Chun sing gai bei

"City Under Siege" is an entertaining but sometimes strange mixture of a fantasy movie and an action-thriller with romantic elements as well as with slapstick influences and a more serious criticism of modern mass media.

The movie portrays the story of the clumsy orphan Sunny who is working as a clown at his uncle's circus. His deceased father was a knife throwing master but Sunny is a charming loser who gets bullied by his more talented cousins who are also working at the circus. One day, his cousins want to explore a strange cave in the forest, used by the Japanese army when they occupied China. There are rumours of some precious gold hidden in the depths of the cave. Sunny overhears the plan and spies on his cousins but he gets discovered and caught. His cousins force the young adult to be the leader of the pack and look for the gold with them. The group finds several capsules indeed and force Sunny to open them. The first one is filled with gold and the leader of the cousins decides to separate the gold and to kill the unpleasant privy Sunny. He sends one of the cousins to strangle Sunny and push him into the abyss. Meanwhile the greedy leader opens another capsule but this one is filled with a strange gas that everyone present in the cave breathes in. Sunny manages to push his opponent into the abyss who dies there and to flee from his evil cousins. On their way out of the cave Sunny and his cousins get separated but they are mad at each other and bound to meet again. The strange gas soon transforms all of them. Sunny suddenly gets very fat as he runs across newscaster Angel who has a flat tire. They help each other and Sunny gets back to his uncle's warehouse. The next morning, he lost all of his fat and seems to be completely normal again. He soon realizes that he has changed though. All of his senses are sharpened and he soon uses them to save a kidnapped female police officer in front of newscaster Sunny who just got replaced by a younger and more beautiful woman at her agency. Both take advantage of the situation. Sunny becomes a beloved superstar and Angel his ambitious manager. Meanwhile, his evil cousins also transformed but in a different way. They also got sharpened senses but their skin bloated and they look like ugly mutants. Even kidnapped scientists can't heal them and believe that Sunny's metabolism must work differently from theirs. The evil cousins use their sharpened senses to commit crimes like robbing out banks and transporters. They are also jealous of Sunny's popularity and want to get his blood that might or might not be filled with antibodies that could heal the mutants. The police can't mess with them as injuries only seem to make These mutants stronger and more invulnerable. Even two mutant hunters who are supposed to get married soon can only kill one of them. They soon realize that they need the help of Sunny and Angel to set a trap and kill the pitiless mutants. The two men and women join their forces in a risky attempt to save Hongkong from its mutant siege.

This fantasy-action movie has several convincing but also a few negative aspects. Let's start with the shallow aspects to end the review on a positive note. First of all, the mixture of genres in this movie is a little bit weird. The movie is sometimes too humorous to build up true tension. On the other side, some parts of it are too sad to make this a light-hearted film. I feel that the omission of the few slapstick elements would have improved the movie as the final result would have been much more mature. Due to the weird potpourri of genres, the movie undeniably has a few lengths. Some parts are dedicated to some character development but it feels a little bit forced as the different characters are sometimes wooden and stereotypical. They made me think of cheap rip-off versions of American superheroes and supervillains from Marvel for example.

The actresses and actors were of a good average quality overall but as the script focused on fighting scenes and was inspired by several superhero movies they probably did the best they could out of it. Main actor Aaron Kwok incarnated a sympathetic loser who became a hero, the charming Qi Shu really carried the movie as ambitious newscaster with a tender side and Zhang Jingchu was also convincing as emotional and smart female demon hunter. I wish some of the other characters had been a Little bit more profound though.

The special effects, fighting scenes and CGI effects are of a good but not excellent quality and can be cited as positive aspects of this film. Especially the villains look really ugly and could also be shown in an American movie. The fighting scenes finally had a more Asian feeling to it with a few influences from classic Easterns. Especially the fighting scenes in the uncle's warehourse, the television studio and in Angel's apartment were well done and can be cited as highlights of the movie.

If you happen to be a fan of diversified superhero movies or more contemporary Hongkong action cinema, you should appreciate the movie for what it is. It's entertaining and some efforts were put into it but neither the effects nor the script offer anything revolutionary after all. All in all, it's a movie inspired by many Hollywood movies that should also please to a larger Western audience while fans of classic Asian action and fantasy cinema might surprisingly not like this film as much.

A fan of Benny Chan and his many hard-hitting action classics of the 90's and numerous collaborations with Jackie Chan, I went into this movie with an open mind and low expectations seeing some previous reviews and all, but I was pleasantly surprised it ended up an enjoyable watch in the end, albeit some silly moments.

Let's get this out of the way, Hong Kong isn't Hollywood, so you can't expect special effects to be on par, and it's evident here with some very silly looking makeup effects for the mutants and a very laughable Aaron Kwok moment in the beginning.

However. Once Nicky Li's choreographed action gets cracking you get some cool superhero monster fight moments replete with flying daggers that are pretty fun to watch and Wu Jing and Zhang Jingchu as mainland cops hunting down mutants led by martial arts master Collin Chou and his gang with fancy martial arts and acupunture.

