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Empire of Assassins
Recently released on DVD by Lions Gate, Empire of Assassins is an edited version of the Mainland TV series Legend of Shaolin Kung Fu. Like most of these sorts of DVDs, the editing and compaction leaves the story in the dust in favor of showcasing action sequences, which usually ends up in a haphazard and disappointing end product. Thankfully, Empire of Assassins is actually one of the more successful efforts by a company to bring an Asian TV series to American audiences, though no one is going to end up regarding this as anything close to the realm of martial arts greatness. Based on the second story arc, 2008's Thirteen Cudgel Monks, of the massive 120-episode series, Empire of Assassins is loosely based on historical events and features a fairly impressive cast and crew, including action director Ching Siu-Tung and actors "Beardy" Leung Kar-Yan, Yuen Biao, and Tze Miu, who is best remembered by western audiences from his role as a child in the Jet Li movie My Father is a Hero (aka The Enforcer). Tze plays Zhang Tianbao, a young warrior looking to assassinate the emperor Wang Shichong (Leung Kar-Yan), who killed his family fifteen years earlier. Zhang initially fails in his mission, but after receiving training from the monk Tan Zong (Yuen Biao), he again attempts to find redemption via the end of a sword.
Mainland martial arts TV series tend to have higher production values than their Hong Kong counterparts, and this is no exception. While you're not going to mistake Empire of Assassins for a big-budget epic on the level of Red Cliff, there was obviously a lot of care and attention paid to things like costuming and sets, and the cinematography and editing are also very slick. Most of the actors, especially the veterans, put in good work, and Ching Siu-Tung's action scenes are well-made and exciting enough, at least for those martial arts fans who are not adverse to a bit of wire fu. So why doesn't Empire of Assassins ultimately warrant a higher rating? First off, the nature of this release leads up to it literally stopping after an action scene, with absolutely nothing performed in the way of story resolution. It's not like the viewer can't guess what is going to happen -- especially since this story is based on real events easily looked up on Wikipedia -- but it would have been nice to have the story wrapped up in some way. Also, and this is Empire of Assassins' biggest problem, this sort of thing has been done dozens, if not hundreds, of times before, and Empire of Assassins offers up nothing new, either in the way of story-telling or action. This release is good for what it is, but well-versed viewers would probably be better off saving this for a rainy day rental or late-night cable viewing rather than exercising any sort of major effort to track the DVD down. RATING: 5 |
