Hey everyone. Capone in Austin here.
My first day of Fantastic Fest 2010 has kicked off, and, boy, are my eyes tired but in all the right ways. This is going to be a busy ass week, loaded with great movies, awesome tributes and guests, maybe a party or two, boxing, debates, death, destruction, and maybe even a little lovin'. Hold on, because here comes review Number One…
Please feel free to tap me on the shoulder when Donny Yen decides to end his winning streak of late. After hitting his latest major career peak a couple years back with YIP MAN, Yen continues his sensational string of martial arts epics with 14 BLADES, from director Daniel Lee (BLACK MASK, THREE KINGDOMS: RESURRECTION OF THE DRAGON) about an orphan boy who is raised to be a blood-thirsty Imperial bodyguard named Qing Long. When a revolt ensues in which the Emperor is endangered and his royal seal stolen. The film's title refers to a fucking-cool long box that can be tapped, turned, and triggered to release any number of its 14 very different blades. Yen spins the box and swords, knives, arrows, and other weapons are released or come flying out for battle.
The film is fully loaded with melodrama and even a romance that occasionally steps in the way of the main story of a man attempt to recapture his self worth and complete a mission he has prepare his whole life for. But there are two characters I was particularly drawn to. Prince Qing is played by the master Sammo Hung, and that's all you need to know about that. As equally impressive as Yen is his main adversary Tuo Tuo, a female assassin played by Kate Tsui. I've never seen Tsui before this, but please, someone, send me everything she's done to date, because she's as brutal as anything I've seen in martial arts from any country in years. She has exactly one weapon (if you don't include the metal-encrusted braids in her hair), a long metal coil that she whips around cutting through everyone and everything. She defends herself against swords, knives, and pretty much everything else that is hurled in her direction. And she kills everything.
I should add a third element to 14 BLADES that I really loved, which is a band of bandits known as the Sky Eagles. They dress like art-directed gay pirates, but they still kick ass when they join forces with Qing Long and his lady love Qiao Hua (Wei Zhao), who starts out as his prisoner but thank god for the Stockholm syndrome. As much as I loved Yen in IP MAN, I tend to like him better when he plays these morally compromised men of action. Director Lee gives the film the necessary grand scale and scope, and no one is going to argue that it isn't a stunning thing to look upon. The truth is, it's been a while since I've seen such a big beautiful action film that takes on characteristic of a spaghetti Western about halfway through, complete with a Leone-like score. Most important, however, are the action scenes, which are spectacular. Even if you become annoyed or confused with the plot-heavy story and the several dozen characters, once the action starts, all things make sense and become infinitely better. Seek this one out on the festival circuit or at a video store that carries Asian DVDs.
-- Capone
capone@aintitcool.com
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