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Released by: Well Go USA
Released on: May 7, 2013.
Director: Jingle Ma
Cast: Siu-Wong Fan, Charlene Choi, Chun Wu, Ge Hu, Shaun Tam
Year: 2008
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The Movie:
Also known as Butterfly Lovers, this 2008 film directed by Jingle Ma stars the beautiful Charlene Choi as Zhu Yan-Gi, a female student who impersonates a boy in order to successfully gain access to the training at an all-male martial arts school. She's continually hazed and not popular with her classmates, a few of whom are cruel enough to throw her into a river. She catches a cold but is nursed back to health by Liang Chun-Shan (Wu Jun), who feels some pity for her despite not being particularly fond of her earlier in the story.
Soon enough, one of the head teachers at the school asks Chun-Shan to take Yan-Gi under his wing and teach her in the ways of the martial arts. As he does this, she starts to fall in love with him. Things get complicated when the man she was intended to marry, Ma (Hu Ge), shows up with the intention of taking her as his own.
This is not the action movie that the retitling of Assassin's Blade or the cover art used for this release would imply. Despite the presence of a couple of admittedly interesting martial arts scenes, this film is ripe with melodrama and sappy romance, the kind that doesn't really fit all that well alongside the more action intensive elements that the film toys with. And then there's the logic gaps, the biggest and most obvious one being that it's painfully obvious Charlene Choi's character is a female decked out in a dude's outfit. How exactly she was able to fool so many people for so long with her ruse is never really answered, we're just expected to accept the fact that she's got everyone duped. There are also sizable problems with the inconsistent tone and pacing and the fact that the movie can't really ever seem to find its proper footing or root itself into one particular storyline.
With that having been said, the movie is not a total wash. The acting is good from both of the leads. Wu Jun doesn't emote all that much and more or less plays a man's man type of character but he does it well and he's cool and charming and charismatic. These qualities let us understand why Charlene Choi's character would fall for him. Choi is also fine here. She delivers her dialogue with conviction without ever overdoing it and she certainly looks lovely here. The movie is also very nicely shot, making some interesting use of light and pastel colors to give it a bit of a fairy tale/fantasy vibe. It's a shame then that the story just wasn't more interesting or relatable. Parts of the movie work very well, just not enough of them to make this 'must see' material.
Video/Audio/Extras:
The AVC encoded 2.35.1 widescreen 1080p high definition picture on this disc is excellent. Detail is strong, colors are reproduced beautifully but keep in mind that this is not a film concerned with realism and that a lot of times things have a sort of pastel look to them which results in a weird, hazy looking picture. This has to be intentional on the part of the filmmakers. Black levels are nice and deep throughout the presentation. Generally the transfer excels in areas of both detail and texture. There are no issues at all with dirt, debris or visual detriments of any kind and the disc is well authored, showing no noise reduction or heavy edge enhancement. Outside of some slight shimmer here and there, the movie looks excellent in high definition.
The only audio option on the disc is a Chinese language track provided in DTS-HD 5.1 Master Audio with removable subtitles available in English only. The lossless track here is a good one, though there isn't quite as much rear channel activity as you might expect. The score is spread around perfectly with some nice pans thrown in for dramatic effect while bass response is consistent tight and strong. All in all, this is a nice, well directed mix that does a fine job with the movie.
The only extra on the disc is a trailer. Menus and chapter selection are included.
The Final Word:
A beautiful looking film with some good acting that tries admirably to straddle the line between action and romance, Assassin's Blade falls victim to some ineffective comedy and a love story that never really grabs you the way that it should. The action scenes are decent though and the movie sure looks pretty.
Click on the images below for full sized Blu-ray screen caps!
