The Lady Assassin

Let's once again raise our brunches to Nitehawk's 'Sundays on Fire' monthly series.

This time out though, due to no direct fault of the cinema, I'm going to have to consider it in two parts.

The film is a late Shaw Brothers epic -- alternately titled 'Assassin's Revenge' (our print), 'The Lady Assassin,' or (according to an AI translation of the original Cantonese) 'Apocalypse in the Qing Palace' -- of palace intrigue and sword fighting which is convoluted, mainly due to the number of characters and their various double dealings, but is a fair bit of fun with excellent choreography, dodgy stick-on sideburns & mustaches, and steely-eyed assassins and ninja-adjacent characters. Worth a watch...

...but then there was a fire alarm in the cinema and we all had to leave. It took quite a while (I wasn't counting exactly, but it was more than 20 minutes and maybe as long as a half an hour) for the fire department to sort out that it was a false alarm before the last 15 or so minutes of the movie could be run.

And, let me tell you, breaking the movie up like that was wild as the finale of this movie is seriously bonkers in the best way -- everything that had been going on previously was suddenly dialed from a comparatively comfortable 7 or 8 to nigh on 20, with throwing stars, mannequin doubles, blood sprays, and bisected enemies, before ending on an incredible freeze frame.

I suspect the ending may not have had the same impact if it had been, as intended, 'part of the movie' but separating it wound up making everything in that final hit so much harder.

Fantastic stuff -- loved it. Another winner :)

Let's once again raise our brunches to Nitehawk's 'Sundays on Fire' monthly series.

This time out though, due to no direct fault of the cinema, I'm going to have to consider it in two parts.

The film is a late Shaw Brothers epic -- alternately titled 'Assassin's Revenge' (our print), 'The Lady Assassin,' or (according to an AI translation of the original Cantonese) 'Apocalypse in the Qing Palace' -- of palace intrigue and sword fighting which is convoluted, mainly due to the number of characters and their various double dealings, but is a fair bit of fun with excellent choreography, dodgy stick-on sideburns & mustaches, and steely-eyed assassins and ninja-adjacent characters. Worth a watch...

...but then there was a fire alarm in the cinema and we all had to leave. It took quite a while (I wasn't counting exactly, but it was more than 20 minutes and maybe as long as a half an hour) for the fire department to sort out that it was a false alarm before the last 15 or so minutes of the movie could be run.

And, let me tell you, breaking the movie up like that was wild as the finale of this movie is seriously bonkers in the best way -- everything that had been going on previously was suddenly dialed from a comparatively comfortable 7 or 8 to nigh on 20, with throwing stars, mannequin doubles, blood sprays, and bisected enemies, before ending on an incredible freeze frame.

I suspect the ending may not have had the same impact if it had been, as intended, 'part of the movie' but separating it wound up making everything in that final hit so much harder.

Fantastic stuff -- loved it. Another winner :)

This does have the usual flaws you’d find in a normal Shaw Brothers film. Very messy writing that gives very little time for any type of development and a climatic ending that ends far too quickly. But for this film I think the very messy writing isn’t as distracting compared to the rest of the releases. Although the climax ended too soon, those last 5 mins just left me amazed and confused.

This is just the typical villain longing for imperial power and uses manipulative tactics to get to it plot. For casual viewers of this genre, they might it annoying since this film is very easy to nitpick its flaws and generic details. But since these types of film are basically a soft spot for me I could easily overlook them bc of the production design and choreography.

The first thing I noticed about this film was how visually beautiful it looked. There were some sets that looked like a psychedelic heaven. If there’s one thing Shaw Brothers knew what to do it was the production design. No matter if I dislike one of their films or not, the sets produced will always be top-notch. And this film isn’t an exception.

The choreography compliments the process of speeding up the fight scenes really well. Making them more fast paced and angelic-looking with every move made. I think this film does well with defying the laws of physics and making more appealing when it comes to the action sequences. And holy fuck, do I love the amount of fake blood is in this film.

I’ve been waiting for a wuxia film that has a fantastic female character that can just absolutely whup ass. This film has exactly that, she’s insanely badass throughout and never falls short of her epicness. Although I wish this film centered around her more and included her more screen time bc she definitely would’ve bumped up this film to a 5 for me. Sadly, they decided to carry on more of a feud and revenge type thing for other characters that only pushed her character to show up til the end.

Every time she was on screen, it was just a treat to watch and I cherished every moment of it. But man, it’s so fucking hot whenever I see a woman just beating the shit out of selfish men.

This does have the usual flaws you’d find in a normal Shaw Brothers film. Very messy writing that gives very little time for any type of development and a climatic ending that ends far too quickly. But for this film I think the very messy writing isn’t as distracting compared to the rest of the releases. Although the climax ended too soon, those last 5 mins just left me amazed and confused.

This is just the typical villain longing for imperial power and uses manipulative tactics to get to it plot. For casual viewers of this genre, they might it annoying since this film is very easy to nitpick its flaws and generic details. But since these types of film are basically a soft spot for me I could easily overlook them bc of the production design and choreography.

The first thing I noticed about this film was how visually beautiful it looked. There were some sets that looked like a psychedelic heaven. If there’s one thing Shaw Brothers knew what to do it was the production design. No matter if I dislike one of their films or not, the sets produced will always be top-notch. And this film isn’t an exception.

The choreography compliments the process of speeding up the fight scenes really well. Making them more fast paced and angelic-looking with every move made. I think this film does well with defying the laws of physics and making more appealing when it comes to the action sequences. And holy fuck, do I love the amount of fake blood is in this film.

I’ve been waiting for a wuxia film that has a fantastic female character that can just absolutely whup ass. This film has exactly that, she’s insanely badass throughout and never falls short of her epicness. Although I wish this film centered around her more and included her more screen time bc she definitely would’ve bumped up this film to a 5 for me. Sadly, they decided to carry on more of a feud and revenge type thing for other characters that only pushed her character to show up til the end.

Every time she was on screen, it was just a treat to watch and I cherished every moment of it. But man, it’s so fucking hot whenever I see a woman just beating the shit out of selfish men.