Wo de te gong ye ye

This film has shameless copied, borrowed, stole many other foreign films from Korea, The Man from Nowhere (2010), from Belgium, The Memory of A Killer (2003), and Nicholas Cage's 2014 film, Dying of The Light, as well as a rumor in November, 2014 that Al Pacino and Brian De Palma, director of Scarface (1983) would adapt "The Memory of A Killer" into an American version. This Chinese copycatting film is as close as the Nicholas Cage's role in "Dying of The Light", about a CIA agent with dementia, his body functions were staying mostly fine but his brain got Alzheimer's disease. Then heavily borrowed the story from The Man from Nowhere.

Sammo Hung played the guy who was once the palace guard of the Chinese Communist Party in Beijing, he got such disease and deteriorated rapidly after his retirement. The storyline only added some awkward, unrealistic and highly unlikely romance, and the appendix-like sub-plot of Andy Lau's character, father to a young girl, a hopeless compulsory gambler.

The close combat fighting scenes are also heavily borrowed and copied from most of Steven Seagal's action movies, by breaking knuckles, elbows, knees, ankles, neck of all of his opponents, fighting daggers, long or short knives with bare hands and did the most severe body damages to those who unknowingly fighting an unimaginable fighting machine. But the thing is that Sammo Hung is too fat, too old and too bloated to the extreme, making the fighting scenes just looked more like choreographically awkward rehearsals.

The story, the scenario and the plot were just too contrived and stereotyped in rigid Chinese way. It's neither like "The Man from Nowhere" that connected us to the young girl and the mysterious killing machine guy, nor gave us any empathy connection of how sad the guy in "The Memory of A Killer", trying to not being useless and helpless. The Bodyguard only gave me some awkward and impatient numb feelings, completely disconnected. The awkward senior romance in this film only made me feel pathetic and nauseating.

Hiring those once famous Kung-Fu has-beens as supporting roles were also totally unnecessary, only made the whole film more loose and flat.

This is a pathetic patch-up work with a very poor script.

(2016) My Beloved Bodyguard (In Chinese with English subtitles) DRAMA ACTION

"The Bodyguard" as the movie is referring to is Sammo Hung Kam Bo, as he plays a retired Central Security Bureau, as he bonds with a young girl often neglected by her father, Li Zheng Jiu played by Andy Lau. He becomes her bodyguard as her father gets himself involved in both Chinese and Russian gangsters, regarding a debt and a stolen bag of jewels and money. Upon watching it on rental was able to cut through some of the sappy parts as opposed to watching it on theater. Tsui Hark director of "Time and Tide", Dean Shek of "A Better Tomorrow II" to Karl Maka of "Aces Go Places" series make small cameos.

It's nice to see some of known Hong Kong favorites still finding work, and although those were small parts, it is still nice to see them alive and still acting. As the Hong Kong industry is not what it used to be.

Vastly underrated, this is a gem. Sammo Hung in great form both as an actor (playing dementia so well) and in the brutal fight scenes. Great supporting actors, especially Andy Lau and the child. Loved the scenes of Chinese life (slightly idealised of course) and the gangsters. Nothing I didn't like really and kept my attention. The understated romance sub plot was sweet and T Hark ina bit part was just funny. Well worth watching .

My Beloved Bodyguard is the first film Sammo Hung has directed in almost 20 years. Although not one of Hung's classics, this is still streets ahead of what the critical reviews have said.

Originally My Beloved Bodyguard was to star both Hung and Jackie Chan, in the Andy Lau role. The film has obviously went through some rewrites since then, as I can't see Chan playing the type of role that Lau plays here.

The plot of the film steals somewhat from movies like " Man on Fire" and the "Man from Nowhere", with Hung as a retired Civil Servant protecting a young girl. In this case it is local triads, who Lau, the child's father, owes money too.

Some reviews have complained about the lack of action in the movie. Must having been watching something else, as there are a number of good action/fight scenes in the movie. There's an excellent chase sequence with Lau and a number of gangsters, that is only let down by being a bit short, then a fight between Sammo and some thugs who come to his house. Then there is the extended finale, with Hung taking on a group of gangsters. Unlike the comedic fights Hung used to take part in, this is just brutal, with multiple limbs being broken.

The film has been harmed somewhat by its advertising campaign which shows the actors, some of which are legends like Yuen Biao & Yuen Wah, that appear in the movie in action poses. Unfortunately most of the actors on the posters only appear in the film in limited cameos, which is a shame. This isn't a fault of the film, as i'm sure Sammo had nothing to do with the advertising.

On the performance side, Sammo is his usual self. His fans won't be disappointed. Lau is also good, in the only other lead role of the film. Only Lau could turn a somewhat waste of space, into a likable character. Lau also acts as the films producer.

