SPECIAL FEATURE: Film Review: Bodyguards And Assassins

Film: Bodyguards And Assassins
Running time: 139 mins
Director: Teddy Chan
Starring: Donnie Yen, Leon Lai, Xueqi Wang, Tony Leung Ka Fai, Nicholas Tse
Genre: Action/Martial Arts/Drama
Country: China/Hong Kong

This film was screened in association with Asia House London at the Apollo Cinema, Piccadilly Circus on Thursday, 11th November 2010. The screening included a special introduction by Peter B Sun, grandson of Chinese revolutionary Sun Yat Sen.

When introducing Bodyguards And Assassins – a film based around the real life actions of his grandfather, Peter Sun was asked to comment on the historical accuracy of the film. A laugh went around the auditorium, perhaps filled with veterans of previous Donnie Yen films. Peter Sun laughed, too. Clearly, in bringing the film to the big screen, some embellishments had to be made. Bad news perhaps for scholars of Chinese political history, but great news for fans of martial arts cinema.

Though loosely drawn from the true story of Chinese political hero Sun Yat Sen, or Dr Sun, Bodyguards And Assassins keeps to the remit of its title, focusing not on the real life political figure, but on those who battle around him, and, in so doing, creates a captivating martial arts folktale.

In 1905, word reaches British controlled Hong Kong that renowned revolutionary Dr Sun is set to visit the country in order to plan the uprisings that will overthrow the corrupt ruling Qing Dynasty. The Qing Empress dispatches a group of deadly assassins, led by martial arts master Yan Xiaoguo, to kill Dr Sun before he can complete his mission. Dr Sun’s man in Hong Kong Chen Shaobai enlists the help of newspaper owner Li Yutang, whose overt support of the cause secures the aid of an unlikely team of bodyguards to protect Dr Sun when the day of his vital mission arrives…


The film echoes Seven Samurai in its formation of the unlikely band of warrior eccentrics, each with his or her own reason for protecting Dr Sun. In this case, a servant, a vagrant, a nameless giant, a gambler and a circus performer answer the call. This makes the film very much an ensemble piece with no heavy focus on any one single character. Even Donnie Yen’s gambler police officer goes about his business as a smoothly functioning part of the greater whole.

As the scene is painstakingly set in the opening thirty minutes, one could be forgiven for wondering if the film’s political machinations might have created a slow-burning thriller, but soon after, battle is joined in some style, and a poignant, elegant martial arts epic takes shape. Much of this poignancy is drawn from the film’s setting. A time of great change in China was not only seeing political evolution, but the rise of a new society no longer wedded to its ancient traditions. There is a strong sense that bodyguard and assassin alike are the last remnants of a way of life that is rendered obsolete by the new world of empires, steam and rifles. But, pleasingly, this does not mean the great martial artists are going without a fight.

Donnie Yen strengthens his claim to being the finest modern exponent of the craft. His unarmed work characterised by explosive speed and an elegance of movement that makes one pity those who stand against him. Reborn vagrant Liu Yubai played by Leon Lai, cleaned up and dressed in white gives a demonstration of Chinese Iron Fan that offers the strongest nostalgic echoes of the Chinese warrior past. NBA basketball star Wang Fuming delivers a comically imposing performance as exiled Buddhist monk Menke Bateer, which includes slam-dunking a melon into the head of a man on the third floor of a building. Whilst effectively choreographed, the fighting is not overly stylised. The sense that these are real human beings not superheroes is enhanced by some very effective, almost naturalistic wound makeup, and the use of the painful, gory, energy sapping chain whips employed by the assassins to drag the bodyguards down under weight of numbers. In this film, martial arts hurt.

Two acting performances stand out beside the martial artists. Wang Xueqi’s portrayal of Li Yutang, a businessman who gives everything: money, reputation and even his only son to the revolution. His performance deservedly won him the Best Actor award at the Fourth Asian Film Awards. Heartbreakingly loyal rickshaw servant A’si is played to great effect by Nicholas Tse, who won the Best Supporting Actor award at the same ceremony.

