The Assassins (2012)

Pretty Good

i know i wasted 90 mins of my life.

This is a must-see and one of the best documentaries - and films - of this year.

The thing I enjoyed most about the film is the fact that it doesn't shy away from being a super-sized-cliche;

Not a bad film but not in the same league with the very best in the genre. For that the film builds too much on overblown (Asian) sentimentalism and shock surprises. Many things about this movie are not bad but could be better. For instance, I found the music a bit too cheeky to make this a genuinely stylish and balanced film: at times it was more of the quality of soap opera's, a trap the movie itself sometimes is in danger of falling into as a whole. Nonetheless, I enjoyed watching the movie but only because I love the genre more in general. If you want to see something better, and without resorting to the classics by Zhang Yimou, watch The Banquet, a movie which gets the sort of things right with which this piece is struggling.

Let me just say, don't waste your time with this film. How many cheesy lines and how much boring, inane dialogue can you handle? Try watching this movie if you care to answer that question. The story is stunningly unoriginal. The character development is nonexistent. The relationships between characters are about as deep as watching two dogs mate. When the action isn't scripted to hell, its blatantly ripping off other movies. It goes to show, that just because you can throw money at something, doesn't mean it will turn out good. Cinema has evolved over time; if this film had been released 60 years ago, it would have had a better chance of succeeding, but to a modern audience, this is garbage. If I could give this zero stars, I would.

This is one of those movies that tries to incorporate a good story with emotions but comes out less than mediocre. It's a watchable movie but it just lacked in a lot of areas and just isn't as effective as it tries to be. It's just poor film making done by amateur writing. I liked how it didn't have flashy kung-fu stuff to add to the realism but everything else just lacked the substance it tried to achieve. And it might have worked sorta but felt like a mix of other movies. Like it's a combination of "Russian Coffee" and "The Concubine". But not as dark or humanistic. The tragic romance elements just isn't needed in this movie and felt it just there to have Crystal Liu Yi Fei's pretty face on screen. Maybe it's to bring out a bit of the human side to Cao Cao but overall it just wasn't needed. This is basically about the last days of Cao Cao going in a what if direction. The main thing that stands out about this flick is Chow Yun-Fat. He can play a strong and domineering leader exterior wise and interior wise. And he did a great job of playing Cao Cao. Cao Cao is portrayed in this as a strong and domineering character that is forceful and yet has a bit of wisdom and a gentle side to him. And Cho Yun-Fat can really pull off those kinds of presence. Overall it's a watchable movie but isn't a powerful of a movie it tries to be.5/10

Just when I thought films based on the the Three Kingdoms era had gone out of fashion, here comes a lavishly produced movie from China that stars one of Asian's most well known actors in the lead role of Cao Cao, the de-facto ruler of the Wu Kingdom, toward the tail end of his ruler-ship. But first things first, for a film like this, don't expect too accurate a historical lesson, because dramatic license is there for the taking to spice a film up. We've seen how John Woo's Red Cliff went, from what should be an attempt to make it accurate, to lapsing into his trademarks in an all out battle fashioned out of the imagination in the finale. This one doesn't try too hard to reference from historical records, but didn't go too much into the fantastical like how Daniel Lee's Resurrection of the Dragon film did.Often depicted as a cunning schemer, and the villain amongst the three kingdoms, debut director Zhao Linshan's film seemed to be take on a neutral stand in being none too judgmental on what Cao Cao did, and more often than not, the man is seen to react to his plotters' plans to rid him of power, rather than to be on the warpath to persecute his enemies. It's also something of a reminder for ruthless leaders, that it makes it all the more attractive to depose one from power, and the inevitable twilight in one's years are just natural opportunities to do so. We get introduced to such attempts early on in the film, but as the movie progressed, we get a different perspective of the man, especially on his unwavering principle of not usurping the throne for himself, which he can, but won't, much to the detriment of his power hungry and ambitious son Cao Pi (Qiu Xinzhi).And Chow Yun Fat's charisma meant his portrayal of Cao Cao was what would be the most interesting of the lot in the film. His presence swallows up the screen, and effortlessly steals the thunder away from his co-stars. However, this is a role that he's played a number of times before, with the latest being the Emperor in Zhang Yimou's Curse of the Golden Flower, which may bring some sense of deja-vu as a ruthless leader on whom assassination attempts have become a dime a dozen. In fact, his charisma meant we remember more of his scenes than the titular assassins', and this film could have been named "Cao Cao", which is a more accurate depiction of the movie, or should go by the Mandarin title which refers to a watchtower of sorts in Cao's fortress, which of course was built for a reason.The assassins here referred to a pair of lovers in Ling Ju (Liu Yifei) and Mu Shun (Hiroshi Tamaki), who have been trained with countless of others since young to build that natural killer instinct in them, before sent to infiltrate Cao's camp and to wait for a signal that will trigger their Manchurian Candidate like characteristics. Mu Shun drew the shorter end of the stick, and became a eunuch, thus physically ending any hope of intimacy with Ling Ju, while she becomes a concubine, and a very emotional one at that, to Cao. There's a reason for all these of course, and credit has to go to the scriptwriters to pay attention to detail in order to enrich this Three Kingdoms story. Liu did what she does best in her recent period outings, playing that virtuous, at times token, beauty, while Tamaki as Mu Shun was totally wasted in the film, doing little and at best, a guest star who can lament at being left out of the fun and critical junctures.What I liked about this movie, even if it's centered primarily around Cao Cao, is how it so easily brings in other elements and characters from the Three Kingdoms era into the narrative. We only get glimpses or mention of others, but that is sufficient to enhance the scope of this epic wannabe. While there's evergreen characters like Guan Yu, even earlier ones like Dong Zhuo, Lu Bu and Diao Chan got mentioned, since it's about that timeline when Cao's influence grew, and to have this film broach the topics, made it a little more expansive. And you can tell how the storytellers decided from the onset to do so, rather than haphazardly thrown in as an afterthought in the final act.Then there's Alec Su's portrayal as the puppet Emperor Xian, which provides some light hearted moments against the heavier politicking backdrop where ministers and generals of the court have to face up to their failed attempts to rid Cao of his influence amongst them. The central part of the film had a gripping and intense court session that allowed Chow's Cao to show just how influential and cruel he can be, and the amount of power wielded despite not wanting to seize the throne for himself. And Alec Su was always in the thick of such action, and probably playing against Chow had also made him raise the level of the game in his character's interaction with Chow.The Assassins provided more of a character study instead of lapsing into action sequences for the sake of. There's a distinct lack of war scenes and blood being shed if compared to the previous Three Kingdom related movies, but it is the power of the mind, the complexity of the primary scheme which took years of gestation, and its execution in the climax, that makes this movie an engaging watch. For those weaned on the earlier film interpretations, you probably won't see Cao Cao in the same light again.