Bodyguards and Assassins 十月園城 (China, 2009)
This fictional film from China uses a historical figure as the catalyst for its plot. Sun Yat-sen is credited as the founder of modern China by being instrumental in overthrowing the final Chinese dynasty – the corrupt and ineffective (in withstanding Western pressure and incursion) Qing Dynasty. As such, Dr. Sun Yat-sen is paradoxically the only figure revered or respected in modern times on both sides of the Taiwan Strait.

In this film, Dr. Sun Yat-sen is set to visit Hong Kong in 1905 and hold a (fictional) historic secret meeting that would set the wheels of revolution into motion. The Qing court would like nothing more than to have Sun's head on a platter, so they send assassins to take him out. In Hong Kong, Dr. Sun's supporters rally to protect him during his visit.

Of course, there is no question of the outcome – Dr. Sun obviously survives – so there's no tension there. The English title, therefore, is very accurate in indicating this movie is about the assassins out to kill him and the bodyguards determined to protect him.

I think this was a Chinese equivalent of a big Hollywood blockbuster, and, unfortunately, delivers about as little as a big Hollywood blockbuster. It's an OK ride, but has too many faults and annoyances for me to give it a fresh rating.

It starts off fine for the first half of the film, basically being a drama, introducing and developing characters and setting up the plot. But I think the film falls apart in the second half when it becomes an action film and stops making sense. It seems straight-forward – Sun arrives, assassins try to kill him, supporters protect him – but it left me wondering, "why is it happening like this?". Why would it happen like that?

Why is there a legion of assassins? Why is it an outright assault? Who did they think they'd be up against? Why is Dr. Sun being treated like a rock star, when he's just an exiled propagandist at the time? Why is he setting himself up for assassination? If you know the Qing is sending its top assassins, then change your plans! How did all the governors of China's provinces get to Hong Kong without raising eyebrows, and why are they bathed in heavenly light at the meeting?

The film is about the characters – the little people who sacrificed for the future of the nation – but the film is annoyingly heavy-handed in hammering this aspect home (and kinda made me dislike Sun Yat-sen and his self-importance in the end, not to mention the movie's own sense of self-importance).

The Donnie Yen and Leon Lai characters are annoyingly uneven. Donnie Yen plays a gambling addict and an unscrupulous policeman and Leon Lai plays an opium addict beggar who used to hold some position of respect. No doubt they are supposed to represent what China has become as a result of the British influence and Chinese court failures.

But then Donnie Yen becomes a martial arts hero when the fight gets going, and Leon Lai recovers from his opium addiction in a day, and after a bath and a shave, he too becomes a super martial arts master extraordinaire.

Donnie Yen's big fight scene was inappropriately comical – I still can't figure out if it was supposed to be or not – with him fighting an assassin who is apparently half Tasmanian Devil. It was even more comical for me because he resembled Thich Nhat Hanh, a man of peace. So this is what he might look like if he was a snarling, psychotic force of all-destruction.

The acting is quite good all around, the production and look of the film is also pretty good, and I don't regret seeing it, it wasn't a bad film. I just don't recommend it and would be no less rich if I hadn't seen it. Rotten 5 out of 10 tomatoes.

I also caught "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" and "The Shinjuku Incident" on cable.

I loved The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, and if I stopped short of giving it a 10 out of 10 tomatoes, it's a very solid 9. Apparently, though, it's not for everybody as my brother reports that he hated it and was a waste of his time. The premise does require imagination, although I'm not saying that's why my brother didn't like it.

It's a somber and beautiful film, but not oppressively serious. It isn't self-congratulatory in its profundity – it's just a film with an interesting thought experiment of what might it be like to be born old and age backwards into infancy, and I think it does that very well.

I would have preferred a little more playfulness of a child's mind when the body is old, and more worldly wisdom of a life that's been lived when his body is getting younger, and that may be what knocks this film down to 9 out of 10 tomatoes. Still excellent. Highly recommended for anyone curious.

The Shinjuku Incident (it just occurs to me now how the CG shot in the trailer where the ship is sinking off the beach looks so fake) is Jackie Chan's foray into drama. No doubt, he is a great actor and entertainer, but do we run out to the theaters to see a Jackie Chan drama? And he does a good job, and maybe it's our fault because of our perception of him, but I felt a teeny-tiny bit let down when he would get in a scuffle and get beat down instead of opening a can of whoop-ass.

That said, this is a gritty, modern-day yakuza film about Chinese illegal immigrants in Japan who have to team up in the underworld to survive. It's a well-paced and credible film, for most part, depicting the hardships of illegal immigration and the pull towards organized crime and power, and how the best people can become the worst under certain conditions. There may be hints of glorifying the yakuza life, but I think ultimately it properly puts it in a bad light.

It was on cable with commercials and no doubt had scenes cut, so I'm sure I didn't pay full attention to it and probably should see it again, but I give it a tentative fresh 7 out of 10 tomatoes.