Reign of Assassins - delicious fighting fun

[dangermousie]

(Nope, not spoilery pic)

Mr Mousie and I just finished watching the Chinese wuxia flick Reign of Assassins, starring Michelle Yeoh, Jung Woo Sung, Barbie Hsu (as a homicidal sexual maniac of all things) and a bunch of other people.

LOVED IT.

The story revolves around remains of kung-fu powerful monk. Supposedly possession of them is supposed to give you mystic powers and so everyone wants them. Our heroine, Drizzle (Michelle Yeoh) is someone who in most other stories would be a man - a weary swordfighter with a hidden past who wants to give up and not fight, but the world won't let her. She was one of the assassin sect who stole the remains from the previous owner, but she's had a change of heart since - she took and hid the remains, changed her name and face, moved to Nanjing, and now lives peacefully as a silk merchant. She has even gotten married to Ah Sheng, a good-natured man who doesn't have a drop of kungfu ability (Jung Woo Sung). Only - the assassin sect has finally tracked her down. Will she be able to fight them off? Redeem her karma? And maybe deal with the fact that her husband is not exactly all he seems?

Anyway, this movie is really really awesome, sort of like a wuxia Mr & Mrs Smith, only with characters I actually like. It has no pretentions to arthouse, but if a bit of fighting fun with awesome protagonists is what you are looking for, this may just be the flick for you.

Comments

[darkeyedwolf.livejournal.com]

Oooh, sounds like my thing! *__*

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

Let me know if you can't find it in the usual places and I'll provide you with a link

[darkeyedwolf.livejournal.com]

Would you happen to have an MU link? I can only find it on other servers.

[ockoala.livejournal.com]

ARGGGHHHH. I. WANT. *is jealous*

Dying to watch it. Thanks for a great positive review, 2nd thumbs up from my trusted bloggy friends this week. Is. Happy.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

Yay!

PMed you.

[mookiehyun.livejournal.com]

I've just watched this w/ hubs as well and we're both liking it A LOT. It's a story told simply,with tjoughtful details thrown in, capturing a real nuanced ugliness of the fantasy wuxia world without sensationalizing every development. we never share Cmovie likes, imagine how much more surprised how solidly good for the WHOLE duration of the movie both of us find this to be, it's this close to a miracle. Is there an MU link for darkeyedwolf and ockoala? need spread love of what a wuxia movie should really be!!:)

@ockoala, babe u need to see this pronto!

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

Yes, it was an unpretentious, solid, fun movie.

I sent links to them :)

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

Speaking of Mr. and Mrs. Smith (fun idea, less fun movie) have you checked out The Undercovers? Retired spies who run a catering business get pulled back in and work together as spies for the first time. (They never worked together when they were agents.) It's rather, uhm, light on the plot but it is just so pretty and the leads so endearing that it is very difficult to care. (And it actually puts in a good faith effort for equal opportunity fanservice.)

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

I haven't heard about it at all. Which network is it on? Or is it on Hulu?

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

It's on NBC, with 4 eps out. Not sure about Hulu, but here's the preview:

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

This looks entertaining! Also, the guy is hot.

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

Yes to both. And frequently shirtless.

It, uhm, is entirely possible that I think Paul Wesley and Boris Kodjoe should have an abs/arms contest. I mean, Kodjoe wins for faces easily, but between the neck and waist might be harder to choose between.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

I am all for your excellent idea.

I am going to check out the show this week.

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

Have you seen the "Stefan gets tortured" ep yet? Because after that, its like wardrobe decided that his mini-angst arc should have the angst defined by shirtlessness and/or bare arms. (I'm neutral on the face-don't find him ugly like some, but don't find it amazing either, though he has really good bone structure when it isn't being ruined by terrible hair. But the arms are another matter.)

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

Nope, still stuck on ep 12 or 13 - Damon is irritating me so much I am finding it hard to continue. Why can't they just kill him already, he is not even entertaining evil, just makes me want him off my screen.

Re: Undercovers. I went to wikipedia and it looks like out of 4 eps that aired each one brought in less viewers than the one before. Now I am worried to check it out - what will I do if I like it and it gets cancelled? Booo. I got used to drama security.

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

It amazes me how almost every other vampire in the show is interesting to me on some level (and I'm normally not interested in vampire characters) and yet, it's Damon, who is, at best, a boring generic angsty Vampire Bad Boy taken to the abusive/rapist/murderous extreme, who fandom adores and the show finds most interesting. It also makes no sense in-universe for him to still be alive? Because not taking him down makes the other characters, frankly, look stupid because he's consistently causing severe trouble and getting people hurt and killed, and has no interest in changing his ways. (He'll behave, but he's shown no interestn or inclination to change.) it also makes no sense that other vampires haven't taken him out (though, in that case, I suspect Stefan is fairly liked, so the poor guy may have just spent the last 150 years apologizing for his brother and cleaning up his messes) as most have self-control and know to lay low and not cause trouble, and Damon has pretty much no self-control whatsoever, and no interest in developing it. In general, the vampires in the show seem to just want to live their lives under the radar.

Mostly, the parts I enjoy overpower the parts I don't, but every time there's a Damon Is Awesome episode, I want to hurt things.

Sadly, that doesn't surprise me about Undercovers, as happy as I am that the network took a risk on it.

ETA: Also, you should at least stick it out to about ep 15 or 16~, where Damon gets his eyes gouged. It's kinda...the best scene that doesn't involve him getting lit on fire.

[jamieguo48.livejournal.com]

Wuxia, Michelle Yeoh, John Woo. I'm there.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

It was really fun.

[linfer.livejournal.com]

I thought the wire work looked extremely weird, but other than that...loved it, too.
And it seems, not everything is lost, because I really, really liked Jung Woo-sung in this one, he and Michelle Yeoh have an awesome chemistry together and his character was so much fun.

And I second meganbmoore's recommendation, Undercovers is nothing stellar, but awesome because of the two main characters.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

Yes, the movie was really entertaining. I am glad I checked it out on a whim.

[scottishlass.livejournal.com]

Oh that sounds like my kind of wuxia :)
Is there a MU link somewhere? *makes pretty pleading eyes*

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

Check your PM :)

[stillingfleet.livejournal.com]

it's coming/current showing over here, and i've been vacillating between wanting to watch it and not wanting to watch it because the reviews have been pretty mixed - and after ignoring mixed reviews to watch donnie yen's chen zhen (which was horrific) i've been very hesitant. but love for barbie (although a critic said she was ill-suited for her role, is that true?) + your assurance that it is mr. and mrs. smith with characters worth watching for are definitely winning me over =)

when you say a bit of fighting though - does it mean really a bit? cos i read at places that there's only a lot of fighting at the start and at the end. and if it's wuxia + john woo it would be weird with only a bit of fighting.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

I thought Barbie was OK - her character wasn't that complex.

Oh, and I meant 'bit' as in 'would you like a bit of tea?' - a substitute for 'some' - there was a lot of fighting.