Amid the running battles, elegant Wushu demonstrations and desperate rickshaw chase sequences, the white helmeted figure of Dr Sun moves calmly to his places of meeting, showing no outward sign of the bloody sacrifice being made to allow him to succeed. The sheer scale of the brutality arrayed against Dr Sun and his defenders has one willing them to succeed in a mission that begins to take on the unmistakeable feeling of a one way ticket, as each defender is called upon to make still greater sacrifice.

As his introduction drew to an end, Peter Sun was asked if the film answered the question of “Who was Sun Yat Sen?”

“He was a person who worked so hard to build up China,” he began. “One hundred years after his death, you see his work. He never grew rich or took from the country. For him, the building of China was the most important thing. How many politicians can say that?”


In saying this, Peter Sun effectively conceded that Bodyguards And Assassins is not really a film about his grandfather. Dr Sun appears in the film only briefly. But through the skilled interweaving of political thriller and Chinese hero myth, the film succeeds in conveying his importance, in the willingness of ordinary and extra-ordinary people alike to sacrifice everything for his success. In that, Bodyguards And Assassins is not just a hugely watchable martial arts experience, but a surprisingly effective vehicle for a political subtext that echoes in China to this day. NB

REVIEW: DVD Release: Bodyguards And Assassins

Film: Bodyguards And Assassins
Release date: 31st May 2010
Certificate: 15
Running time: 139 mins
Director: Teddy Chan
Starring: Donnie Yen, Leon Lai, Xueqi Wang, Tony Leung Ka Fai, Nicholas Tse, Simon Yam
Genre: Action/Martial Arts/Drama
Studio: E1
Format: DVD
Country: China/Hong Kong

The starriest cast in recent memory assemble for an epic tribute to one of the most important figures in Chinese history. The scene is set for a crushing disappointment, or an outright classic. But which?

Hong Kong, 1905. Dr Sun Yat-sen heads for the British colony in order to discuss his plans for a rebellion against the oppressive Qing Dynasty. But when word of his travels reaches the Imperial Court, assassins are sent to intercept him.

Committed revolutionary Chen Xiao-bai (Leung) anticipates this, and seeks the assistance of ‘Boss’ Li Yu-tang (Wang Xue-qi), a sympathetic businessman who worries that his 17-year-old only son, Chong-kwong (Wang Po-chieh), will suffer a grave fate if he continues down a political road. With ‘Boss Li’ providing financial support, the revolutionaries look to ensure Dr Sun’s plans are carried out. But when the Imperial Assassins begin picking off the rebels, Chen knows that his leader’s life is in grave danger.

Chen constructs a daring scheme to protect Dr Sun and throw the Imperial villains off the scent. To do this, he will need the assistance of an unlikely group of local heroes, each with their own story to tell…


A simple plot description, like the one above, of Bodyguards And Assassins could not hope to encompass each of the dozen-strong central cast, and their respective arcs and dynamics. This is grand, ambitious storytelling on a scale Western audiences might think surprising for a cinema thought of (often wrongly) as trading more in spectacle than in narrative sophistication. And while the big cast of characters are often not much more than familiar cinematic archetypes (including the quiet, academic revolutionary; the big-hearted simpleton; the estranged daughter; the concerned patriarch), the litany of Chinese/Hong Kong stars and superstars of several generations do their utmost to ensure that each of them is memorable.

It’s to the cast’s credit that the film is held together during a difficult, and somewhat clunky opening twenty minutes, as director Teddy Chen bounces from one character to the next, busily setting everyone up and winning audience affection as quickly as possible. And as the film dilutes it historical politics with odd, mostly unsuccessful comedy, we begin to fear that this starry ensemble is going to be too big to keep track of, and that the web of relationships will prove too confusing. But once everyone is introduced, the film seems to gain focus, with Tony Ka Fai Leung’s upstanding Chen Xiao-bai plotting with exiled Qing soldier Fang Tian (an effective Simon Yam cameo).

