Reign of Assassins (2010)

An opening prologue tells of Bodhi, an Indian monk, whose mummified remains are rumoured to grant great power. Half of the remains were in the possession of the Prime Minister until taken by Dark Stone gang. They don't have it for long as their top assassin, a woman called Drizzle, takes it from them. Not that long afterwards she decides to give up the life of an assassin and visits a surgeon who changes her appearance. She then heads to the capital and becomes a cloth merchant. Here she forms a relationship with, and ultimately marries, Ah-sheng. Their life won't be as peaceful as she hope though; it is only a matter of time before the Dark Stone find her and conflict will inevitably ensue.If you are a fan of wuxia films then this one is definitely worth watching. The plot isn't overly complicated but there are still some nice twists. The action, and there is plenty of it, is brilliantly choreographed with lots of sword fights. Michelle Yeoh is on great form as post-surgery Drizzle and Woo-sung Jung provides solid support as Ah-sheng. There are also impressive villains; most notably Xueqi Wang, who plays the leader of the Dark Stone, and Barbie Hsu who plays a particularly vicious assassin who had previously killed her husband and his parents on her wedding night! Overall I'd certainly recommend this to fans of the genre; I'm surprised that it isn't better known.

Reign of Assassins has a few things that elevate it above its wuxia peers. Chief among them its co-director John Woo, probably the most known Hong Kong action director of all time. And it shows. It is a beautiful film visually. The action scenes are lush, filled with detail, beautifully choreographed and easy to follow. The film is overall very well made from the technical point of view, including costuming, camera-work, et cetera.It also has Michelle Yeoh in the lead role, which is always a huge plus in my books. So why the relatively low rating? Well... it's been some weeks after I saw it, and I'm honestly struggling to remember the plot at all. Reading the plot summary helped, but the details still don't come. Which is strange, because the plot actually has some cool ideas and twists. But like with some other John Woo films, it honestly feels like the movie is going through motions, not really trying. There's no passion to it, no real originality aside from its technical quality.Or perhaps I just wasn't in the right mood to see a film that particular evening. Nevertheless, it's a movie worth seeing if you've liked Woo's other efforts or you're a fan of Yeoh. Or if you're just a wuxia fan, honestly. It's not the best example of the genre you've likely seen, but it has enough good things in it to please.

When I watched this movie I thought I would get another average martial arts flick with no story at all. But I was quite surprised; it had me entertained and gave me a few surprises. Especially the plot twist at the end. What I like a lot is the symbolism in the movie. Like the scenes with the rain were sweet and the stuff about karma. The characters weren't too boring or exaggerated. It was a nice touch to see one of the assassins have a wife and kid like a normal person. The fighting scenes were nicely choreographed. Overall it was an entertaining movie to watch.

What first got my attention about this movie is the fact that Jung Woo-sung is in a Chinese movie with martial arts involved or wushu. Yeah "The Restless" sort of sucked which is a fantasy movie with sword fighting. But this movie is much better and Michelle Yeoh is also cool in this as well, actually she is badass. Woo-sung seemed to have really practiced Chinese for this role cause it sounds fluent. With just the intro to this movie you can tell what the style of this movie is going to be. The plot is ridiculous like other movies of this type of genre. About some powerful martial artist's remains giving super powers...Well basically lets you become the master of kung-fu and rule the martial arts world by having the remains of that dude. But I enjoyed the Asian comic book style of the movie, especially with the plot and characters. The plot isn't anything great it revolves around kung-fu, assassins, romance, and a dead corpse. What I liked is how almost every character in this movie stands out including the villains and each has important roles. On a negative note the plot is slow paced at times and would have been better if it picked up in certain parts. The fighting choreography however is entertaining to watch and for the most part you can actually see what is going on. Overall it's a kung-fu movie that is worth taking the time to watch, it even has some decent twist and turn in the plot.7.8/10