movies based on true political stories are always great source materials for epics. U have a real story featuring real people to make everything more than believable. U have the epic struggle between good and evil... difficult choices... great individual sacrifices...
in terms of stories about modern China, the story of Sun Yat Sen's uprising against the imperial system is arguably the biggest political story oh the past century... what set this story aside from other more military focus ones is the core idea of individual freedom versus individual privileges... like how the descendant of the ruler will enjoy everything at birth... this is perhaps the first awakening of the Chinese to the flaws of the old system... a fight for their ideologies... inspirations to similar efforts down the years like the story of Tian An Men...
such is the premise that based on the source materials alone, i was looking forward to the movie Bodyguards and Assassins even though i have heard some negative feedbacks from my friends...
the story of Bodyguards and Assassins is about Sun Yat Sen's visit to Hong Kong to have a secret meeting with leaders from other parts of China.... and the imperial guards is taking this opportunity to kill him... while activists try to do everything they can to protect him for the whole duration of the meeting... ya... so really... the title in itself explains everything...
now i have no idea whether this is an actual event... but i am thinking probably not... and actually i really hope that is the case cause if this really did happened... this would seriously put a dent in my impression of Sun Yat Sen as a wise and caring man... for a start... if u are someone who knows that u are going to be hunted down... it is kind of brilliant to announce to everybody u are going to such a dangerous place then entrust everything in the people there to ensure the safety of u and the proper execution of the meeting? in the movie, they did not say for whatever reason why the meeting MUST take place in dangerous Hong Kong and not anywhere else...
while i must give credit for the recreation of old Hong Kong... which looks pretty authentic... though i have a minor complain about the CG of the movie... when they revealed the shores of Hong Kong... the lighting and movement of the water is too regular and makes it look fake... then again... that maybe just me...
back to the story though... on the good side... this story focuses on character developement... most of the character introduced in the movie... u will know them quite abit at the end... but this is perhaps one flaw of the movie... there are too many characters that shared equal amount of attention such that it becomes hard to really associate with any of them... the lead... business man Li seems to be the Lead... but in the later half of the movie... his role is totally insignificant... for the activists... which are not even central to the whole Sun Yat Sen meeting itself but somehow got dragged in to the effort saw so much screen time... they even have dedicated scenes and death to "glorify" their efforts... but this really diffuse the whole focus of the movie...
the worst part of the movie... which is also debatable... because i do know some who liked this... but personally i hated this to the core... is the over the top fighting and melodramatic scenes... i felt so cheated when i saw the big guy getting stabbed by a whole mob and feel bad for him... only to find that he miraculously survived just to get stabbed by another mob... a beggar turned hero who can battle a whole group of imperial guards?... no wonder the uprising was a success...
most of the fighting scenes... except the initial one involving an aging general are so over the top they are on the brink of plain ridicule...
and just to make the story go along certain paths the director need to follow to include his scenes... there are so many elements that look so odd and out of place... faking a death by almost gutting urself? making everyone in a room draw lot only to find out the person who should not be there is there? right... there were a few hundred people inside... its impossible for u to know...
at the end of the movie...
i almost forgot that this is about the uprising and Sun Yat Sen... this is more like how a bunch of people screwed themselves up with bad plannings and stupid acts... and how Chinese were superhumans until... the uprising was successful...
the movie has lots of potential... strong background materials... a really good set... some of the best actors in the industry... but what it was lacking was the script and the direction... script-wise it would be forgivable it the movie itself managed to engross audiences so much to not o think so much about it... direction-wise... it seems that the movie cannot make up its mind whether this is a political drama or an action film... the end result is a hybrid that shows u a glimpse of drama with no added development... a host of seemingly insignificant characters introduced in too much details... and an action film featuring the most unrealistic... and ok... stupid fight scenes...
if u want to take a look at old Hong Kong... or want to look at some "Kung Fu" styled kung fu... u can take a look at this... if u are interested in the story of Sun Yat Sen... go to the library of Wikipedia...
this movie is a generous 2/5.
like all movies that sucked... below are some spoilers of how ridiculous things can be in old Hong Kong... especially by smart resistance standards.
1) the babysitters in that era are totally irresponsible... when a stranger came reaching his hand at the little girl u are babysitting... they just sit and watch...
