Legendary Assassin (2008)

Always check the weather report before an assassination

When you put the word "legendary" in your title, there is a lot to live up to. Legendary? This film won't even be memorable. Jacky Wu starred in and directed Legendary Assassin and managed to tick off the boxes for a triad martial arts movie without adding anything new or interesting to the genre. While that could be excused if the fights were…wait for it…legendary, sadly they weren't. Most of the fights were average or below average at best.

Bo (Wu) takes a ferry to an island where he assassinates a drug lord and decapitates him. A possible typhoon strands him on the island and he has to lay low. If only there were news programs that had weathermen who could forecast such events. Bo's not worried, especially after he has a meet cute with the local policewoman, Hiu Wor (Celina Jade in her first movie role and it showed), and later saves her when Ken Lo and his two thieving buddies resist arrest. Ronald Cheng briefly offers some comic relief as Uncle G, the noodle shop owner. Bo goes to the police station with Hiu Wor to make a statement and enjoys a meal and camaraderie with the local force, with the exception of Tarzan-Sammy Leung-who hugely overacts. Bo and Hiu Wor have a little kung fu flirting before she's called to work. Meanwhile, Lam Suet and a bunch of baddies who landed the last boat on the island are searching for their boss' head and the person who took it. The movie follows a predictable path from there with Bo eventually having to fight 100 men to save Hiu Wor.

The problem I had with the film was that the writing, characters and acting were so bland that I didn't care about any of the characters. What should have been a tension filled and claustrophobic cat and mouse chase with the bad guys searching for the assassin was anything but. Even when the baddies crashed the police station demanding their boss' body, the fights and acting were so bad that the characters' dilemma failed to concern me. If they didn't care enough to even attempt first aid on an injured officer, why should I care?

By 2008 there were numerous martial arts movies using creative and exciting fight choreography. By reputation, Wu was an accomplished martial artist, but even the most skilled fighter still needs exhilarating choreography to keep up with the genre. Bo went up against 100 men but Wu used the same kick on at least 50 of them with the action either too slow, too sped up, or shot too close. The only fight that was entertaining was early on in the movie at the noodle shop. By the time the dead drug lord's wife started swinging a sword around near the end of the movie my eyes had nearly rolled back in their sockets at the cringe worthy acting and action.

I rate 1970's cheap martial arts movies on a curve, but even though this film was made during the time of the Nokia brick it gets no such consideration from me. I don't mind a by the numbers story if the fights are spectacular, but Legendary Assassin failed to deliver in that department, leaving this viewer with a pile of uninspired characters, uninspired acting, and uninspired fights. I found this movie to be legendarily mediocre at best.

7/14/23

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