The document summarizes the 2010 martial arts film Reign of Assassins, which was co-directed by John Woo and stars Michelle Yeoh. It describes the plot, which involves Yeoh's character Drizzle seeking a new identity after leaving her assassin clan. It praises Yeoh's performance and says the film is surprisingly interesting in exploring the backstories of the other assassins. However, it notes that the film's interesting dynamic between Yeoh's character and her normal husband is undermined by a twist in the third act. It concludes by saying the film could be the best martial arts film since Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon if it had maintained its convictions throughout, and questions whether U.S.

1. In Reign of Assassins, Michelle Yeoh puts up one heck
of a fight.
By Phil Guie, July 1, 2011 in Movie Reviews
It’s hard to believe that with John Woo
(Mission: Impossible II) listed as
co-director, and internationally-recognized
action star Michelle Yeoh in a lead role,
Reign of Assassins is still waiting for a
North American release either in theaters
or on video. But having watched the 2010
martial arts drama, an explanation seems
pretty easy. No, the movie isn’t bad; it’s
actually quite good, although more than
just aerobic spectacle, meaning your
typical film distributor (or in this case, Bob
and Harvey Weinstein) may have to
employ a pretty careful strategy to get the
most bang for his buck.
Hopefully, that won’t mean breaking out the
trimming sheers for some of the less
testosterone-heavy scenes, such as the
surprisingly sweet romance between main
actors Yeoh and Woo-sung Jung. At least an uncut version of the Woo/Chao-Bin Su collaboration will be
screening at this month’s New York Asian Film Festival. As it currently stands, the plot revolves around two
halves of a monk’s corpse said to contain the secret to eternal life—a MacGuffin which several parties,
including the Dark Stone, a clan of assassins that the dreaded Drizzle (Kelly Lin) belongs to, spend the film
warring over.
Drizzle, who gets her name from a sword technique so swift that victims feel they have been sliced apart by
the rain, steals half the remains and goes on the lam. She visits a doctor to have surgery on her face,
though not all for reasons stemming from the league of killers hunting after her. Without giving away too
much, let’s just say Drizzle needs a new beginning, and after emerging from the procedure looking like
Michelle Yeoh, she swears off murder and bloodshed and retires to a big city. At this point, Reign of
Assassins starts turning into a kind of wuxia La Femme Nikita, as the erstwhile hired sword, who now goes
under the name Zeng Jing, reintegrates herself into society.
One day she meets a simple man named Jiang A-sheng (Jung), and after countless days in which he never
fails to show up to her clothing stand whenever it starts raining, he wins her over and they marry. It’s a
thoroughly-charming interlude, and while it may sound far-fetched (her being one of the most dangerous
women alive), it makes sense in the same way Anne Parillaud’s bedding down with a thoroughly ordinary
Joe in Nikita did: What A-sheng represents is loyalty and steadfastness, qualities that Drizzle probably didn’t
see a lot of when she was working for the Dark Stone.
Of course, before long her ex-colleagues catch onto her scent and come calling, at which point she
constantly has to keep her husband — who loves her no matter how many bodies she’s racked up in life —
out of harm’s way. While it’s acknowledged that Woo only co-directed Reign of Assassins, one is
reminded of his 1989 masterpiece The Killer, in which badass-gone-straight Chow Yun-fat’s attempts to
keep his girlfriend from realizing his dark nature veered on the comedic. In keeping up the charade, the
middle act is less impassioned fight sequences than a plot reorientation involving stealing the other half of
the monk’s remains.
Up to then, the film is surprisingly interested in exploring the other Dark Stone killers’ back stories. Besides
the icy beauty (Barbie Hsu) with a murderous heart who’s overeager to become the new Drizzle, there’s a
flamboyant magician (Leon Dai), a family man obsessed with noodles (Shawn Yue), and Wheel King (Wang
Xueqi), the clan’s mysterious leader. All the extra character development pays off once the double-crosses
start, and the film becomes an exploration of the familiar Woo theme of loyalty—are our oaths intended to
last forever, even when circumstances and our hearts change? Students betray teachers, as do clan
members. There’s also a third act twist which, more than a little disappointingly, turns the heretofore-
refreshing superwoman/normal man dynamic on its head, but also follows this theme.
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http://www.mediaasia.com
/reignofassassins/
Chao-Bin Su, John
Woo
Michelle Yeoh Woo-sung
Jung Wang Xueqi Barbie Hsu Kelly Lin Xiaodong Guo
Jiang Yiyan Leon Dai Pace Wu Shawn Yue Xueqi Wang
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Based on the Asian cut, Reign of Assassins may require more patience from viewers than your typical
propulsive actioner. At the same time, it’s close to being the ideal femme action movie, if only the script kept
to its convictions throughout. But as a mix of martial arts and drama, it might be the best since Crouching
Tiger, Hidden Dragon, which Yeoh also starred in. Here she is excellent again in a similar role, that of a
beautiful, independent woman with nerves of steel. The question for any distributor is whether, over a
decade after Ang Lee’s film became a blockbuster, there’s still a market in the U.S. for a good martial arts
epic, and does meeting it require chopping out everything that’s not kicks or swordplay?
Hopefully that’s not the case, or else audiences who have been looking forward to the film may feel
betrayed. But if the issue is loyalty vs. longevity, and distributors are anything like the killers in Reign of
Assassins, Asian film fans may want to be worried.
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