2) that period is a period of safety and liberty... u can afford to leave ur little girl on her own outside her room... and there is no imposed bedtime on them so she can ride her wooden pony at the deep of the night... if only she has a Playstation...
3) it helps that u are Nicholas Tse in old Hong Kong... probably in modern Hong Kong too... of all the chracters that died in the chase... he is the only one with Chinese text written next to his body... the rest only have the English subtitles... which since this movie is a Chinese movie... probably the details of the rest are not worth knowing...
4) still on being Nicholas Tse... when u are him... and u are up against a real badass who kills everyone in his way... he will be kind-hearted enough to politely ask u to let go of his leg... even if u refused... he will take a good few minutes before he has no choice bu to kill u... all while the people he is desperately chasing are running away...
5) if u happened not to be Nicholas Tse... do not listen to him and pull the ricksaw... while it seems that he is being heroic by asking u to pull it so he can stay and try to delay the badass... he is really telling u... "pull the damn thing for me... i do not want to die yet..."
6) when u are badly injured... and for the sake of ur promise... u decided to... i don't even know how to call this... delay the badass?... the best course of action is... simply stand in the way of his charging horse while having some hallucination of happy times... what happened to throwing rocks or bamboo stick while u are at the side?... ya.. .that's for cowards...
7) when u get hit by a horse... u will end up like u are being hit by a car... gruesome death... which is kind of strange... if that is the case... how did people get trampled by running horses?...
8) when u are holding a secret meeting... u must insist on doing it at the most dangerous place... if Hong Kong is not bad enough already... u must do it at a place out of English jurisdiction so that even if the police inspector want to help out... he cannot... never trust the English...
9) if u are a resistance fighter... u can get stabbed multiple times... and multiple times of that... no wonder they kicked that guy out of Shao Lin... he is plain freaky...
10) see... talk about how opium destroy u is really bullshit... u screwed ur life... decided to smoke opium for a living for years... all it takes for u to go back to ur physical best and help fight a group of imperial guards... is a simple good shower...
11) this is almost hinging on eroticism... the first two hooks that hurt Leon Lai... created something like a pair of bloody nipples on him... trying to sell the movie with sex?...
12) when u are a skilled fighter... u do not use ur family metal fan to cut people... unless u are using it as a last ditch effort to cut some dude's pony tail... otherwise... use it as if u are holding a stick...
13) for the most important assignment in ur life... u decide to groom urself such that u no longer look like a beggar... but a beggar in proper martial art clothes... tell me if the theatre u were in when u watch this show did not laugh when Leon Lai appeared like he is Hua Ying Xiong or Le Feng...
14) is it me or... at the scene with the lion dance... the guards glided down from red clothes... that were... hanging in mid air?
15) when u are imprisoned... the only way u can get out is by faking a death... by gutting urself so that u almost died... realism baby... u have to keep it real...
16) when u are desperately running away from a badass... while hopping over goods and obstacles in a narrow walk path... u can take time to do a somersault for no apparent reason... run with style...
17) u know how u show u are a badass... u throw everyone in ur way flying like u are Tanker in Left 4 Dead... u can do this cause Donnie Yen has got no gun... and it is not Left 4 Dead 2... he has got no melee either...
18) wrestling... doesn't matter what u think... has deep roots in China... when ur Donnie Yen is down... the logical move is to climb up something high and leap across and inhuman amount of space to kick his face like a soccer ball... physics-wise... how does jumping across enhance that kind of kick?... somebody got to tell Gerard he is shooting the ball wrong...
19) fighting in old Hong Kong is pretty much like ur copy of WWE game... after consecutive punches... ur opponent will start to stagger around like in Mortal Kombat for ur to land the Fatality move...
20) when someone gave u a gun to protect urself... never use it until the last moment... even if earlier on u have a chance for a clean shot... the gun is an absolute last choice even when u are defending ur life...
21) when u are tasked with handling the explosives... u have alot of time to go out and lure a girl who is trying to avenge her father to a back alley to fight... for good measure... u even trapped the door so she can't escape... then u remembered about those explosives... and leave the back alley so u can bring her to fight in the stash while trying frantically to light the explosives... but its ok... cause after she goes out and close the door... she is kind enough to manually block the door and not just trap it by tying her weapon around the door... just so u wouldn't die alone...
22) rifles are straightly for sniping people from rooftops... otherwise... u have to fight with swords... even thought u went to such lengths to get ur guns...
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