbie Hsu's no Zhang Ziyi to steal that thunder or limelight, being cast as a psychotic nymphomaniac with a penchant to shed her clothes in the hope of climbing the power ladder (sorry guys, no nudity involved).

What shines in this film is the rich characterization beyond the usual one-dimensional characters in most martial arts flick, which gives the viewer a richer experience as we get emotionally invested in the plight of the characters. Everyone seems to want a way out of their usual kill or be killed drudgery, though it's one thing leaving the Jiang Hu altogether and retire, and another if you actually belong to a gang of bandits and assassins where your ex- buddies just won't leave you alone. The story allowed for any available screen time to pause for a while to present the other, ordinary side of the characters where we see their hopes and dreams, whether be it settling down, gaining some worldly possession.

I had initially wondered why Wang Xueqi was cast since he's an incredible actor but had little to do in the first half of the film other than to look mean and nasty, but then realized that you need an actor of gravitas to pull off what he did in the latter half of the film, which in the hands of a lesser actor could have been really comical. Instead he brought that sense of an obsessed man whose desperate for what's almost an impossible change or dream, which form the crux of all misery. The other actor to be admired here is Korean actor Jung Woo-sung who plays a courier and falls in love with Zeng Jing. Spending time to ensure he learns his Mandarin dialogue as accurately as possible so that when dubbed over it will look convincing, I will have to agree that he pulled it off, and his good looks fit right into this period piece with some surprises up the sleeve.

Action fans will have something to look forward to in the film, as it spends time crafting kinetically charged sword-fighting scenes which at times I felt the quick cuts didn't do those choreographed moves much justice. However everyone pretty much battles everyone else, which accentuates the good old wuxia adage of it being perfectly normal if self-preservation happens to be the order of the day. Throw in motivations of revenge, lust (though very subtle) and jealousy especially with two women characters sharing the same scene, we know we're in for a good time, especially when the story's kept tight and compact. Some wonderful set action pieces like the one in the bank and the disturbance at home all make for good entertainment, and clearly with John Woo absent from giving his two cents worth in these scenes (no slow motions if you get what I mean), though not always necessarily for the better as the quick cuts sometimes get in the way of appreciating the hard work gone behind the designing of such battles, which are wire-enhanced.

At its core Reign of Assassins is a romantic tale steeped in tragic irony, with martial arts film fans likely to lap up an out and out fantastical wuxia film. Almost all the characters have a past they want to cease remembering, and are harbouring plans for a new life sans violence. Love of course plays a part in the determination of this second chance, but this calls for sacrifice that we see once enemies now lovers have got to embrace as they decide to come clean with their feelings, alongside twists that get revealed especially in the final act.

Compared to Detective Dee this may not seem as epic nor groundbreaking in terms of offering something new to an audience, but it is essentially its sublime essence in knowing what's critical in a wuxia film and doing that well, at times giving you that feeling of having watched a classic martial arts film of old now remade with a stellar cast and knowing how best to appeal to a modern audience. Highly recommended and it powers its way into my shortlist at the end of the year as well.