Code of the Assassins (aka Song of the Assassins) (2022) - Daniel Lee

[Drunken Monk]

 

[whitesnake]

Song of the Assassins (aka Ci Ju) - "An Assassin trained by the top assassination teams receives his first mission, but finds himself tangled in a political intrigue that has been planned for years."  The movie is directed by Daniel Lee (14 Blades).  Cast includes William Feng (Detective Dee: The Four Heavenly Kings), Hu Jun (Zhang Yimou's new film, Shadow), Xu Jing (The Hidden Sword), and Gina Jin (Dragon Force: So Long UltraMan, a Chinese movie that had copyright problems with Tsuburaya).  (from IMDB and chinesemov.com)  Here's the movie poster -

[DragonClaws]

Did I spot some ninja's in that trailer?.

[kami]

According to the credits the movie is not directed by Daniel Lee but by someone called Leung Chan. Lee only produces. The trailer looks average, like made from stock footage of 14 Blades and similar movies.

[laagi]

Probably needs no introduction as far as the director goes...

Unfortunately this is more miss than hit. Which overall left my feeling pretty disappointed. Especially given the trailer which at least seems to promise some bloody violence.

The story if I may call it that is extremely simple and yet totally muddled. Basically it's a revenge tale with some romance thrown into the mix, that's it! Don't be looking for any further details though.

Now I'm repeating myself a lot and I mean really a lot can be forgive if at least the action delivers. Right? Well this has not only few and far between but when it does finally occur on screen it's basically ruined by "the love" for slow-motion. Which seemingly whoever was responsible for the action seems to have A LOT of. It's a real shame and doesn't do the movie or especially the action any favors. Because truth be told it's pretty subpar.

Adding insult to injury is the love of production for (CGI) screen gadgets. I mean at times I felt like I'm watching a Kung Fu version of Inspector Gadget. And don't get me started on the introductions of the assassins. It promises something exciting every time but rarely or never delivers. Which is also to say the movie is absurdly cut at times.

Now you're probably wondering if there's any redeeming factors or anything that would justify a viewing. Well the costume design and set decoration are good. Also some of the CGI locations are decent. I did like the idea of this league of assassins (something totally new LOL) but that's pretty much it. Really unfortunate to watch something like this which some deem long awaited. If this is what Hong Kong or sorry China delivers I'm not really willing to wait for it.

Probably worth a look if you're really desperate for some Wuxia or Martial Arts content courtesy of China. Other than that I can't really give it a recommendation, sadly.

I'm a bit confused now I found this trailer at the link below for the same movie dating back all the way to 2018!? But none of the scenes seem to have made it to the 2022 cut. Did they re-shoot the entire thing? Somebody able to help fill in the blanks here...

https://www.bilibili.com/video/BV1SW411i7nG/

[mpm74]

Watch Hi-YAH!'s New Trailer for Daniel Lee's dark 'n bloody wuxia thriller 'Code of the Assassins' (aka Song of the Assassins). The film debuts on Hi-YAH! on March 3rd, then goes to digital, Blu-ray & DVD on March 28th from Well Go USA. 

Details: https://cityonfire.com/daniel-lee-song-of-the-assassins-takes-a-slice-out-of-freddy-krueger-nightmare-wuxia-movie/

 

[One Armed Boxer]

On 5/31/2022 at 7:24 AM, laagi said:

Other than that I can't really give it a recommendation, sadly.

File this one under "should have listened to @laagi"! I recently got around to checking out 'Code of the Assassins' (apparently 'Song' just wouldn't work for a U.S. audience), and gave it the full review treatment over at COF - 

https://cityonfire.com/code-of-the-assassins-aka-song-of-the-assassins-2022-review/

On 5/31/2022 at 7:24 AM, laagi said:

I'm a bit confused now I found this trailer at the link below for the same movie dating back all the way to 2018!? But none of the scenes seem to have made it to the 2022 cut. Did they re-shoot the entire thing? Somebody able to help fill in the blanks here...

