HKMDB Daily News

Reign of Assassins (Jianyu)
By Mark Adams

Dirs: Su Chao-Pin, John Woo. China. 2010. 117mins

As a action-packed tale of martial arts revenge and killings, the impressively staged Reign of Assassins certainly delivers the goods in stylish fashion. It might lack the sheer visual poetry of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, but its scenes of sword-play are wonderful and once the story gathers momentum it is absorbing and entertaining.

Michelle Yeoh remains a wonderfully charismatic talent, aging gracefully but still retains a poise and style that really sets her apart.

The film may well be mainly directed by Su Chao-Pin (the on-screen credits list John Woo as co-director, along with Stephen Tung-Wai as action director), but the John Woo link gives the film an extra boost of action credibility, especially after his recent success with Red Cliff. The luminous presence of Michelle Yeoh in the lead also helps point to a film that could have theatrical potential in a number of territories, and a home entertainment berth in many others.

As is often the case with Chinese martial arts films, an overly complex on-screen explanation tries to scene-set. It seems it is a time of inter-clan warfare, and a gang of assassins known as The Dark Stone plan to steal the remains of a Buddhist kung fu master monk whose long buried remains had been cut in half. It seems whoever brings the two parts together will control kung fu.

The top female assassin Drizzle (Kelly Lin) wants to start a new life and plans to return one half of the remains to the monk’s tomb as a way of atonement. She undergoes facial surgery, and changes her name to Zeng Jing (now as Michelle Yeoh) and settles in the capital as a low-key shopkeeper.

She falls in love with and marries messenger Jiang Ah-Sheng (Jung Woo-Sung), but their peaceful life is threatened when the remaining Dark Stone assassins track her down in search of the remains. She is forced to fight her old comrades, but to her surprise her mild-mannered husband is not the man he seems, and the scene is set for a blistering all-action climax.

The facial surgery notion is rather similar to John Woo’s actioner Face/Off, while the husband-and-wife killers with secret identities sites alongside recent Hollywood films such as Mr And Mrs Smith and Killers, but Reign Of Assassins is resolutely a traditionally styled wuxia style martial arts movie.

Michelle Yeoh remains a wonderfully charismatic talent, aging gracefully (her Drizzle character asks for her new face to look older) but still retains a poise and style that really sets her apart. She is wonderful in the impressively staged action scenes, and has a unique stillness and elegance that makes her extremely watchable.

Korean actor Jung Woo-Sung is charming as her seemingly naïve husband, while Taiwanese singer Barbie Hsu is striking as Turquoise, the young female sword-fighter recruited to take Drizzle’s place in the band of assassins. John Woo’s daughter Angeles Woo also crops up in a brief cameo as a rival assassin.

Production companies: Beijing Galloping Horse Film & TV Production, Media Asia Group, Zhejiang Dongyang Dragon Entertainment Venture Investment Co., Gamania Digital Entertainment, Lumiere Motion Picture Corp., Beijing Heguchuan TV & Film Co., Lion Rock

International sales: Fortissimo Films, www.fortissimofilms.com

Producers: John Woo, Terence Chang

Screenplay: Su Chao-Pin

Cinematography: Horace Wong

Art director: Yang Baigui

Editor: Cheung Ka-Fai

Music: Peter Kam

Main cast: Michelle Yeoh, Jung Woo-Sung, Wang Xueqi, Barbie Hsu, Shawn Yue, Kelly Lin, Guo Xiaodong, Jiang Yitan
Screen Daily

Reign of Assassins
(Jianyu)
(China-Hong Kong-Taiwan) A Weinstein Co. (in North America) release of a Beijing Galloping Horse Film & TV Prod., Media Asia Group, Zhejiang Dongyang Dragon Entertainment Venture Investment Co., Gamania Digital Entertainment Co., Lumiere Motion Picture Corp., Beijing Heguchuan TV & Film Co. presentation of a Lion Rock production. (International sales: Fortissimo Films, Amsterdam.) Produced by John Woo, Terence Chang. Directed, written by Su Chao-pin. Co-director, John Woo.

