Assassin's Blade (2008/Well Go USA
Blu-ray)
Picture:
A+ Sound: B- Extras: D Film: A-
Zhu
Yanzhi must disguise herself as man to carry on the family name and tradition
to learn martial arts. She finds herself
under the mentorship of brother Liang, as they train together both their
friendship and attraction grows. When
Liang discovers her true secret and falls for her hopelessly in love, but
tragedy strikes when Yanzhi is suddenly forced to return home only to marry
against her wishes. When Liang learns of
this, he fights for Yanzhi's freedom and anyone who gets in his way.
All
Yanzhi wants to be is a female martial arts master, but unfortunately only boys
are allowed to learn martial arts, so she disguises herself as a man. There she trains happily with her martial arts
'brothers', but what she didn't expect was to fall in love with the suave
brother Liang. Even after he discovers her true gender, their relationship
blossoms and continues to grow. Yanzhi
is suddenly torn away from her happy life, when her childhood friend Ma turns
into an evil corrupt magistrate and wants to forces her to marry him or he will
kill Yanzhi's parents. Liang fights Ma
and his army of henchmen for their love, but Yanzhi is then forced to pretend
not to care for Liang in order to spare his life. Assassin’s
Blade covers all this action, character
This film
was like a mix of Mulan with Romeo
and Juliet, a girl masquerading as boy and learning how to fight. The first half of the movie was comical, as
she begins her training all the while trying to hide her gender from all the
boys. The second half is more serious
and has more epic combat as a single person takes on an entire battalion of
guards. Hard to believe it took this
long for a Blu-ray release, but don’t miss it.
The 1080p
2.35 X 1 digital High Definition image transfer was shot on Kodak 35mm film
stock in the Super 35mm film format and looks terrific throughout. Digital work is not bad and this has some
great demo shots throughout. The DTS-HD
MA (Master Audio) 5.1 lossless mix is towards the front speakers, but has some
good sonic moments just the same, if not enough. Extra includes trailers.
- Ricky Chiang
