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
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