With: Michelle Yeoh, Jung Woo-sung, Wang Xueqi, Barbie Hsu, Shawn Yue, Kelly Lin, Guo Xiaodong, Jiang Yiyan, Leon Dai, Paw Hee-ching, Matt Wu, Jin Shijie, Pace Wu, Calvin Li, Angeles Woo.

By JUSTIN CHANG
A delightful martial-arts romp that makes up in wit and exuberance what it occasionally lacks in clarity and finesse, “Reign of Assassins” unspools in a version of ancient China where killers yearn for lives of quiet domesticity, secret identities abound and death rarely has the last word. While the film takes some time setting up its convoluted specifics, the essentials seem to have gone satisfyingly right in the collaboration between Taiwan’s Su Chao-pin and a resurgent, post-”Red Cliff” John Woo. “Reign” should please local crowds starting Sept. 28, but will undergo some tinkering before opening Stateside as a Weinstein release.

In the world of “Reign of Assassins,” plastic surgery is accomplished by inserting poisonous insects into one’s nasal cavity, a procedure that apparently leaves you looking like Michelle Yeoh. That’s what happens to the delightfully named Drizzle (played initially by Kelly Lin), a top member of the Dark Stone Assassins squad famed for her lethal “water-shedding” sword technique, who decides she’s had enough of her life of crime and wants to settle down.

Starting over as a humble shopkeeper in the Chinese capital, Drizzle (now played by Yeoh) is shyly courted by Jiang Ah-sheng (Korean thesp Jung Woo-sung), and the two soon wed. But neither one counts on Drizzle’s former cohorts — led by the formidable Wheel King (Wang Xueqi) — to show up in a trouble-making mood. The assassins demand that Drizzle hand over the remains of a famous Buddhist monk, ownership of which grants invincibility in the martial arts.

As the tale of a star femme assassin choosing married life over mayhem, the scenario has more than a whiff of “Kill Bill”; indeed, “Reign” reps a frenzied stew of references, well-worn twists and unabashed cliches — executed by filmmakers who take palpable pleasure in reheating and recombining familiar genre elements. Su’s script has all kinds of fun with gags about eunuchs (a key plot point) and off-the-wall dialogue, though its sentimental refrain about lost love (”I would turn into a stone bridge and endure 500 years of wind and rain”) harks back to the drippiest romantic aphorisms of mid-’90s Wong Kar-wai.

Among other things, the picture works well as a playful domestic comedy as it observes Drizzle and Jiang adapt to married life; the notion of a skilled warrior trying to protect her unsuspecting, slightly dopey husband is played with a tenderness that yields unexpected emotional dividends at the film’s bloody finale. Pic reps a fine showcase for Yeoh (too little employed in this sort of high-flying action vehicle since 2000’s “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon”), whose Zen-like elegance renders her command of swordsmanship and hand-to-hand combat all the more impressive. Jung, who played “The Good” in “The Good the Bad the Weird,” has an endearing, affable presence, and is eventually granted an opportunity to display his own action prowess. Barbie Hsu and Shawn Yue effectively round out the DSA squad.

As directed by Stephen Tung, the action is seldom as cleanly choreographed as one would like, often rendered a kinetic blur by Cheung Ka-fai’s editing; still, the style suits Su and Woo’s giddy, unpretentious tone. Production design and costumes are evocative but not too lavish, and Horace Wong’s widescreen lensing proves as nimble as the characters. (Mandarin dialogue)

Camera (color, widescreen), Horace Wong; editor, Cheung Ka-fai; music, Peter Kam; art director, Yang Baigui; costume designer, Emi Wada; action director, Stephen Tung. Reviewed at Venice Film Festival (noncompeting), Sept. 2, 2010. Running time: 120 MIN.
Variety

Reign of Assassins
By Deborah Young

VENICE — “Mr. & Mrs. Smith” relocate to ancient China in the dazzling martial-arts epic “Reign of Assassins,” in which Asian superstars Michelle Yeoh and Jung Woo-Sung play an ordinary married couple, each unaware the spouse is a world-class assassin. Replacing guns and bombs with flashing swordplay, aerial fighting and fantasy effects, the beautifully balanced story finds time for humor and a piercingly romantic finale. This lush visual treat should have no trouble finding kung fu audiences, with crossover potential to the Western art circuit. It bears the double direction of Taiwanese writer-director Su Chao-Pin (”Silk”) and genre master John Woo.

