Detective Dee And The Mystery Of Phantom Flame (2011)

Director: Tsui Hark
Notable Cast: Andy Lau, Carina Lau, Li Bingbing, Tony Leung Ka-fai, Deng Chao

My expectations for "Detective Dee And The Mystery Of The Phantom Flame" were slightly, you know, sky high. Just look at the names attached to this martial arts detailed Chinese version of "Sherlock Holmes"! Directed by Tsui Hark. Starring Andy Lau. Choreographed by Sammo Hung. This film should easily be one of the best of the year. That is why it hurts me so to write this review. Let's just say that it's slightly disappointing. It's still quite a bit of fun and the potential for the character Dee and this franchise is very intriguing, yet the film comes off as too rushed and awkward for its own good.

With the upcoming coronation for the empress of China and the finishing touches of a 66 meter high stature of Buddha in the timeline, the sudden spontaneous combustion of a few officials as stirred a fright into everyone. A hidden assassins' plans and the decree of a spiritual guide prompts the Empress to release the very intense and well trained Detective Dee from prison to solve the case. Can Dee do the unthinkable and unweave the massive mystery to find out the assassin's intents before more people die in the phantom flame?

Andy Lau, perhaps China's best actor at this time?

The concept of "Mystery Of The Phantom Flame" is excellent. A martial arts laden version of a Sherlock Holmes tale? Fucking count me in! The martial arts stunts are well coordinated and exciting. The vision and spectacle is something to be admired too with its wicked fast pacing, larger than life plot of twisted betrayal, and the over the top characters. Detective Dee is the perfect protagonist to build a kick ass franchise around and even the side characters are great unique figures. With the charming and often quirky style of Tsui Hark at the helm, this is the best part of "Mystery Of The Phantom Flame".

Director Hark has always been a man of many visuals.

The big issue with this franchise kick off is just how quirky it gets. Yeah, the spectacle is larger than life with characters that are even bigger, but even then the movie loves to really throw in some loops and curve balls. Random puppet enemies, villains with magical abilities, acupuncture needles that can change the structure of your face, and to top it all off - magical fighting/talking deer. It's these fantastical elements (which arrive very often) bleed into all elements of the movie whether its the amount of arrows that flow from the sky, the leaping finale, or the magical weapon Dee wields that sort of hurt the true detective story in the film. It's as if Dee's logical use of brain power is secondary to the over the top antics and it just doesn't sit well.

Just because they look awkward doesn't mean they won't still kick your ass.

"Detective Dee" is still a fun film that really piles on the ridiculousness and in a way its still a great way to kick off this franchise. It's also too far out there for its own good half the time with much of Sammo Hung's choreography wasted on wires and Andy Lau's awesome character wasted in the latter half of the movie, but its fun. That counts for something right?

Written By Matt Reifschneider

Think this awesomely stylish version of Sherlock Holmes is right for you? Click the link below to purchase while contributing to Blood Brothers at the same time!!

Clash (2011)

Director: Le Thanh Son
Notable Cast: Ngo Thanh Van, Johnny Tri Nguyen, Hoang Phuc Nguyen

Although the Vietnamese film industry has yet to really take off in a world wide market sense, the on screen charisma and sheer martial arts power of Johnny Nguyen are working towards that goal. His emergence with "The Rebel" was a strong one, but his work on "Clash" will throw him into a bit more spot light with its more modern style and combination of fist fighting and bullet flying action. Not a great film as it suffers some vital flaws of plot and execution. It's entertaining though.

A young woman (Ngo Thanh Van) is desperate to retrieve her kidnapped daughter from a vicious crime lord. To do so, she has been tasked to retrieve a lap top in any manner possible. She hires a group of mercenaries to help with the task, but only one of them (Johnny Nguyen) stands out as a strong enough candidate to truly help her even if their motivations are from opposite sides of the spectrum.

There are a lot of fun and exciting aspects to "Clash" that say good things about the direction  of the film. There is a distinct and viable John Woo style to the film with its well paced action scene flow and the use of of classic martial arts motifs done with some flash and bang gun fights and explosions. This is the biggest highlight of "Clash". The fights are brutal and well choreographed with some nice high flying leg work from Nguyen and Ngo and the quick pacing of the film benefits its sometimes lacking character work.

The film suffers from its rather generic story line though and the editing of the film can be down right annoying with its modern flare and sometimes over the top attempts at being slick. These are more or less fairly easy to over look for the films better qualities. The character flaws, for example, with the lead male role are drowned in Nguyen's mysterious performance which won't earn him any awards, but certainly adds a nice subtle tone to the film that many of the more cartoonish supporting cast and odd character back story revelations hinder.

In the end though, "Clash" rings true as a solid modern style action/martial arts film with some great stunt work and fight sequences that just happens to be built on a rather cliche and unbalanced script. The performances are hit and miss and the awkward edits make the Woo style of the directing a bit harder to digest than it should have been. Still it's a fun action flick that punches in many of the right places.

Written By Matt Reifschneider

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True Legend (2010/2011)

Director: Yuen Woo-Ping
Notable Cast: Vincent Zhao, Zhou Ying, Jay Chou, Michelle Yeoh, Andy On, with cameos by David Carradine, Cung Le, and Gordon Liu

I was pumped for "True Legend". Return of Yuen Woo-Ping to the directorial chair? This should be epic! Unfortunately, Woo-Ping's return isn't all it was cracked up to be. Despite the visual flair of fanciful kung fu magic that he brings to the picture, the film suffers from severe structural flaws and some hit or miss acting performances that simply bring the entire film to a halt in many areas. Not the epic modern/classic martial arts film I was hoping it would be.