Overall Benny Chan ventures into comic book monsters mildly succeeding...

So cheesy and cliché that it is actually funny...

It's been a while, since I actually had fun watching cheesy and cliché humour. The latest Benny Chan's sci-fi action extravagant, City Under Siege is an outright cheesy movie that one can either enjoy or doss with respite. Aaron is on the back of a string quality acting roles, returns to his former self as the poster boy of expensive action displays. Not unlike, 2000AD and his 90s antics, Kwok plays a rather simple and empty character that aims to deliver the cheesiest lines in HK cinema. A prime example will be the moment that Kwok starts to woo Shu Qi on screen, out goes the background music sang by Kwok. It reminded me of the days when Kwok used to woo Kelly Chen in too many 90s rom-com. Still, I burst out laughing in the middle of the cinema. Embarrassed, may be a little, but shameless I was. By the time, the film credits were rolling rigorously, I have already laughed out due to extreme cheesiness a hand full of time. Is the film bad? Probably, but the unintentional humour brought a cheesy taste within my tongue.

Aaron Kwok kicks of the title of the most hideous laughing clowns in town. He is a genuine, laid back and simple-minded person who aims and strives to take the stage and throw some knifes. In fact, that is his lifelong goal. Mr. Colin Chou overacts immensely over-the-top and the result is a performance that is both hilariously bad and also his funniest role of his career. Shu Qi is still pretty enough to justify an eye candy presence, despite being overhaul by a rookie newsreader (played by Chrissie Chau) due to having a bigger pair of candies. Still, Kwok and Qi lack chemistry, but due to the nature of the movie, it leads to further funnier moments. On the other hand, Zhang Jin Chu continues to still the show in a sympathetic performance and martial artist Wu Jing shows that he is superhuman without being a mutant. In fact, one can highlight the somewhat anticipated fight scene between Jing and Chou, but the fury pacing ruins any sort of enjoyment in that scenario.

All in all, City Under Siege is a highly uneven, cliché, weird, corny and insert any other synonym of cheesy kind of movie. Yet somehow, it manages to be funny and somewhat enjoyable to endure. Director Benny Chan is well known for creating expensive action blockbusters. In City, he manages to be loud, routine and offers nothing special. It is a kind of film that one can easily be turned off, but luckily, for whatever reason, I find this film unintentionally funny in both a good and a bad way...(Neo 2010)

I rate it 6/10

• www.thehkneo.com

This Hong Kong action/Sci-Fi movie did have potential, and the synopsis did seem appealing, but the movie ultimately failed to live up to the expectations. And as for being a Benny Chan movie, then the movie just didn't really live up to his usual quality productions.

First of all, I want to address the title of the movie, the English title is "Assassin: City Under Siege". What? This movie title is probably as far as they could get from the actual storyline and what the movie was about. So don't put too much into the movie title, as it is a hoax.

The storyline was adequate, although it tended to be rather cheesy at times, leaning too much up against Marvel products, bordering on being a blatant rip-off at times. And that is what the movie suffered from the most. It was sort of a Hong Kong version of "X-Men", just on a toned down scale and a less funded scale.

As for the people on the cast list, well I can't claim to be much fan of Aaron Kwok, and his performance in this movie didn't really win me over this time either. Shu Qi was the one who carried the movie for me, despite not having the lead role. And also Collin Chou, who usually does put on good performances and good action, really didn't impress in this movie either - as if his heart, wasn't fully in it.

Effect-wise, then "Assassin: City Under Siege" (I just love this title) was actually quite good. The CGI worked out well, and the action sequences were nice as well. Despite this being martial arts with wires, then the fighting worked out well enough.

For a Hong Kong action movie, then "Assassin: City Under Siege" was not in the usual league of action movies to come from here; there are far better action movies available even the older ones with Chow Yun Fat.

"Assassin: City Under Siege" is good enough entertainment for a lazy afternoon if you have nothing else to do, just don't expect to be blown away.

I happened to catch this movie at the theater. This is a B movie. HK superstar pop singer-actor Aaron Kwok plays a not too bright good guy. The always dependable Colin Chou plays a bad guy (with a team of villains) who is an ace knife thrower. The always pretty Hsu Qi is a TV news reporter and the damsel in distress.

Aaron and Collin(and his buddies) went down a mine shaft and got infected with a bio weapon virus that turns them into super humans, sort of like the Hulk, just not that big. It is all rather cheesy. They fight Kung Fu (with wire-work).

Aaron Kwok made this silly movie rather enjoyable with his performance. There are two actors from China who plays a couple with special knowledge of these bio phenomenas from China who are there to investigate and assist and fight. These two bore the hell out of me. However Collin and Hsu Qi are both good in their roles.

This movie is worth a rental if you like schlocky stuff. Forget it if you're looking for anything even half serious. A lot of kids in the theater who enjoyed the movie, despite the comic book violence and gore.