7 Assassins
Director: Xiong Xin-xin
Year: 2013
Rating: 7.0
First let me say
that I have no idea what the title 7 Assassins refers to in this film. There
are no assassins and no seven anything. Second let me say - holy shit what
a cast. This is a Mainland film in Mandarin (at least the version I have),
but it is populated by more Hong Kong stars - really former stars - than
you will find at the HK film awards. It is like a game of spot the star but
you have to be quick as many of them are on screen and then gone before they
register. I mean Ellen Chan and Dick Wei are in there somewhere. Waise Lee,
Simon Yam, Leung Kar-yan, Ken Lo, Mars, Fung Hak-on, Ti Lung (where the hell
was David Chiang), Jason Pai, Kara Hui all show up like they had a day off
and thought why not join the festivities. What a movie these folks could
have made 30 years ago. And they are not the stars of this film. That would
fall to Eric Tsang, Michael Wong, Gigi Leung, Felix Wong, Ray Lui, Max Mok
and Xiong Xin-Xin - all stars. A while back. But they gather them together
and make an action film set in 1911 and have some fun.
Felix Wong and his group of revolutionaries
against the Qing Dynasty are out in the hinterlands transporting gold that
will win the day. But the Qings know of it as does a group of bandits led
by the Bandit Queen (Nie Hongjie), who is very attractive and very vicious.
They capture Wong and the gold, but the Governor (Ti Lung) sets him free
and tells him to go to Golden Valley and meet with the leader of the village
(Eric Tsang). He does but the Bandit Queen and the Qings come after him.
The village is a refuge for people running from something who have been taken
in and kept safe. They do the same for Wong. It is their code.
Because of the title I was expecting that
to defend themselves they were going to go out and hire 7 assassins. Nope.
Turns out they have a bunch of ex-killers and heroes within the village and
all hell breaks out. Loads of action and killing - sort of an old-fashioned
heroic film where people make speeches about dying for a cause and the music
gets stirring and people sacrifice themselves for one another and get stabbed
or shot multiple times and keep on killing. That sort of film.
I enjoyed this but upon a bit of reading
it seems I am one of the few! It gets a 5.0 on IMDB. Really? It has Eric
Tsang as an action hero! It has Gigi falling in love with Tsang! It has XXX
doing his martial arts thing. Max Mok with a half face killing everyone.
Michael Wong as a Christian missionary! Come on. I have seen so many worse
films than this. This is co-directed by Tsang (perhaps explaining Gigi falling
for him) and Xiong Xin-xin and no doubt they thought it was a great idea
bringing back the team. I would guess that Xiong Xin-Xin did the choreography.
He is more famous for his own martial arts (The Blade, Once Upon a Time in
China 1, 2, 4, 5) but he has had action choreography duties on a few big
films - Seven Swords, Time and Tide, Wonder 7 - and much of the action here
is very effective, fast and brutal except for the wire-fu. There isn't really
an excessive amount used but when it is it is done very clumsily and that
seems to be the main criticism of the film that I have seen. It seems weird
that this was the case in what is otherwise a well-produced film with lots
of talent. Again Michael Wong as a missionary who gets closer to Christ than
he wanted.