Su Can (Zhao) is one of China's best generals, but his need to settle down has made him want to lead a new life with wife Ying (Xun). So he leaves his military role to his adopted brother Yuan (On) and begins to practice wushu intensly with his new family - which now includes Little Feng, his son. Years later, Yuan returns to visit his adopted family, but he seeks revenge for the death of his real father. He kidnaps Su's son and forces Su and Ying to flee to the mountains. Now Su must retrain himself to fight off Yuan and put his family back together.

Rain makes any fight sequence more epic.

One thing is for certain with "True Legend" and that's Yuen Woo-Ping and his wicked visual style. This film perfectly homages classic kung fu style and look, blends it with a fantastical element, and approaches it with a rather modern vision. Just the style of the film earns it merit for fans of the genre. Woo-Ping builds the film in unique ways mostly due to the fantastical element (including training sessions with the God Of Wushu (Jay Chou) that appear on giant CGI statues and the main villain who's Five Venom Fist style and metal plating make him a bit out there) and really focuses on the style of the fighting. For this, the film succeeds and with some decent acting it gets the job done.

Just from his look, you would NEVER guess he was the villain of the film. NEVER.

What hurts "True Legend" is the horridly used structure of the film. It starts off with a franchise like opening, indicating that this is the story of how Su became the legendary wushu master he was. There it kicks off into our main story of the loss of his son to the villain Yuan and his redemption as he goes to save his family. Oddly enough, this is only half of the movie. From there it leaps to further in time to when Su trains in drunken boxing and has to fight off a slew of westerners...WHAT? It already had a full movie worth of material that it speeds ass through. Thusly, many elements in both parts are brushed over. Our awesome villains are vaguely built, our hero leaps through emotions, and the plot has to bust its ass to fit it all in. It's frustrating to watch this film suffer from this flaw.

A Yuen Woo-Ping moment if I've ever seen one.

"True Legend" remains a solid film to watch for its visual prowess and stellar kung fu fight sequences (including a stunning fight between our hero and the main villain), but the entire thing is undercut by its lackadaisical pacing and horrible storytelling mechanics. It should have been split into two films, but as is, we get one mediocre film that finds itself rushing through the motions.  Not the epic I wanted to see.

Written By Matt Reifschneider

"True Legend" has to be calling your name. You have to see it to believe it and Blood Brothers has the links below to make it come true. Click. Purchase. Support the cult film scene. 

Bodyguards And Assassins (2009)

Director: Teddy Chan
Notable Cast: Donnie Yen, Tony Leung Ka-fai, Nicholas Tse, Eric Tsang, Simon Yam, Cung Le

In Donnie Yen's recent kick of being in everything insanely awesome coming out of China and strutting his stuff as one of the best action stars in the last decade, it was only the fan in me that would have to get "Bodyguards And Assassins" even if he is only supporting cast. Don't care. He is that awesome. Luckily, this film rises above its stunningly placed cast as a semi-historical based drama and occasional martial arts flick. It's stunningly well acted and its in depth characters are made light of with solid use of the setting. Not a perfect film, but it's effectiveness at creating the world of 1906 Hong Kong drama and blending it with a plethora of martial arts styles is worth the purchase.

Sun Wen is coming back to Hong Kong to meet with various leaders to discuss a revolution against the Qing Dynasty. This sports a problem for those in power within the government, but since Hong Kong is under British control they can't do much in the public eye. So assassins are sent to stop Sun Wen. This sports a problem for the supports of the revolution in Hong Kong including father/businessman Li Yutang (Wang Xueqi) and his print partner Chen Shaobai (Tony Leung Ka-fai). To counteract this, they ask the favor of many of their friends and allys to bodyguard the leader for just a few hours - including antihero policeman Shen Chongyang (Yen) - leading to a very intense visit that one will not forget.

How many puns could I make stating this film was a "kick" to watch?

Although very much portrayed as a martial arts film in its marketing in the US, be forewarned..."Bodyguards And Assassins" is more drama than anything else. It spends at least half of the film building up the tension, setting, characters, plot, and style to give us a foundation for the heart of this film being the Sun Wen visit. As much as it was surprising for me, it's very well done. The acting in this film is superb on all fronts and most every character is well built and completely connectable. Particular nods go to Nicholas Tse as A-Si whose ricksaw puller and family servant whose loyalty and dedication brought tears to my eyes a few times throughout the film. He stole every scene he was in. The only flaws that this film contains in this portion are some of its awkward structuring and some characters who are left a little light in back story (with finger pointed to the beggar character).

High flying assassins...is there any other kind?

With all this build up though, it was only fitting that the visit from Sun Wen be as epic as possible. It is. The chase through the streets of Hong Kong as assassins leap from buildings, shoot arrows from windows, blow up whole houses, and throw down sword fights is nothing short of stunning in many moments. The brilliance behind this chase is in two areas: how long it sustains the chase and how many styles of martial arts they throw in. We have weapon fighting, aerial sword/fan fight (which is very Yuen Woo Pang in style), shootouts with arrows, and of course, Donnie Yen's brutal fist fighting style and a semi-free running sequence. Yeah, its a lot going on and it never loses focuses on what was built on with the characters in the initial run. It's beautifully done and worth the watch alone.

The film does miss out on some great characters with their build and some of the pacing for the film seems rather forced (as if it wanted to say more, but felt inclined to get the plot moving), but overall "Bodyguards And Assassins" rocks its fictional/historical tale to the core with great characters, better acting, and a finale crafted to impress.

Written By Matt Reifschneider

If you want to be swayed by this review, then I suggest clicking on the links below and purchasing "Bodyguards And Assassins" from Amazon to help support the site! Let the kung fu reign!