Legendary Assassin

2008 would be a good year for HK style action films if it was just for "Ip Man" which takes the traditional kung fu film of the early 1980's and updates it. Here we have an updating of the typical police action film of the late 1980's. Looks like 2008 has been a banner year.

Combining gangster genre with the sort of police action that Michelle Yeoh and Cynthia Rothrock would be in, we have a well shot, exciting police drama with great kung fu action (no guns) and some light comedy. What takes this above the average film from the 1980's are the character touches that usually didn't happen in the older films. I found a lot of the films from that era to be boring or too stupid but this film held my attention for the full 80 minutes.

Good acting, great to excellent action choreography, fine direction and photography. I highly recommend this film.

The awesome Wu Jing has been making quite a name for himself lately with the almighty success of his Wolf Warrior films, and deservedly so! Looking back on his directorial debut, Legendary Assassin, you start to wonder what his fascination of wolves is all about with the image of the animal carried alongside him on the Hong Kong DVD artwork and the wolfs tooth he wears around his neck throughout the film.

Had he thought about it (I guess) and knew how big the following two films were going to be, this would have been a great closing chapter - albeit with a connecting rewrite, stronger characters and fight scenes.

But hey - no doubt Wolf Warrior 3 will be along soon enough (at time of writing)!

When I first saw Legendary Assassin, I really enjoyed it. I loved Wu Jing in Fatal Contact and many other roles, so it was nice to have him back as leading man and good guy once again. There is a certain charm and return to the 90's HK film style of sorts, with fun and hard hitting fight scenes, simple storyline, odd comedic moments and lighting of shots. A repeat viewing many years later still did entertain me, but I just felt something more spectacular could have been done with the talent behind and in front of the camera.

Wu Jing's character of the assassin drifter was cool and intriguing although it might have been nice to find out a bit more on him. The idea of him stuck on an island after beheading a top mob boss and dodging his henchmen as a typhoon creeps in, was quite exciting and might have served better as the closing act. Alas, it is not - which then leaves us with a short and unimaginative, though painful looking, stunt filled fight against 100 henchmen and the (hardly) threatening dead boss's wife. Its not that the fight is disappointing as such, but just a lot of the same moves over and over unlike the big end battle of a classic Jackie Chan or Sammo Hung flick that had incredibly choreographed moves that had you cheering at the screen! Legendary Assassin is still most definitely worth the watch, and shows the promise of what we have now witnessed of Wu Jing as a director and star. And maybe now because we know what he can do, this lets us see what was missing here...

Still - plenty of fun to be had!

It doesn't make you think really nor cry, but it does provide with some good old fashion ass-kicking...

And what ass-kicking it is!

Very well orchestrated fights but of course it's not just all random fights it does have a story, and the story is fairly good although at times a little confusing possibly because of the way it was edited, it does feel a little bit like there was a scene missing here and there.

Not to the point that it takes you out of the movie or anything though.

2 likable leads in the shapes of Wu Jing and Celina Jade, who both do very well as does the rest of the cast.

Not flawless by any means, but enjoyable.

I may call this film kind of refreshment, even if we agree it has cheep plot concept all the way from the start. What I like about this film is that it is opposite of now-days Hollywood failure attempts to make a good film from the great investments. This film looks like attempt to make a second rate Hollywood movie but it finally got into more than that. Good directing, very good camera, pretty good SF martial arts effects (even though I don't like such fairy tale kung-fu picture) and excellent acting. What I also like about this film is charming and natural style of film making, kind of discrete and cute sense of humor, easy to swallow but still not underlined as a movie trademark. All in all, it is far from dull film and solid entertainment in the sleepy nights.

Frankly I do not understand why this movie deserves such a pathetic IMDb score, given its decent plot and great story-telling. The movie reminded me of Infernal Affairs, which is not a bad example to look up to. It brought me back to the Islands District of Hong Kong, where life is much simpler. The dingy alleys, plainly clothed local police officers and a lone traveler from culturally different mainland China drew a picture in sharp contrast with penthouse office, high heeled diva and black suits donned gangs. The movie gave a successful preach that it's not appearance or wealth but compassion and dedication to higher ideals that makes the world a better place and life a fulfilling process. It thoroughly warmed my heart and plenty of unanticipated turns kept me absorbed throughout. I found it much more interesting than Ip Man, an over-hyped movie full of political correctness. I beg to differ with the other comment doubting Jacky Wu's performance and caliber as a co-director. I would definitely recommend it to my friends, who may even not turn out an Kung Fu movie fan.