This is a trailer for the TV series which was consecutively shot with the movie. You'll notice all the actors are different as well. Not sure if it was ever released in the end with the production issues behind the scenes.

[TibetanWhiteCrane]

3 hours ago, One Armed Boxer said:

I recently got around to checking out 'Code of the Assassins' (apparently 'Song' just wouldn't work for a U.S. audience)

To think that US distributors still regard their audience for this genre as tards who'll think the word "Song" is gay, is truly pathetic. They've been pulling this shit for 50 years now. That's half a century. I get the concept of gearing the promo towards your domestic market, but most western countries just never had respect for these movies, or trusted their target demos to turn up without putting "Killer, Dragon, Death, Karate" or other simpleton buzz words in the title. Pedantic, pandering pricks. 

[laagi]

12 hours ago, TibetanWhiteCrane said:

To think that US distributors still regard their audience for this genre as tards who'll think the word "Song" is gay, is truly pathetic. They've been pulling this shit for 50 years now. That's half a century. I get the concept of gearing the promo towards your domestic market, but most western countries just never had respect for these movies, or trusted their target demos to turn up without putting "Killer, Dragon, Death, Karate" or other simpleton buzz words in the title. Pedantic, pandering pricks. 

That's nothing new even outside of specific genres. Care for an example? They called Creed III over here and I kid you not "Creed III - Rocky's Legacy" and they do this kind of shit like ALL the times. As you said kind of goes to show what they think of their "audience". I'm surprised that some dumb-ass title is still something viewers would care about honestly?!

[Yihetuan]

There are ton of these relatively cheaply made CGI infused Jianghu wuxia period films coming from the Mainland for the Digital TV market - so why did I pick this up? Three reasons:

1) The hero has a bad ass Dremel tool kit multi-function hand weapon. You name it & it can do it all from shooting projectiles to launching a grappling fist.

2) There is a really nice umbrella fight scene and I'm a sucker for umbrellas as weapons ala Shadow.

3) Gina Jin as the hero's love interest. she is a stunningly gorgeous woman.

I actually enjoyed the fight scenes and the exotic CG weaponry more than say Andrew Lau's The Guillotines which was a major letdown for me.

[Drunken Monk]

I actually liked this film a lot. Firstly, it looks gorgeous. Locations, costumes, set pieces... They're all larger than life. If this film was cheaply made, it doesn't show at all. It looks no cheaper than, say, Shazam. 
Secondly, I liked what it had to offer: masked assassins, intrigue, martial arts, gadgets, magic, umbrella fights, hot women. It's massively entertaining. And it's also very well made. The cinematography is great and the general direction is excellent.

I will say this though, Daniel Lee is a mad man. He's obsessed with making this film look "cool." There are so many bizarre music video like cut aways when characters are introduced as well as copious CGI shots of the gears inside various doohickeys twisting and turning. But I loved it. It was such a welcome slice of cheese to this sometimes overly serious film. I'm fully on board with how Daniel Lee thinks.

Now, is this a martial arts film? Not technically. It's a mystery...or thriller. But it has some genuinely massive set pieces and great fight scenes. I had more fun with the action scenes in this film than with 90% of modern kung fu flicks. The fights are big, over the top and very well shot. Is there slow motion? Yes. But I was fine with it. It actually added to the coolness, if I'm honest. And the CGI, for the most part, is pretty solid. Though yes, there are some dodgy effects here and there.

The biggest issue with the film is its muddled, drawn out plot. It's not mind bending or anything but there are too many characters and oftentimes too much going on. It just feels busy. Despite the actual story being pretty simple. It ends up feeling messy and thus too long. A nice 90 minute run time would have served it well.

William Cheng is fine. He's a bit Donnie Yen like in his stoicism but it's purposeful since his character isn't exactly happy go lucky. And I have no idea who Gina Jin is, but she's top notch eye candy.

All in all, a good if bloated film. I'd certainly watch it again.

Grade: B-