Asian Film Review: Bodyguards and Assassins (十月圍城)

'Bodyguards and Assassins' is finally out! I just got back from the theater watching ' 十月圍城', aka 'Bodyguards and Assassins', produced by Peter Chan and directed by Teddy Chen.  The film stars Donnie Yen, Leon Lai, Nicholas Tse, Tony Leung Ka Fei and Fan Bingbing amongst a large ensemble cast. 

Its set in HK in 1906 and tells the tale of an assassination plot against Dr. Sun Yat-sen( 孫中山), the revolutionary who eventually led the opposition grounds that overthrew of the Qing dynasty and founded the Republic of China. 

I've been looking forward to this film for a while,  not because of the interesting historical drama played out on the big screen, but more so because as a current resident of HK, I was really interested to see the set pieces created for this movie.    As you can see in these shots, they spent a LOT of money recreating turn of the century HK:

I assume this is supposed to be Pottinger St?

Don't forget the extras! 

Seems a million miles away from modern HK that you and I know as Central HK!

The sets are pretty cool, and they even do a few CG shots of HK island from the harbor showing the Peak (which is now covered up w/ high rise towers) in its original form.  Pretty cool for a history geek like me. 

Movie wise - Let me warn you,  from the title and the subject matter, you know there is going to be a big action finale,  but this movie does take its time building up to that.  Also keep in mind that this movie is mostly aimed at the Mainland Mass market, so some of the drama may be a BIT too over the top and cliched for those with refined tastes in movies.... ok, some parts are even more than a BIT over the top...    you have been warned!

That said,

There are good performances here, especially Tony Leung Ka Fei. 

The more elaborate action sequences with Donnie Yen are pretty good (once the film gets to them), as you would expect.   He has a big fight scene w/ Cung Le (yes, that Cung Le!)  that is pretty cool.

[Although for some reason they're way fixated on running and hopping and flipping over everything in sight during the action sequences.... its well beyond Parkour...   to the point of humor! ... its hard to explain,   but you'll know what I'm talking about when you see it!]

Hu Jun is the bad, bad guy.

I'm not exactly sure what was up with Leon's character,  but whatever was going on with him, it just didn't work for me...  :-P

Anyway, mild flaws aside, I enjoyed the movie and its ambitious recreation of a pivotal moment in Chinese history.  I'll give it a 7/10 for its entertainment value as a historical action drama. 

BTW for Philip Ng fans, you have to wait almost two hours into the film before his action sequence.  don't miss it! :-P

UPDATE:  One thing i forgot to mention that is noticeably conspicuous - white people!  Despite being a British colony,  there's literally only one English person shown in the entire movie (for 1 scene).  I realize that HK was highly segregated at the time, but you'd think if there were all these machinations going on in their colony, the British would have been involved a bit more. 

A keen eye will also notice that many of the Indian soldiers who appear in some of the scenes with the HK Colonial police are in fact Chinese extras wearing turbins with some dark make-up on.  :-P

tags: ' 十月圍城', 'Bodyguards and Assassins' Review,  十月圍城評論, Nicholas Tse, Leon Lai, Simon Yam, Fan Bingbing, Donnie Yen, Tony Leung, 甄子丹, 黎明, 謝霆鋒, 梁家輝, 曾誌偉, 任達華