the leading man is my tpye

Wonderfully offbeat film!

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

Mostly, the movie is committed to the value of a good time.

Hong Kong, the early 20th century: as Chinese revolutionary Sun Yat-Sen makes his way to a meeting destined to change the history of China, he is targeted by a team of highly trained assassins; sworn to protect him are a small band of loyal bodyguards, each willing to lay down their life for their ideology — the eventual freedom of their beloved country from the oppressive rule of the tyrannous Qing dynasty.I was wary of Bodyguards and Assassins since it was promoted as being from the producers of The Warlords, which wasn't all that great, but the quote on the cover of my DVD made the film sound like a veritable action-fest, and the inclusion of Donnie Yen in the cast convinced me that a couple of hours of awesome martial arts mayhem was in the offing. Imagine my disappointment to find that the action only makes up a small percentage of the running time, the movie focusing primarily on the tumultuous political climate of the era, and the personal dramas that unfold as a result. I have no idea how accurate all of this is (although I suspect that it is more than a tad biased), but I can tell you that it is incredibly boring.Mind you, when the fighting does eventually happen, it's far from impressive, with rapid editing making it hard to see what is happening and way too much wire-work for my liking. Next time I see a film advertised as being from the producers of The Warlords, I think I'll follow my gut instinct and give it a miss.

With a running time over 2 hours, I found this movie a bit slow and extremely over-dramatized. I mean no disrespect for the events that led to the China Revolution of the beginning of the 20th century, although trying to put too much drama into this by ways of overacting and continuously falling in a pit of drama is not helping much.There are a couple of moments that shine, like the fight of the policeman with one of the assassins or, particularly, the apparition of the cleaned up beggar. Well, in fact, these are the only 2 real fights in the whole movie.This movie could have done much better without so much drama and little less running time. In order to make people know about the Revolution, you don't need to make a mockery out of the real tragedy.

I enjoyed this film, as I do anything with Donnie Yen. Being a Westerner I have to say this movie is hard to follow. I don't know the history, and the subtitles leave a lot to be desired, but I feel it was a worthy purchase. Beautifully filmed, a little drawn out, well acted. No real fighting until the end, and an epic ending it is. Several scenes I had to back up and watch a few times to figure out exactly what happened in the fights because it all goes by fast. Lots of interesting side stories, convoluted plot, but a deeply touching and human tale of that period of Chinese history I guess. I'd give it two big thumbs up. I'll watch it again after a few months, sometimes it pays to put some time between the first viewing and subsequent watchings on stuff like this.I am a huge fan of Eastern cinema, I own a bunch of 'em ranging from Shaw Brothers stuff from the 70s to whatever is the latest. I especially love Japanese chambara, but a good Chinese film is hard to beat. Yeah, there is some wire fu, but the story is worth dealing with flying kung fu guys.That Donnie Yen is a badass, never disappoints. If you haven't seen his Ip Man stuff yet, do that. You won't be sorry.

This movie blew me away. Martial Arts films can be, and have been done so wrong in the past, but this really surpassed my expectations. It was so beautifully shot and choreographed that the subtitles don't pose a problem like they do in some foreign films. Setting the film in the past was done well also. The set direction and costuming married very well the the actors. Speaking of the actors, they did an amazing job as well. You can really tell that they committed to their characters. You really do feel the pain and sense of honor these characters go through in this journey. I definitely recommend this movie for martial arts lovers everywhere. http://tinyurl.com/Bodyguards-and-Assassins