Reign of Assassins (2010)

Boring

When a movie has you begging for it to end not even half way through it's pure crap. We've all seen this movie and this characters millions of times, nothing new in it. Don't waste your time.

It really made me laugh, but for some moments I was tearing up because I could relate so much.

It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

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.

The Dark Stone gang is tracing the remains of a Buddhist priest, because the rumour is that the person who owns those remains will rule over the kung fu world. One of the assassins kills the person who owns half of the corpse, and then makes off with it, thereby betraying her gang. She then meets Wisdom, a martial arts master turned monk, who teaches her that her deed was wrong; she therefore seeks a physician who can change her face for her, turning her into Zeng Jing (the lovely Michelle Yeoh). In her new identity, she becomes a fabric merchant in the big city, where she meets and falls in love with messenger Jiang A-sheng (Woo-sung Jung); soon they marry and appear to have a tranquil life together. But all is not as it seems; not only is Zeng Jing not who she says she is, but neither is Jiang A-sheng, and in the meantime her old gang, among others, continues to search for their erstwhile companion - and the remains of the monk....This 2010 film was Michelle Yeoh's first wuxia film since the acclaimed "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon," and she is as beautiful and graceful as ever, playing a rather complex character who is adept at hiding who she really is, yet capable of sincerely falling in love even when she's, perhaps first and foremost, a killer. The martial arts fights are amazing, but never silly-looking, and the supporting characters are all well-drawn, including a young woman brought into the gang to take Zeng Jing's place, a "magician" who uses both martial arts and magic to defeat his enemies, and the leader of the Dark Stone gang, a eunuch who wants nothing more than to be a "real man," yet who is more skilled a fighter then all of them. Must of this story takes place in city-scapes and at night, so we don't have the lovely landscapes sometimes seen in historical martial arts films, but with Yeoh illuminating the screen with her graceful presence, who needs mere trees and mountains?

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

The good: Story, casting, acting, characterization, and cinematography all top notch. The bad: The all frequent flash backs (not the remembering but 2nd or 3rd re-use of the same scene) killed some of the continuation for me. The event in the beginning was cut into shreds for me. The ugly: Some of the seemingly rehashed elements (even though they may not be), turned me off. Like the surgery reminds me of face-off: not the same technically but.. The fate/destiny and letting go piece a bit heavy handed.Still a 7