6.6 | / 10 |
Users | 3.5 | |
Reviewer | 3.5 | |
Overall | 3.5 |
Years after defeating Lü Bu and other rival warlords to gain supremacy in northern China, Warlord Cao Cao forced Emperor Xian to grant him the title of a vassal king, "King of Wei". Cao Cao then had the Bronze Sparrow Platform constructed as a display of power, as rumors spread that he would replace the Emperor. Meanwhile, a pair of young lovers, who have undergone five years of training as assassins in a prisoner-of-war camp, are preparing to accomplish a secret mission.
Starring: Chow Yun-Fat, Liu Yifei, Hiroshi Tamaki, Li Sun, Roy CheungAction | 100% |
Foreign | 72% |
Martial arts | 68% |
History | 27% |
Period | 11% |
Epic | 5% |
Drama | 3% |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 2.35:1
Original aspect ratio: 2.39:1
Mandarin: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1
Mandarin: Dolby Digital 2.0
English: Dolby Digital 2.0
English, Mandarin (Traditional)
25GB Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Slipcover in original pressing
Region A (B, C untested)
Movie | 3.0 | |
Video | 3.5 | |
Audio | 5.0 | |
Extras | 1.0 | |
Overall | 3.5 |
The Chinese film industry has offered the international viewing public a glut of historical epics through the years, movies which are more often than not incredibly sumptuous, at times rather whimsical (especially if they concentrate on mythical rather than actual history), and almost always—incomprehensible, at least for those who don’t have an advanced degree in ancient Chinese history and/or folklore. That hasn’t stopped a number of these epics from becoming box office sensations, which of course only furthers the genre, like a self regenerating snowball. Because most of us in the West do not have this frame of reference, even differentiating between “real” history and fantasy in some of these Chinese outings can prove problematic, especially when even the supposedly “down to earth” and “realistic” historical films have supernatural elements, not to mention astounding wire work and other effects that lend a folktale quality to the proceedings. The Assassins is yet another sprawling Chinese epic that is indeed ostensibly about a real era, with some actual historical personages mixed in with purely fictional ones. But like so many of its Chinese kin, The Assassins trades absolute historical accuracy for something decidedly more capricious, with a kind of hypnotic dreamlike quality suffusing even the grittiest scenes. The film’s title is slightly misleading, for while there are two starcrossed lovers near the center of this film who are trained assassins, the actual focus is on real historical character Cao Cao (Chow Yun-fat), a warlord of the late second and early third centuries who has been a character in an incredibly wide array of previous films, including comedies (1931’s The Witty Sorceror) to at least a couple of Shaw Brothers outings (including 1982’s Chinese Super Ninjas) to the relatively recent John Woo epic Red Cliff. Cao Cao has typically been portrayed as a ruthless political mastermind, one who didn’t exactly suffer opposing viewpoints kindly, and in many films Cao Cao is the arch-villain of the piece. While it can’t be realistically claimed that The Assassins paints Cao Cao in a “kinder, gentler” light, the film does attempt to take a reasonably balanced approach by showing Cao Cao’s determination to survive as well as his more violent tendencies.
The Assassins is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Well Go USA with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.35:1. This is a sumptuously beautiful film with stupendous production design including evocative sets and costumes, but the first thing most videophiles are going to notice about it is how relatively soft it is, in both close-ups and midrange shots. I never saw The Assassins theatrically and so can't comment on how accurate this is to its original exhibition, but it's a rather unusual look for a 2012 production. The DI has been put through some pretty serious color grading, as seems to be unavoidable these days, and as is clearly seen in several of the screenshots accompanying this review, that results in some rather odd color choices bathing various scenes, including a kind of ghoulish yellow as well as a more traditional ice cold blue hue. Perhaps surprisingly fine detail doesn't suffer much from these decisions, although a lot of this film takes place in dimly lit interior scenes and at times shadow detail and contrast are not at premium levels.
There are no similar qualms about The Assassins' brilliantly realized lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 tracks (in Mandarin and English). The film gets off to a fantastic aural start as underneath a totally black screen we hear a really weird combination of sounds which ultimately turn out to be ants scurrying around inside a little mound shortly before a huge horde of soldiers pours over the field they're in. It's a really cool effect, full of great little scurrying feet panning madly through the sound field as approaching booms and thuds start to loom more and more menacingly in the low frequency ranges. The rest of the film may be a good deal talkier, aside from a couple of fantastically immersive set pieces, but fidelity is top notch throughout and even the dialogue utilizes some smart directional placement. There's probably less LFE in this film than some are going to want, but dynamic range still remains wide and varied throughout.
The Assassins doesn't quite work as well as some other huge Chinese historical epics, but it still has its moments. The tragic love story may strike some as overly maudlin (one bizarre montage sequence about two-thirds of the way through the film had this reviewer rolling his eyes, especially when Mu Shun states in a distressed voice, "I can't give you what you want", without even a hint of irony). But the film is really gorgeous to simply look at, full of expressive location work and some really sumptuously beautiful sets and costumes. It's good deal slower and less action packed than some are probably going to expect, but to its credit, The Assassins is never boring. This Blu-ray offers good video and spectacular audio, and even without much in the supplements department, it comes Recommended.
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