BODYGUARDS & ASSASSINS (Hong Kong, 2009)
Directed by: Teddy Chen
Starring: Donnie Yen, Nicholas Tse, Tony Leung Kar-fai, Leon Lai, Wang Xueqi, Simon Yam, Li Yuchun, Hu Jun, Eric Tsang and Fan Bingbing

You want epic? We’ve got epic. Set in turn-of-the-century Hong Kong, B&A is a rousing war cry, a savage howl of victory and a bloody-knuckled, old school, all star action extravaganza the likes of which hasn’t been seen since the glory days of the Shaw Brothers way back in the 70’s. Nominated for more Hong Kong Film Awards than any other movie in history it broke the bank in Hong Kong and busted the box office wide open in China. It’s shot on one of the most impressive outdoor sets ever built, depicting in mindblowing, meticulous detail a dozen square blocks of Hong Kong circa 1905. And on top of that, Donnie Yen fights a horse.

The founder of modern day China, Dr. Sun Yat-sen, is coming to Hong Kong for a secret meeting but the Qing Empress wants his Republican head on a plate. The call goes out: volunteers bodyguards are needed for the six hours he’s in town. Chance of survival: low. Eventually, a ragtag bunch of misfits and revolutionaries are either rounded up or guilted into action. Donnie Yen (IP MAN 1 & 2) is a down-on-his luck cop who needs the salary for gambling debts. Tony Leung Kar-fai (one of Hong Kong’s greatest actors) is a newspaper publisher looking to get his hands dirty in the real work of revolution. Popstar Leon Lai (FALLEN ANGELS) is a homeless drunk whose filthy clothes and matted beard hide sick martial arts skills and a life desperately in need of redemption. Li Yuchun (winner of the Chinese version of American Idol) is a young woman out to avenge her dad. Simon Yam (ECHOES OF THE RAINBOW) is a traitor to the Empress hiding in a Chinese Opera company. Mengke Bateer (the NBA’s only Mongolian player) is an outcast Shaolin monk looking for a second chance.

B&A is not an action movie, however. It's a massive martial melodrama, more like GONE WITH THE WIND than THE 36TH CHAMBER OF SHAOLIN. The first hour of the movie is all lush exposition, setting up the arrival of Sun Yat-sen in Hong Kong and unspooling a television season's worth of plots, subplots, emotional arcs and redemption issues that you know are gonna have to be resolved before the credits roll. As hour two begins, Sun Yat-sen sets foot on Hong Kong soil and all hell breaks loose. The head of the Qing Dynasty State Sponsored Kill Team is Hu Jun (RED CLIFF), an old student of Tony Leung's and the kind of cold-blooded kung fu killer who can stop a bullet with a single glare. Crossbow battles, primitive IEDs, razor-sharp iron fans and a rain of death ninjas keep things moving as the unprepared bodyguards buy Sun Yat-sen safe passage across Hong Kong, a few of feet at a time, paying for every inch of his safety with their own blood.

Limited to just a few city blocks, B&A is still as epic as LAWRENCE OF ARABIA and as emotional as grand opera. It’s a movie about the men and women who died for a cause they barely understood, giving their lives for a man they never met, and dying for a future they’d never see. Over the course of his lifetime, dozens of bodyguards perished so that Dr. Sun Yat-sen could free China from Imperial rule and even he never knew all their names. BODYGUARDS & ASSASSINS records their story in ten foot tall letters of fire so that their sacrifices will never be forgotten. And also, lest we forget, Donnie Yen fights a horse.