Bodyguards & Assassins

I had the pleasure (but discomfort) of watching this on the plane from Taipei to Bangkok and have never been so engrossed in an in-flight movie. It was heartbreaking and exciting and, although perhaps slightly out of place, the action sequences were excellent. The acting was great and this may well be my favorite film so far this year. I am unaware as to how accurate the story is but I would bet it is much closer to reality than most "Based on a True Story"-type films. Another reviewer said they were expecting a Hong Kong "Gangs of New York" and I think it does fall somewhere near this but I would rewatch this film 100 times before watching "Gangs" again... this is mostly due to Cameron Diaz's atrocious performance. I hope this film receives a subtitled release on DVD as I will definitely want to add it to my collection.

I have seen every major Chinese film over the last forty years and I have lived and worked in China for over a decade. I know a little about China. This film, of course, has little to do with the actual events of the Chinese Revolution of 1911 and the ascendancy of Sun Yat-Sen. However, it does capture the emotion involved by the true Chinese revolutionaries of the time. The Chinese Revoluton predated the well-known (to the West) Russian Revolution of 1917, which has been dramatized in dozens of films in the West; most notably Reds and Dr. Zhivago. However, few Westerners know anything about the Great Chinese Revolution that ended over 3000 years of dynastic rule in China. This makes the Russian Revolution look like a current even by comparison. Millions of lives were lost in the Russian Revolution, but tens of millions of lives were lost in the Chinese Revolution. The film is loaded with action; too much action and gore according to several responsible reviewers. This would appeal to some, but many will be turned off by the excessive violence and unlikely scenarios. Despite these drawbacks, the film arrests your attention, and the several fine character performances draw you into the film until it's Shakespearian ending (not everybody dies like in Hamlet, but close to it). The movie is beautifully directed and the technical achievements are first-rate. The film makes The Wild Bunch look like a Disney Movie in comparison. Several of the other gigantic blockbuster action films of China also pale in comparison, such as Red Cliff, Hidden Dragon, Hero, and several others. In battle scenes of those films, the killing is impersonal and the audience has little emotional attachment to the combatants. That is not true in this film, however. The audience gets to know several of the bodyguards through various devices used by the director. And so, their battle scenes have much more significance; much like the characters in The Magnificent Seven. A good lesson on Chinese History as long as you do not take the action sequences as fact.

I had been looking forward to seeing this movie as the advertising had billed it as something of a period epic, something along the lines of a Hong Kong "Gangs of New York".

I have to say that the sets and reconstruction of 1906 Hong Kong were very good, but there were some occasions where the matte backgrounds didn't quite gel with the foreground.

The story on the whole was very good, with the key characters either learning or demonstrating the link between sacrifice and revolution. However I think this movie loses effectiveness by trying to do too much.

For a film such as this which tries to be a historical epic, the wire-fu stunts look incredibly out of place. It would have been far more effective to keep the stunts grounded in reality. The wire-fu stunts work well in films such as Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and Hero where there is an element of fantasy to the whole story. For a story that is purportedly a historical account all it serves to do is remind the viewer that he is watching a movie, not real events.

I also found the inclusion of Mengke Bateer off-putting. A seven-foot Chinese in 1906 Hong Kong doesn't seem very believable to me. I suspect that he was put there to get a few cheap jokes, as the character would have been just as believable as a six-foot well-built person.

These may seem like minor issues, but for me they detracted from what could have been a truly excellent film.

Very disappointing film. This film last's 138 min. In my opinion it was at least 45 min too long. I find it a overlong film!. i think it had too little action. When a action showed up, i think it was poor. Even the drama and story was very boring. I think it should be renamed to Boringguards and Assassins. I like some Drama films and TV series, but i think this was not any good Drama.

I think the camera angles and editing also was poor. It was hard to follow the action. I thought this film would be action packed, considering Donnie was in it. I don't think it was. With all that money, how could they make such a bad film? I don't know how they managed to do that. Also, Donnie wears a silly unconvincing bald-cap making his head look like a watermelon. Hahaa.

It has only max 15 min of action out of 138 min. I felt cheated since, before it was released it was promoted as having 1 hour of action. More drama film than action film. I will never watch this film again. See only this if you like a boring drama film with very little action. Watch Ip Man instead, than this junk. I think it does at least have much better, story, acting, and fight scenes

Just had the pleasure of watching this, I had heard good things about it and when it popped up on a torrent site I leaped at the chance. Please note, I don't support piracy and downloading, but since this is not available stateside yet my options are limited. Needless to say, this one is a buy for sure on DVD, hopefully there will be a blu ray release with good subtitles at some point. This is a star studded period action film about the assassination attempt of Dr Sun Yat Sen in Hong Kong. The first hour of this movie is entirely about setting up the characters, making you understand them and care about them. In fact there is only one action scene in the first hour, which existed to drive the plot and define the motivation of the woman who would become one of the bodyguards. Don't worry, the kung fu awesomeness will begin, the entire second half of the movie is one very well done action sequence after another. But the set up really matters here, it is very engaging and later on when all these characters come together to protect Dr Sen, you care about each one and when some die, you feel it. The acting is excellent all around, many of the actors are major stars, such as Donnie Yen, Nicholas Tse, Leon Lai, and Tony Leung Ka Fai, but the film is an ensemble piece and each star disappears into their character, many of whom are playing against type. The action is top notch, as expected with Donnie Yen's involvement. Yen has a brutal fight with Cung Le that involves some very nice choreography and some parkour action as well. All of these scenes are enhanced by the fact that you care quite a bit if this character lives or dies. My only complaint would be the villain, played by Red Cliff's Jun Hu. I felt his character was a little over the top, I would have liked him to have been more in control. But it is a minor quibble in a film with a great many strengths. I highly recommend this one, check it out.