Monday, August 30, 2010

14 Blades

14 BLADES
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Poster for the Daniel Lee Yan-gong directed martial actioner, 14 BLADES, headlining Donnie Yen Ji-dan. I am not a fan of Daniel Lee Yan-gong who has also graced up with the empty WHAT PRICE SURVIVAL, BLACK MASK, A FIGHTER'S BLUES, DRAGON SQUAD, and the almost good THREE KINGDOMS: RESURRECTION OF THE DRAGON. His films are too sleek looking for me and appear to be rooted in the new, pretty looking HK cinema sensibilities. 14 BLADES isn't a total loss though. There are some nice fight sequences. A memorable fist to fist sequence even pits Yen against HK legend 'Big Brother' Chen Kuan-tai. Kate Tsui Tsz-shan appears as a baddie who sports braided hair that more resembles the Rastafarian look honed to perfection by the PREDATOR in the movie....well....PREDATOR. Ridiculous. Vickie Zhao-wei is in this mess and seems to be the go to chippie for HK/Mainland co-produced crap period actioners.


I watched 14 BLADES a few months back and the film was instantly forgettable for me. Looking to beef up this post, I breezed through the film again. I entirely forgot that the great Sammo Hung Kam-bo co-stars!? How the hell does someone forget Sammo Hung in a movie? Either I better start consuming more omega-3 or this film is tired? I will choose the latter.
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And for the ladies....and some of you gents, Mr. Yen takes his shirt off for a bath tub scene. He bathes in the tepid waters of his own narcissism. Rub a dub!

6 comments:

  1. I thought that this was not quite as bad as I expected it to be. I thought Three Kingdoms and Dragon Squad were pretty bad. If 14 Blades had been shorter, I probably would have liked it more. But it's still a sloppy, shoddy film -- it's a long way down from the wuxia of the 1990s to this.

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  2. And oh how tepid those Donnie waters are, King Who. The ego is not pretty.

    I paid $5 for Three Kingdoms and felt ripped off. I will have to watch 14 Blades for Chen Kuan Tai though - the ONLY reason I'll see it!

    Great blog as usual, Mr. King. :)

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  3. Glenn, 14 Blades was definitley a step up from his previous 2. Dragon Squad was incoherent and Three Kingdoms was fun for a quick minute. I think Red Cliff may have cut into Three Kingdoms enjoyment having some of the same characters. I did like Ti lung as Guan Yu. Today's films unfortunately don't come close to heyday wuxia.

    Sylvia, hit a torrent for 14 Blades and then quickly delete it. That's about what it's worth. I think Donnie played his bath tub scene while looking at his reflection in the water?

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  4. Is this the one that's supposed to be some kind of remake of the awesome, gory and dramatic Shaw Brothers film SECRET SERVICE OF THE IMPERIAL COURT(1984)?

    I can't stand Donnie Yen. I try to avoid movies with him in them if I can. If this is like SECRET SERVICE, I will likely pick it up. I did buy SPL, though, because he died at the end. He has skills, yes, but his ego towers over what shred of modesty and humility he may have.

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  5. venoms5, 14 Blades is a remake of that film. It's not as bad as Daniel Lee's other films but it's no treat.

    As for Donnie, I like him. From the stories I have heard/read he doesn't appear to be my cup of tea as a human being. But filmwise, I think he has a great persona. I saw SPL a few years ago but I don't remember it much. Same goes for Dragon Tiger Gate. Flashpoint was excellent though and the final fight with Donnie Yen vs. Colin Chou was one of the absolute best fights i have ever scene and it was very enjoyable.

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  6. It's true that he can have a good screen presence - especially as a bad guy. I also liked the Flashpoint finale. The Hurricanrana - it's not just for Mexicans anymore!

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