Bodyguards and Assassins

In 1905 Sun Yat-sen arrives in Hong Kong to plan the overthrow of the Qing dynasty with the Tongmenghui. The film's smartest decision is to keep him almost entirely off screen. The story belongs not to his revolution but to the nameless people who die so that he can survive a single hour: a rickshaw puller, a gambler, a beggar, a newspaperman's son, all of them dragged into history by accident. Teddy Chan spends the whole first half introducing them, which is exactly why the long street chase in the second half hurts. Donnie Yen, Nicholas Tse, Leon Lai and Wang Xueqi lead the ensemble. The production is a story of its own. Central Hong Kong as it stood in 1905 was rebuilt at full scale on a studio lot outside Shanghai, roughly two hundred shopfronts, a near exact copy of Pottinger Street, and a set that consumed about a fifth of the budget. The melodrama runs hot and several deaths are underlined twice. Who it is for: fans of historical action with a large ensemble. Who it is not for: viewers put off by a patriotic register.