Friday, October 8, 2010

Reign of Assassins 劍雨

劍雨

 

Reign of Assassins trailer 

 

okay watched it already

strange enough

this post is supposed to be in Mandarin

but this is dedicated to Carly Yap

for being a loyal Michelle Yeoh’s fan

 

to summarize the movie

it’s a modern mafia story

there’s this mafia group called Black Stone

they are hunting down for a treasure,

a corpse of a kung-fu master

which can enhance the kung-fu of

whoever owning the complete corpse

which was broken into two parts

first I will introduce the cast

 

here’s the taiko

Black Stone is really a mafia group

he has been blackmailing all the

rich traders and government officers

to run his society

but his real occupation was revealed

towards the end of the movie

came to a shock…

by the way

this is the guy acting as Big Boss Lee

in that movie 《Bodyguards and Assassins》

nominated for best actor award for that role

he is a really good actor

王學圻飾轉輪王

 

this is where the story begins

while hunting down the corpse

Miss Lil’ Rain got hold of the half corpse

and disappeared into thin air

with 800k dollars of the society

so obviously the society

is hunting her down..

and the corpse she took away

林熙蕾飾細雨

 

what she did was

she went for a plastic surgery

and waking up 3 months later

as Michelle Yeoh

and so she settle down

as a cloth seller by the road

and marry this Korean guy

and think she gonna live

happily ever after

楊紫瓊飾曾靜

 

ladies and gentlemen

please put your hands up for the

two hunks of the Black Stone group

1stly, the Magician

he performed stunts and magics

eg, throwing a rope into the sky

and climbed onto the rope

then he just disappeared

it’s kinda reminded me of

Jack and the Beanstalk

and supermario climbing up

to the coins heaven

戴立忍飾彩戲師

 

last but not least

Mr. Ray Ban…

this is my fav character in the movie

余文樂飾雷彬

 

frankly speaking

not because he is Shawn Yue

Mr. Ray is a loving man

his dream is to open up a noodle shop

and settle down with his wife and baby

soon after this job is done

loving Mr. Raypoor widow and orphan

 

moreover he is a man with integrity and loyalty

when Mr. Magician was suggesting that

why don’t we kill the Mafia head

and divide the money among ourselves

he never take the offer

instead he still sell his life for the Mafia head

the loyal Mr. Ray

 

but.. unfortunately

he never get to

thanks to Michelle Yeoh and her Korean hunk

but with his determination

he struggled back home

and took the last look of his wife and baby

and had the last noodle supper

with blood dripping all over

R.I.P. Mr. Ray

sob..

 

his fav past time is

noodle cooking

in the middle of negotiation

with Michelle Yeoh

he still cooked at her kitchen

Noodle lover

 

this character

which I think is not of top priority

Barbie Hsu.. aka Da-S

she is the one joining the Black Stone

for the sake of replacing Miss Lil’ Rain

she is a bitch by nature

徐熙媛飾周綻青

art of seduction is the kung-fu she practices

 

so they came to Michelle Yeoh’s house

for a round of negotiation

for the corpse and the 800k she stole

the new girl, Mr. Ray and Mr. Magician

the taiko is the one in

Red Riding Hood

Mafia trioRed Riding Hood

 

then the truth is revealed at last

the taiko is actually an eunuch

so he wanted the corpse so badly

to become a real man again

the Taiko real occupation is revealed

 

Barbie Hsu while trying to seduce him

she is all the time seducing someone

discover the truth

and she said

“so the whole thing of hunting down the corpse

is a big joke”

this got on the nerve of the eunuch

and she got buried alive

 

end of the story

these two walked away alive

everyone else in the Black Stone group

were killed

terrible…

the "little" couple

 

I called this a modern swordsman movie

because there were a lot of

new elements in there

 

firstly

the magician

I think he maybe a Hogwart graduate

he is a quick witted man

performed magic trick

disappeared into the sky

the magical aura about him

is not something to be found in

traditional swordsman movie

Mr. Magician

 

and this scene of Mr. Ray

following Michelle Yeoh

running on the rooftops

it’s a pretty modern scene too

I bet you have seen Jackie Chan doing this

still nothing bets that scene in

《Bodyguards vs Assassins》

Chung Lee vs Donnie Yen

chase on the busy street

surveilance from rooftop

 

this one as well

the ugly truth

eunuch vs a mafia head

oh…

make-up session

 

particularly this scene in the bank

it’s too modern

a group of masked men came in

paralyzed everyone

“hands-up … Robbers…!!!”

but no worries Michelle Yeoh is here

she murdered all the robbers

blinded the mastermind

that’s how her identity got exposed

oh no.. they are bank robbers

 

and the love story parts

how it always rain

and the Korean always pretended

he was just passing by

so he helped Michelle Yeoh

keeping all her cloth stocks

and they just hang out

waiting for the rain to stop

this smells like Taiwan drama

and c’mon

these are far matured grown-ups

to be caught in the rain

and fall in love

in the rain... we met

 

and another problem I found

with the movie is characters

how convincing it is to have

a Korean hunk as the lead actor?

out of all the faces Miss Lil Rain can choose

why did she choose to become Michelle Yeoh

 

and this character acted by Pace Wu

personally I think she is pretty

but the pretty and modern face

just doesn’t go for the character

of an adventurous swordswoman

吳佩慈飾崆峒青劍

 

but surprisingly enough

Shawn looks terrific

in this swordsman look

neither too modern nor too old

and the playful self is still there

Mr. Ray Ban

 

conclusion

this is a neither good nor bad movie

the quality is there

I mean this is John Woo’s

shooting quality

the music by Peter Kam

the action choreo by Stephen Tung

he choreo for 《Bodyguards&A》

《Seven Swords》etc etc…

the movie is of a strong base

 

but the new elements that

have been brought in by John Woo

are of surprise of me

I was expecting fighting scenes

similar to those we always see

in swordsman movie

 

it depends on

whether you can accept these new elements

or you would rather stick to

by Ann Lee, 《Crouching Tigers, Hidden Dragon》?

there you are, Michelle Yeoh again

 

the storyline

there’s nothing to complain about

swordsman movies are always

about love & revenge

and a huge revelation

 

post movie photos

mainly Shawn Yue

Mr. Yue vs Mr. Ray

meltedall my fav coloursThe Black Stone Gang@ Venice Film Festival, his shoes..shooting for a maghe said this is his proud moment

Mr. Ray in Army jacketyou rock, son!!