Martial arts star Donnie Yen plays Qinglong, the toughest of all the Jinyiwei, deadly assassins of the Ming dynasty. For some reason that I can't quite remember, Qinglong finds himself hunted by his fellow Jinyiwei, and is forced to hold hostage a pretty young woman, Qiao Hua (Wei Zhao), to make his escape. While fulfilling his mission of protecting the royal seal, he also teams up with an Asian Jack Sparrow (armed with a boomerang sword!) to steal a load of gold, and does battle with Tuo Tuo (Kate Tsui), daughter of Prince Qing (Sammo Hung), whose ability to move like a wraith makes her almost invincible. Fortunately for Qing, he possesses a very useful mechanical wooden box, which, like a giant Swiss army knife, holds fourteen very sharp implements (but nothing to pick a stone out of a horse's hoof).
I don't know maybe I just wasn't in the right mood for an epic wire-fu filled wuxia movie, or perhaps I was just too tired to concentrate, but 14 Blades, which stars the amazing Donnie Yen, did almost nothing for me: I found the plot hard to follow, and the martial arts scenes left me distinctly unimpressed, the choppy editing and the CGI certainly not aiding my enjoyment. Yen isn't at fault: he puts in another fine performance, but after all these years he really deserves better than this unmemorable kind of dross; I imagine that his exposure in Rogue One next month will finally get him the recognition in the west that he deserves, but I fear that he'll end up co-starring with the latest fast-talking black comedian on the block, or a bloke with a funny shaped nose.
A generous 4/10, minus one point for having the clearly female Qiao Hua pose as Qinglong, just another example of that silly kung fu movie trope of women successfully pretending to be men simply by wearing a hat.
I don't know maybe I just wasn't in the right mood for an epic wire-fu filled wuxia movie, or perhaps I was just too tired to concentrate, but 14 Blades, which stars the amazing Donnie Yen, did almost nothing for me: I found the plot hard to follow, and the martial arts scenes left me distinctly unimpressed, the choppy editing and the CGI certainly not aiding my enjoyment. Yen isn't at fault: he puts in another fine performance, but after all these years he really deserves better than this unmemorable kind of dross; I imagine that his exposure in Rogue One next month will finally get him the recognition in the west that he deserves, but I fear that he'll end up co-starring with the latest fast-talking black comedian on the block, or a bloke with a funny shaped nose.
A generous 4/10, minus one point for having the clearly female Qiao Hua pose as Qinglong, just another example of that silly kung fu movie trope of women successfully pretending to be men simply by wearing a hat.