Released in 2008, Legendary Assassin marks the debut of Wu Jing directing a film as well as starring. Not to mention, just for some trivia – an appearance by female kung fu star Kara Hui!
This movie tells the story of Bo (played by Wu Jing), who has just made his last kill – Chairman Ma of an organised crime group. After his kill, which takes place on a small island, Bo is stranded after a typhoon threatens anyone who intends on leaving the island by boat.
While on the island, Bo spots a woman, Holly, who is high up a tree trying to save her cat when she falls – Bo then catches her and prevents any serious injury. From there the two become friends and end up getting something to eat. A police officer, Holly hears over the radio to be on the look out for 3 men, who are suspects of the murder that Bo committed. Holly approaches the 3 men and asks for identification.
The men attack Holly and after copping a bit of a beating, Bo steps in and evens the odds as they fight their way out of danger thanks to Bo’s magnificent martial arts skill. From there the two get much closer as suspician of Bo grows and the wife of Chairman Ma and the men under her search for him to retrieve the head he chopped off Chairman Ma’s body.
Assassin turned softy.
This is an action movie with a very plain plot – man assassinates a crime lord, cops and bad guys end up chasing man (Bo). But they’ve tried to add a little depth to the story by focusing on the relationship between Bo and Holly.
The two trade kung fu moves, spend time together and naturally start to form a relationship, but things get difficult as the police start to suspect Bo. As a police officer, Holly is forced to do her job, but also doesn’t really want to harm Bo. The whole situation gets harder and harder for Holly until she is finally captured by the criminals under Ma’s wife.
From there Bo, who also has strong feelings, is forced to track her down and fight his way to Holly to set her free. This ends up as a battle of 100 men against him in the rain before inevitably facing off against Ma’s wife.
While the relationship between the two is interesting to some degree, the overall movie is a bit slow and boring while you wait got the fight and action sequences to start…
The Action and Martial Arts
So you’ve got Wu Jing, who has all the potential and skill to become the next major player in the Hong Kong martial arts scene but once again he happens to just fall short. After the stunning work in Kill Zone (SPL) and Fatal Contact, the hype behind Jacky Wu Jing is always big – will this be his big breakthrough film that he deserves?
In this case – no, unfortunately.
The movements are fantastic and the fights are choreographed decently but the intensity just isn’t there. Too many slow motion shots to capture movements that just aren’t that impressive (in comparison to what we expect from him as an audience) rob the fights of the incredible pace the people love to see in Hong Kong fight movies.
It also seems that Wu Jing relied very heavily on kicks in this movie, making things a little more two-dimensional. It seems that you have kick after kick being delivered constantly before separating it with a slightly different movement, before returning to more kicks.
But all that aside, the action is still entertaining and well performed. There’s not quite as many fight scenes as you may expect but they’re definitely fun. If you like Wu Jing you should still definitely check out this movie.
On DVD –
Region Free (Everywhere! )
Legendary Assassin DVD – Region Free!
Region 1 (US & Canada)
Legendary Assassin on DVD
Region 4 (Australia, New Zealand, etc)
Legendary Assassin on DVD
