Legendary Assassin

The movie itself is more engaging than the action, which is a letdown to genre fans, considering what Nicky Li could come up with in Fatal Move's finale, which is one of the best fights ever. Rather than topping it, they're going downhill, with action that relies too much on editing and overuse of wires at odd moments - this is a contemporary movie where gravity-defying stunts are a taboo. At this rate, it's not going to do his career any good, since even if he doesn't top his previous works, Wu Jing should at least maintain a certain standard in the action department, given that the audience is getting more sophisticated and picky.

I find the movie and script captivating enough to be glued, especially when things are always kept busy throughout, with some light, humorous touches, Ronald Cheng's character, or Wu Jing's conversation with Lam Suet. The sweeping paranomic view in the opening boat ride scene is majestic - they should do more of such shots of the island to give one an overview of its surrounding and make good use of it. It's nice to see them coaxing some nice performance out of Celina Jade, who appears quite natural. But I find her accent in the Mandarin dub (was it her own voice?) rather weird - maybe I'll try the Cantonese (but my Cantonese is half-baked) track later. And the finale is quite heartbreaking.

Wu Jing handles his own role with aplomb, there's some magnetic and inscrutable about his character that draws one to him. And he seems like a spiritual, reflective person - he reads sutras like Tao Te Ching - to ask the question and get one thinking would God forgive you for your past mistakes. God is all-forgiving, but we're bound by the law of cause and effect, as well as answerable to our own conscience.

The dark, brooding, elusive and haunting atmosphere in the opening fight is great, but Kou Zhan Wen is underused here. Wu Jing shouldn't have his character character overwhelming everyone else, and should have opted for a more balanced approach to fighting, with some of his opponents standing on equal footing, especially when it's a wasted opportunity with Kou Zhan Wen and later Ken Lo. There are some good and creative moves here and there, but as a whole, the action scenes fall short ultimately, lacking coherency and flow with too many "short cuts".

I suspect Wu Jing is behind some nifty ideas since you can spot some similarities to his TV works in some fights (since Fatal Contact and he mentioned before that he has some part to play in choreography of his works and the martial arts directors are often quite receptive to his suggestions) and maybe he's also to be blamed for too much misplaced wirework for a modern day work. After all, I don't see Nicky Li using so much wires in his other movies or being that creative, in fact his past works seem more monotonous in fighting (excepting Looking for Mr Perfect).

A pity Wu Jing couldn't find an actual martial arts star to play his final opponent (because they're unwilling, Wu Jing isn't famous enough), that's why he could only create a 1 against 100 for the finale. The first half is very unoriginal and sloppy, with Wu Jing randomly kicking the hell out of everyone who're just punching bags and don't get a chance to land any blows. There's no exchange at all. In the second half, after falling of the building, when he's injured, the fight gets more interesting, he's at a disadvantage and there're some good implementations. It's also very tragic and touching, how he's willing to go all out and sacrifice himself for Celina, but the film didn't build up enough romance between them.

If Wu Jing's going to do Tai Chi, he would benefit from getting Cheung Sing Yim's help in casting and calling forth wushu wonders like Xu Xiang Dong, Ji Chun Hua, Li Yuan, Philip Ng, et al, as well as having an able choreographer for period movie, like Yuen Wo Ping, Sammo Hung, or Tan Qiao.