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      The Assassin's Blade

      2008 1h 42m Action Romance List
      Reviews 29% Audience Score 250+ Ratings Determined to attend an all-male academy for martial arts, a young woman (Charlene Choi) disguises herself as a man. Read More Read Less

      Audience Reviews

      View All (61) audience reviews
      Audience Member At the beginning, it was all right with everything seems to be under control, even though not good enough probably. The further it goes, the more stupid it becomes- stupid storyline, stupid dialogue, stupid scenes design, stupid (& confusing) villain figure... but who cares?!! All those who went to see this piece asked for nothing more than the two idols (Charlene Choi x Wu Chun, perhaps a few goes for Hu Ge too?) who played the protagonists here. Rated 1.5 out of 5 stars 02/04/23 Full Review Audience Member A Chinese attempt at Romeo & Juliet? Unoriginal plot aside, that was just a poor movie. Poor acting, poorer dialogue. Tried too hard at the kung fu and still did a poor job. Terribly poor (cheesy beyond words) romance to boot. Rated 1 out of 5 stars 02/22/23 Full Review Audience Member In 2008 director Jingle Ma brought Chinese legend of the Butterfly Lovers to life in a wuxia setting with the aptly named The Butterfly Lovers. Now years later, WellGo USA is releasing it to Blu-ray and DVD under the title of The Assassins Sword. Can this fantasy martial arts epic work trying to deliver the love story along with the action or will it fall on the assassins blade living up to its new title? The Assassins Blade follows a young woman sent into the mountains to learn the martial arts with an elite clan. To be accepted she has to disguise herself as a man and begins her intense training, but at odds with her trainer. Soon their connection becomes stronger and their attraction grows as does the danger of discovering her true identity. This is a timeless story regarded as the Chinese version of Romeo and Juliet and takes an interesting turn when thrust into the martial arts setting. The story works fine here, but there are some real issues with the execution of this film as a whole. One of the biggest issues comes with the most important aspect of the film the young girl being disguised as a boy. At no point in this film does she create that illusion. Sure you let some of that sort of thing go, but here she seemed to still be wearing some sort of makeup and her face is just so feminine that it never makes that part believable. The tone of the film bounces between comedy, drama, and action making it a bit hard to really stay focused on what it wants to be. Despite the struggles this film has in structure, it sports some pretty fun martial arts action that makes the film worthwhile. These moments are the real reason most people watch this genre to begin with and here they made sure to deliver. The actor's performances are well executed despite the visual downfalls and along with the great action still make this film one that most fans of the genre will still enjoy. On the other side the beautiful love story may make this one that can fall in the date movie category to please all those watching. Either way, if you are a fan of Asian martial arts cinema then give this movie a try. http://www.examiner.com/movie-in-dallas/bobby-blakey Rated 2 out of 5 stars 02/06/23 Full Review Audience Member How come no one realises she's a girl? There's no disguise, there's not even a hat or false beard.....c'mon she's fit and so obviously a girl! They didn't notice anything different when they stripped her to wash in the river? Apart from this MASSIVE oversight....the film was ok. Sad of course. Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars 01/22/23 Full Review Audience Member Dull romance a la "Romeo and Juliet", with swordplay here and there and a bunch of immature leads not so good at acting, but with extrastrong emo hairdo. Not good, but a bit of guilty pleasure involved, especially when the huber-atrociuous fate of "young pure Juliet" makes you question the sanity of chinese drama writers. Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars 01/28/23 Full Review Audience Member Loved it... not actually the movie described on the box weirdly but its Romeo & Juliet with Martial Arts, Blades & Blood.. Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars 02/22/23 Full Review Read all reviews Post a rating

      Cast & Crew

      Movie Info

      Synopsis Determined to attend an all-male academy for martial arts, a young woman (Charlene Choi) disguises herself as a man.
      Director
      Jingle Ma
      Screenwriter
      Jingle Ma, Po Chun Chan, Ka-Keung Ng, Sin Ling Yeung
      Genre
      Action, Romance
      Original Language
      Chinese
      Release Date (Streaming)
      Aug 10, 2016
      Runtime
      1h 42m