First of all I need to start out by saying don't get suckered in by the movie's title, as "The Assassin's Blade" ("Mo Hup Leung Juk") is just about as misleading as it gets. Having seen the movie now, I understand nothing at all where this movie title comes to shine through in the storyline or the meaning of the movie.
And the DVD cover brandishes 'from the action director of "Hero" and "House of Flying Daggers"', yeah, that might very well be so, but those two movies are epic martial arts movies, where as "The Assassin's Blade" is a lovestory and a soap opera drama at best. There is just nothing to hint at or even remotely make this movie epic in any sense.
That being said, don't get me wrong, because "The Assassin's Blade" isn't all bad. The movie is entertaining enough, just don't enter it with the hopes to see an epic martial arts movie. The story is about Zhu Yanzhi (played by Charlene Choi) who enters a martial arts school disguised as a boy. Here she has to impress the masters and learn the martial arts in order to stay at the school. However, back home there is something sinister brewing in the politics and old, trusted people turn out to be nothing at all what they appear.
The movie is beautifully shot, and there is some good cinematography throughout the movie, and it is spices up with some really interesting (and often beautiful) scenes and scenery.
However, the movie does tend to incorporate comedy into the story, which doesn't always work out well. And as for Charlene Choi to pass as a boy, well that was just too far fetched, and you'd have to be both blind and deaf to believe that illusion for even a second.
For a fan of the Hong Kong cinema, then I found "The Assassin's Blade" to be bewildering and too far straying from what the DVD cover let on. So don't judge a book (or movie) by its cover, eh?
I am rating "The Assassin's Blade" a mediocre 5 out of 10 rating, because it wasn't at all what it was wrapped up to be on the DVD cover, but at the same time, it wasn't an all together bad movie. However, it did come off as somewhat of a teenage love drama spiced up with a hint of comedy and martial arts.