On the directing side, Sammo shows his skill behind the camera, and although his action scenes are more edited that in the past, his choreography still shines through. Only drawback is his overuse of a blurry slow-mo effect which can be somewhat distracting.

If you are a fan of Hong Kong cinema and/or Sammo Hung, I would definitely recommend "My Beloved Bodyguard".

For someone who has dedicated more than half his life reinventing the martial arts genre of modern-day Hong Kong cinema, Sammo Hung certainly has not been resting on his laurels. Not only did he recently direct Aaron Kwok and Gong Li in the many extravagant action set-pieces of 'The Monkey King 2', he has also been busy assuming similar duties on Benny Chan's upcoming period action blockbuster 'The Deadly Reclaim'. Compared to these two elaborate big-budget epics, 'The Bodyguard', which sees Sammo assume multi- hyphenate duties as director, action director and lead actor, feels like a walk in the park for the 64-year-old actor/ martial artist.

And it probably is, judging from the friends who have turned up to see Sammo return to the director's chair after a hiatus of close of two decades – including Yuen Wah as the postman of the sleepy town at the border of China and Russia where the movie is set, Yuen Qiu as a social worker, Yuen Biao as the town's police commander and Karl Maka, Tsui Hark and Dean Shek as a bunch of town elders who always have a quick barb to trade with each other. Besides these notable alums from Hong Kong cinema past, contemporaries like Hu Jun, Feng Shaofeng and Eddie Peng have also turned up for the all- stars reunion – though we're leaving out special guest star Andy Lau, since he is after all producer of the movie through his Focus Films company.

Though it is unlikely to expect each one of these guest stars to have a meaningful place in the film, those expecting any of them to have anything more than a glorified cameo will be sorely disappointed. Except for Lau, who plays father to the young girl whom Sammo's titular bodyguard befriends and eventually protects, not a single one of the other actors contributes any more than a 'blink-and-miss' appearance, so there's no point wondering if any will spar with Sammo at all. Oh yes, you would do well to know that these 'guest appearances' are completely extraneous to the story, which tells of a retired Central Security Bureau (CSB) officer named Mr Ding who calls upon his very particular set of skills to protect an innocent life.

As much as that premise lends itself to a martial arts showcase for Sammo, 'The Bodyguard' is anything but. Indeed, those looking for a straight-out action flick will very likely be disappointed, for Sammo approaches the 'Taken-like' high-concept movie in a conspicuously low-key manner, so much so that it ends up being an hour of set-up, exposition and character build-up for a single extended close- quarter showdown that conveniently pits Sammo against two warring gangster factions at the same time and in the same place. To call it an action thriller would in fact be a misnomer, for it is at best a simple character drama with some bits of action thrown in to lure unsuspecting viewers from Sammo's considerable fan-base.

That drama largely consists of Sammo either looking lost due to the early onset of dementia that his character is suffering from or acting shy due to the advances of his landlord Madam Park (Li Qinqin). Crucially, Sammo plays his character so aloof that we cannot quite identify with the grief he has supposedly been carrying in his heart after losing his granddaughter while out with her many years ago, which is also why he is currently estranged from his daughter now in America. In the same way, we can also hardly feel the connection between his character and the young girl he now feels responsible for, or for that matter why he suddenly snaps out of his usual passivity to defend her in the third act.

It's no secret that Sammo is a better fighter than an actor, and the fact that he does plenty of the latter and too little of the former in the first two acts makes the movie a drag. Only in the last half hour does Sammo abandon his dementia-induced stupor for a one- against- many showdown against Choi's henchmen and the Russians, which gives him the chance to engage in the sort of lethal bone- breaking we suspect most would be waiting for. Yet it is hardly breathtaking stuff – especially for those well-acquainted with Sammo's previous movies – and too many close-ups as well as a slower-than-ideal frame-rate for Sammo's lightning-quick moves ultimately make this too-little too-late finale slightly underwhelming.

That expectations are high for 'The Bodyguard' is inevitable; like we said, this is the first time that Sammo is in the director's chair after helming both 'Mr Nice Guy' and 'Once Upon A Time in China and America' back in 1997. Yet even without the weight of such expectations, this languid drama with just one modest fight sequence at the end is unlikely to satisfy action fans or the rare audience member looking for a serious-minded story on redemption. At this age, there is really little that Sammo need do to cement his legacy as legend, but it should also be said that anyone looking for him to revive his past glories on the big screen will go away empty. We adore Sammo just as much as his most ardent fan, but even that love and respect is not enough for us to find anything redeeming about 'The Bodyguard'. Sorry, 'dai gor'.