Reviewed by Alicia Glass
Director: Teddy Chan
Review Rating: 8 Dreams
Furthering his revolution in China 1905, Sun Yat-Sen visits Hong Kong amid a myriad of enemies and assassins, to be escorted by a group of common men turned bodyguards through the city to safety.
Despite the fact that the movie stars an awful lot of Asian celebrities, there isn’t actually a whole lot of martial arts in the film until the very end. However, these Asian stars are more singers and actors, not the stereotypically thought-of butt-kicking Bruce Lee wanna-be that most people think of. Which is good, considering the drama and breathlessness that these actors do manage to bring to the movie, which is about politics and loyalty and love. The politics comes from the fact that Sun Yat-Sen is a revolutionary whom they need alive for their cause to unify China, and all sorts of people are after the main figureheads of any revolution, including the Dowager Empress Cixi herself, who sends the group of assassins. The loyalty comes in when these common men; the chief editor of a newspaper, a businessman, merchant hawkers, rickshaw pullers, and even beggars, band together in a last desperate attempt to get Sun through the city of Hong Kong at any cost, and yes that does include their lives. And love, well love doesn’t even need to be questioned – the love of one’s country, your father, your morals and ideals. All these things are factored in when the son of the lead revolutionary ends up acting as a decoy of Sun Yat-Sun, so the man may escape, and getting himself killed in the process.
It’s actually a very good movie. Very few people can evoke raw emotion while maintaining a rather stoic and bleak, if not realistic, out look on what they’re doing. Which is, essentially, dying for a dream. As with a great many Asian films, the ending is sad and sorrowful, if not tempered with some joy from accomplishing their mission. Bodyguards and Assassins gets a rating of 8 dreams!
Check out the Trailer!
Tags: bodyguards and assassins, donnie yen, san diego asian film festival 2010, SDAFF, sun wen, sun yat-sen, teddy chan