The delightful animated credit sequence that opens the film is a taste of fantasy to come. It is followed by an impossibly fast introduction to the film’s characters and backstory guaranteed to throw unprepared viewers into a panic. No fear, the large cast of villains — and they’re all bad in this movie — gets sorted out over the next two hours along with the incredibly convoluted story.

The main concept to grasp in the opening fight sequence, set in an ancient monastery before a giant statue of Buddha, is that the earthly remains of a mystical Indian monk have magical properties, able to grant control of the martial-arts world to their possessor. And the terrible Dark Stone gang wants them. Their most invincible and ruthless assassin is Drizzle (Kelly Lin), a beautiful girl who has been trained by the Dark Stone leader, the Wheel King. Having just killed an important minister, she also dispatches his son, Renfeng. All of this happens before the film begins, but it’s good to keep in mind.

Back to the ancient monastery, where Drizzle kills the man she loves, the monk Wisdom, rather than repent as he wishes. But his death so disturbs her that she decides to quit the gang.

Ordering a surgeon to “make her look older,” she is transformed into Zeng Jing, played with her customary aplomb by Hong Kong’s kung fu queen Michelle Yeoh (”Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon”). To cover her tracks, she rents a house in the city and opens a market stall selling cloth. There, she attracts the attention of a messenger boy, Ah-Sheng (Korean star Jung Woo-Sung in his first martial-arts role). Their humorously told courtship, which ends in a happy marriage, is absorbing enough to forget that no fighting has taken place for a long time.

Until one day, Zeng Jing and Ah-Sheng are in the bank when a sinister gang of black-robed robbers appears. Just as they are about to be run through with swords, Zeng Jing springs into action and saves their lives in a brilliant one-woman show.

Alas, her technique is recognizable a mile off, and the Wheel King knows Drizzle is back in town. He calls to him the three most terrible assassins in his gang — Lei Bin (Shawn Yue); the bratty girl murderer Turquoise (Barbie Hsu); and the Magician (Leon Dai) — to force her to hand over the monk’s remains.

Little logic prevails over the final action sequences, which take place near the speed of light. Just when Zeng Jing is overcome and all looks lost, her clumsy husband retrieves his rusty sword and reveals his true identity. His heroic transformation doesn’t come as much of a surprise, but it is an exhilarating moment that makes the last scenes exciting as well as touching, when the husband and wife open old wounds, fight each other and test their love and spirit of self-sacrifice.

The ending is moving and poetic, confirming the acting depths of the two principals, who are much more than martial-arts stars. Another nod goes to the character actors, who round out the film with unexpected humor. Like the cast, the top-grade technical staff comes from all over Asia.

Although the directing role of Woo, who produced with Lion Rock partner Terence Chang, is not that clear, it is easy to spot his oft-used theme of facial and identity changes (”Face/Off,” “Mission Impossible: 2″).

Venue: Venice Film Festival (Out of Competition)
Sales Agent: Fortissimo Films
Production: Lion Rock Prods., Beijing Galloping Horse Film & TV Prods., Media Asia Group, Zhejiang Dongyang Dragon Entertainment, Gamania Digital Entertainment, Lumiere Motion Picture Corp., Beijing Heguchuan TV & Film Co.
Cast: Michelle Yeoh, Jung Woo-Sung, Wang Xueqi, Barbie Hsu, Shawn Yue, Kelly Lin, Guo Xiaodong, Jiang Yiyan
Directors: Su Chao-Pin, John Woo
Screenwriter: Su Chao-Pin
Producers: John Woo, Terence Chang
Director of photography: Horace Wong
Production designer: Yang Baigui
Music: Peter Kam
Costumes: Emi Wada
Editor: Angie Lam
Action director: Stephen Tung
No rating, 117 minutes
THR