Then, acid-wielding ninjas crash through the ceiling and set about assassinating the revolutionaries in a skirmish that, though well-staged and exciting, feels very out of place in what was beginning to shape up as a rich, historical drama. That the action is choreographed with the kind of stylised movements that border on the supernatural prompts an audience to ponder exactly what sort of film they’re watching - worthy epic, or fight flick? It soon becomes clear that the answer is a bit of both.

As the central players are moved into position, Chen sets up the core premise of his film - that each of the dozen-strong cast will gather together to hold off the Imperial soldiers from attacking the convoy taking Dr Sun to his clandestine meeting, and run a decoy mission to keep them off the scent while the meeting is underway. Suddenly, Chen’s big-budget cinematic history lesson becomes an intriguing, and potentially ingenuous high concept period thrill-ride.

Moving into an enthralling, near-real-time second hour, as the heroic rebels come under attack from soldiers, ninjas and local mobs, with a succession of exhausting and emotional personal sacrifices, Bodyguards And Assassins ultimately does find a unique cinematic identity. If the resulting action sequence - draining in its length, exhilarating in its relentlessness - is not quite unique in its style and staging, it nevertheless makes for something approaching a brand new movie-going experience. To turn key Chinese history into a traditional, cinematic rollercoaster is a bold move, but Chen pulls it off, successfully marrying a Chinese and Hong Kong-style ‘fable’ with Hollywood-esque scope and grandeur.

As mentioned, the cast of this film is just about the largest collection of Chinese/Hong Kong stars in recent memory, and to a man they do some of their best work. Often considered the lesser of the two, Tony Leung’s ‘Big Tony’ Ka Fai is an appealing presence in what could have been the rather dull part of single-minded rebel Chen Xiao-bai - Leung makes the most of a meaty moral dilemma (his personal conflict surrounding the risk to his friend’s son, employed as a decoy for Sun Yat-sen), and is one of two anchors the script leans on to ensure it does not drift into narrative chaos.

The other anchor is Wang Xueqi, the eldest of the cast, in the role of Li Yu-tang. His journey from ambivalence to political conviction and determination amounts to perhaps the lone traditional ‘character arc’ in the film, and Wang is quietly immense as his character finds reserves of strength and will he had thought lost. It is a tremendous, un-showy performance, rightly acknowledged at award ceremonies throughout Asia in 2010.

The rest of the cast do their part and hold their own. Donnie Yen continues to operate outside his comfort zone, following his well-received turn in Ip Man with a performance here - as a conflicted Hong Kong police constable - that is more understated than his usual style, and completely without vanity. Nicholas Tse has never been better as ‘Four’, the illiterate Li family rickshaw driver who wants nothing more than to get married if he survives this tumultuous day. Fan Bingbing brings grace to a largely thankless role as Li Yu-tang’s fourth mistress who has a romantic past with Yen’s policemen. Leon Lai is a perhaps a strange choice for the role of a beggar who happens to be a martial arts master whom the rebels count on for the most important part of their plan, but as one of Canto pop’s ‘Four Heavenly Kings’, he brings the necessary gravitas.

Another of the ‘Kings’, Jacky Cheung, features in a stunning one-scene cameo, the best of a trio (the others being Eric Tsang and, bizarrely, Michelle Monique Reis) who turn up to further sprinkle somewhat distracting stardust on proceedings.

Visually, the film is utterly immaculate. Arthur Wong’s cinematography is typically beautiful, and the production design’s realisation of Hong Kong’s Central District in the early 20th century is a true wonder (wide shots of Hong Kong Island viewed from the other side of the harbour are almost heart-stopping in their detail and splendour).

Bodyguards And Assassins is a quality production, a true Asian ‘event’ movie, and fantastically enthralling two hours. If the parts don’t quite fit into a consistent whole, that should not at all detract from the sumptuous production values and terrifically thrilling action.


Ultimately not quite the classic it could have been (and thinks it is), but this flawed, messy epic is engrossing and powerful, knowing what audience strings to pull. Agonisingly close to greatness. JN