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LEGENDARY ASSASSIN (HK)

 ABOUT THE MOVIE

Genre: Action/Thriller
Starring: Jacky Wu Jing, Celina Jade, Noriko Aoyama, Alex Fong, Ronald Cheng, Lam Suet, Tin Kai Man, Ken Lo, Mark Cheng, Kara Hui, Sammy Leung, Hui Shiu Hung
Director: Nicky Li Chung Chi, Jacky Wu Jing
Rating: M18 (Sexual and Violent Scenes)
Year Made: 2008

 


 SPECIAL FEATURES

- NIL

 

 


 TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS

Languages: Mandarin/Cantonese
Subtitles: English/Chinese
Aspect Ratio: -
Sound: Dolby Digital 2.0/5.1
Running Time: 1 hr 29 mins
Region Code: 3
Distributor: Scorpio East

 

 

SYNOPSIS: 

Holy, a dedicated police constable, patrols the island unwaveringly despite the raging thunderstorms and discovers four escaped convicts hiding on the island. With the help of Bruce, a mysterious Kung-fu master who saved her before, she arrests all of them and Bruce becomes a model citizen. However the tranquility of the island is upset by the arrival of a group of shady people believed to be connected to a crime syndicate who are looking for Bruce. Soon, a headless corpse is discovered and Bruce is nowhere to be found...

MOVIE REVIEW:

Both Jet Li and Jacky Wu Jing have lots in common. They came from the same Beijing Wushu Team, have decent boyish looks and both carved a career out of acting. While Jet Li achieved almost instant stardom with "Shaolin Temple", Jacky Wu Jing is yet a household name despite his decade plus years in the movie industry.

In "Legendary Assassin", Wu Jing made his co-directorial debut with Nicky Li, the team leader of Jackie Chan’s stuntman team and stunt coordinator for movies such as "Invisible Target" and "Connected". Wu plays Bo, a mysterious man who hacked off the head of a certain mafia boss named Chairman Ma which in turn trigger off a chain of events that follow. With an impeding typhoon, Bo is stuck on the island while Ma’s henchmen played by Lam Suet and Tin Kai Man are hot on the trail of their boss’s murderer. Still, Bo manages to have a romantic liaison with a policewoman Holy played by newcomer Celina Jade in this underwhelming 89 minutes movie.

The screenplay obviously has problems deciding to be a Johnny To’s quirky dark crime thriller or a straight out kick-assed action piece. Aside from the shocking opening, the movie spends a huge portion of its time leisurely on Bo, Holy and the cops at the police station while the bad guys, Lam and Tin went around the island searching for the missing head a la "PTU" where the characters roam around in search for a missing pistol. Fung Chi Keung who is credited for the screenplay seems yet to walk out of To’s shadow since the last screenplay he did prior was To’s "Sparrow".

In addition, giving more screen allowance to show Wu’s softer side as an actor can turned out to be a tad frustrating as the Beijing born martial-arts artiste remains as aloof as ever and spouting dialogues to the minimum. Looking back at his career, the characters he played can be classify as follows - aloof villain, aloof fighter, aloof henchman. Just watch "SPL", "Fatal Contact" and "Fatal Move" if you doubt my observation.

Kung Fu fans will be disappointed with the amount of action displayed in "Legendary Assassin". Wu is as agile as ever, his kicks simply marvelous but compared to the flashy moves in "SPL" and "Invisible Target", he pathetically has little to show here. The fight at the noodle restaurant with the gigantic baddie fails to stir up any excitement and the finale fight which took place in a downpour seems like a haphazard mess as if the movie ran out of budget halfway.

Wu and Li managed to assemble a cast of familiar veteran actors including Lam Suet, Mark Cheng, Ken Lo and Hui Shiu Hung for their directorial debut but let down by the weak plotting, their indecisive choreography and even the man himself, Wu Jing fails to deliver the punch which this movie desperately needs.

Like Jet in his younger years, Jacky has yet scoured a role that propels his flagging career. Tsui Hark’s "Once Upon A Time in China" determines Jet Li as a true action star and all Wu Jing needs right now is the perfect director with the perfect script for him.

SPECIAL FEATURES :

An English voiceover trailer (apparent targeted at the Western crowd) comes with this Code 3 DVD.

AUDIO/VISUAL:

The DVD comes with a choice of Chinese or Cantonese Dolby 2.0 and Dolby 5.1 soundtracks. I suggest you chose the original Cantonese 5.1 track to give your system a better boast in the bass.

MOVIE RATING:



DVD RATING :

Review by Linus Tee

Posted on 26 May 2009
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This review is made possible with the kind support from Scorpio East

 



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