Bodyguards and Assassins (2009)

Bodyguards and Assassins: Directed by Teddy Chan. With Xueqi Wang, Tony Ka Fai Leung, Jun Hu, Edison Wang. In 1905, revolutionist Sun Yat-Sen visits Hong Kong to discuss plans with Tongmenghui members to overthrow the Qing dynasty. But when they find out that assassins have been sent to kill him, they assemble a group of protectors to prevent any attacks.

“I had been looking forward to seeing this movie as the advertising had billed it as something of a period epic, something along the lines of a Hong Kong u0026quot;Gangs of New Yorku0026quot;.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eI have to say that the sets and reconstruction of 1906 Hong Kong were very good, but there were some occasions where the matte backgrounds didnu0026#39;t quite gel with the foreground.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eThe story on the whole was very good, with the key characters either learning or demonstrating the link between sacrifice and revolution. However I think this movie loses effectiveness by trying to do too much.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eFor a film such as this which tries to be a historical epic, the wire-fu stunts look incredibly out of place. It would have been far more effective to keep the stunts grounded in reality. The wire-fu stunts work well in films such as Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and Hero where there is an element of fantasy to the whole story. For a story that is purportedly a historical account all it serves to do is remind the viewer that he is watching a movie, not real events.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eI also found the inclusion of Mengke Bateer off-putting. A seven-foot Chinese in 1906 Hong Kong doesnu0026#39;t seem very believable to me. I suspect that he was put there to get a few cheap jokes, as the character would have been just as believable as a six-foot well-built person.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eThese may seem like minor issues, but for me they detracted from what could have been a truly excellent film.”