Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		3.5
Audio		5.0
Extras		1.0
Overall		3.5

The Assassins Blu-ray Movie Review

Kill or be killed.

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman December 29, 2012

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.

Even those who have never seen a film featuring the character of Cao Cao may have a certain sense of déjà vu as they watch The Assassins if they have seen another Chow Yun-fat historical epic, namely Curse of the Golden Flower, for both film posit the star as a ruthless dictator (or at least would be dictator) who is attempting to avoid being killed by any number of royal plots dancing around the palace. There’s a whole simultaneously and interlinked plot unfolding along with Cao Cao’s fate, however, and that perhaps provides more of the actual human interest in the story.

The film is actually narrated by one of the ostensible supporting characters, Lingju (Liu Yifei), who in the film’s disturbing but viscerally exciting prelude is taken captive as a little girl and placed in a horrifying training regimen which she doesn’t quite understand. In this prison camp (actually a cave from all appearances) she meets a young man named Mu Shun (Hiroshi Tamaki), with whom she (of course) falls in love. Mu Shun manages to save Lingju during a violent “sporting match” from which only person is supposed to walk out alive, but shortly thereafter he’s castrated for reasons which are not entirely clear, which would seem to put the kibosh on any future romantic activity between him and Lingju. Lingju realizes that all of the training that she and scores of other kids (now young adults) have been put through is for but one deadly purpose: to kill Cao Cao. Lingju soon becomes part of Cao Cao’s court. (It should be noted that all of the preceding paragraph takes place before the main credits roll, some indication of how “up to speed” viewers need to remain to keep track of what’s going on.)

Things actually assume a more leisurely pace after this breathless prologue, even if they remain rather complex due to the sheer volume of people plotting against Cao Cao. Not only do Lingju and Mu Shun (who also shows up at court, of course) continue to plot (a first step to what they see as their only chance for freedom and whatever supposedly platonic happiness they can carve out for themselves), several other warlords are busy machinating with the half-witted Emperor (Alec Su), a figurehead leader who seems to be happier singing little folk ditties and dancing than he is in actually running affairs or dealing effectively with the internecine battles that are brewing underneath his nose.

As if that weren’t enough, there’s also family strife (if not outright dysfunction) between Cao Cao and his ambitious son, Cao Pi (Qiu Xinzhi). Pi is torn between wanting his father to be Emperor and (no big surprise here) wanting to be Emperor himself. And that means that Pi himself waffles back and forth between plotting against his father (with a coconspirator) and at least giving lip service to pushing back against the other warlords who are similarly trying to take care of Cao Cao before the tyrant can depose the Emperor and assume power. What’s kind of fascinating in this entire enterprise is the not so subtle subtext that China would probably be much better off with Cao Cao at the helm, considering the current Emperor’s incompetence.

The Assassins wants to be a grand historical tale within the more personal confines of a tragic love story, and as such it echoes any number of other gargantuan Chinese productions that have come down the pike in recent years. It’s neither the best nor the worst of this rather odd subgenre that seems to be gaining strength in Asian markets, if not always on this side of the pond. The film is deliberate, rather slow at times, but often compelling in its steady and resolute exploration of various characters. There’s not a whale of a lot of action in the film (aside from a couple of frankly very cool set pieces, including one where ninja types string a huge net over the entire court palace and utilize it as a sort of trampoline to gain access to Cao Cao), which may disappoint some viewers. A cursory bit of research indicates the film is only fitfully tied to actual history, which is probably to be expected, but what is actually probably more problematic is that the film never takes its dissociation from “just the facts” far enough. There’s a kind of interesting supernatural element at work (vis a vis some astrological forecasts about regime change) that never really go anywhere, and the palace intrigue is curiously tamped down a lot of the time. The Assassins is a film that tries to tread a middle ground between supposed fact (mostly character rather than event based) and fiction, and it’s an uneasy journey at best.

The Assassins Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

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.

The Assassins Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

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 Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Behind the Scenes (480i; 13:45) has some interesting footage of various scenes being shot (note how a lot of the crew wear surgical masks), as well as interviews and snippets from the final cut of the film.


• Trailer (HD; 1:40)

The Assassins Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

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.