Classification: 18SG
Genre: War
General Release Date: 11 Feb 2010
Running Time:
Distributor: Ram Entertainment
Cast: Donnie Yen, Kate Tsui, Qi Yuwu, Vicki Zhao Wei, Wu Chun
Director: Daniel Lee

During the Ming Dynasty, the Emperor of China possessed one weapon greater than all others, the Imperial Guards, an elite force of assassins recruited from street orphans. Trained in clandestine combat from childhood, the Imperial Guards were masters of the 14 Blades, eight being for torture, five for killing and the last blade reserved for suicide when a mission failed. Above the law, with a license to kill, the Imperial Guards devoted their lives to the service of the Emperor alone. When the Imperial Court is taken over by evil eunuch Jia, the best of the Imperial Guards, Qinglong (Yen) and Xuanwu, are assigned to steal a list identifying those still loyal to the Emperor. However unbeknownst to Qinglong, the Imperial Guards have fallen under the control of Jia, and during the mission Qinglong is betrayed by Xuanwu. Now as the most wanted man in the land, Qinglong must seek out and rally the loyalists to rise against Jia and restore the Emperor to power.

Review:


Cinematography : 3/5
Sound : 2/5

This movie has lots of action inside it together with a solid story of Donnie Yen as Qiaolong. The story kicks off with the emperor's order and how Qiaolong would soon find out that he has been betrayed by one of his trusted Jinyiwei. In order to retrieve his honor, Qiaolong would need to find many enemies along his way and make friends as well. The story is quite linear, you could probably guess a miles away what is going through, nothing really new here or interesting that would make you go WoW....however it does incorporate few comedy moments for some laugh. The love story in this is very cheesy in my opinion.

As for the cast, one of my favourite actor Donnie Yen is acting, so of course it would be good xD. As for others, such as the popular Idol Wu Chun is quite lame as many people said that his character resembles "Jack Sparrow". Well it is quite lame at times especially with the weird character casting. You even get to see someone who looks and fight like medusa..

The sound effect is hilarious and over the top during the fights. I keep laughing to myself thinking where could all those crazy noises come from?. The actions are solid as well as the fighting. The 14 Blades wield by Qiaolong reminds me of Cloud from FF7 where he has many blades in 1 sword, its quite fun watching how he utilizes each of his box weapon to fight the enemy. Overall its a very satisfying show (roughly 2 hours) so everyone who love action and Donnie should go watch it ^^