Produced by John Woo and co-directed with Su Chao-pin who also wrote the script, Reign of Assassins is a briliant epic swordsplay western, perhaps the best since Ang Lee’s Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon 10 years ago.
Set in ancient China, Drizzle (Kelly Lin and Michelle Yeoh) is the ruthless assassin of a gang known as The Dark Stone. After a career of stealing and killing, she decides to start a new life as a shopkeeper and marry a messenger called Jiang (played by a very charismatic Woo-sung Jung). She returns the remains of a mystical monk (from her last job) to the tomb as her atonement. The remains contain the secret to obtaining absolute power to rule the martial arts world. To escape from her fellow assassins, Drizzle undergoes a drastic procedure to alter her appearance. Her idyllic life soon comes to an end when the past finally catches up with her. A lethal triangle in which allegiances are made and broken emerges between Drizzle, Jiang, and The Dark Stone, who will stop at nothing in their efforts to obtain the monk’s remains.
Reign may lack the finese of Ang Lee’s Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, nor can it matches the visual brilliance of Zhang Yi-mou’s and Chen Kaige’s stylish swordsplay opus, but the film is still a designer’s film of the master class. It is perfectly executed in all departments, starting with the grippig story narrative and the excellent ensemble of cast from Hong Kong, China and Korea led by Yeoh and Jung. The action choreography by Tung Wai has some emotional depth instead of just pyrotechnical display of swordsplay. Tung, by the way, can be seen as a teenager lectured by Bruce Lee in Enter the Dragon, that’s how far back his career goes. The costume design by multi-wardee Emi Wada and the music by Peter Kam (look out for his cameo) are also impressive, Apart from the reference of Face/Off, Reign is more a reverse tribute to Tarrantino’s Kill Bill and some Hollywood western classics, with the gunslingers replaced by the swordsmen. The doomed love story between Drizzle and Jiang also has the kind of melodrama (I will not reveal the twist here) suited for a classical tragic opera.
Everyone in this “jianghu” has their own miserable story to tell, and the remedy to their broken lives is the hidden power in the monk’s remains that leads to the John Woo-ish signature confrontation towards the end.
As a jaded critic who has seen all the post-Crouch Tiger wuxia epics in the genre’s decade long revival, I still felt the sweat in my palm as the story unfold with countless deadly fight. John Woo and Su Chao-pin have come up with a swordsplay film that is emotionally charged and entertaining. A MUST SEE!!!
PS: look out for a cameo by John Woo’s daughter Pace Woo as the Kongdong swordswoman
Elven Ho