There may be a
good film somewhere in Brotherhood of
Blades, but I would need to watch it again to be able to be able to
understand where it is. The narrative contains too many characters and is told
in a convoluted manner, so that little makes sense until the very end, at which
point it will take a perfect memory to recall who each character is and where
their loyalties in the narrative lie. The action is fantastic, making the last
third of the film a compelling watch, though the relevance of these sequences
would have been increased with a clearer storyline.
The film takes
place in 1627 with the arrival of a new emperor and a series of conspiracies
and secret organizations. The emperor sends the Secret Police of the Imperial
Guard on a mission to eliminate the eunuch clique and assassinate their leader,
Wei Zhong Xian (Shih-Chieh Chin), including pawns Shen Lian (Chang Chen), Jin
Yichuan (Ethan Li), and Lu Jianxing (Wang Qianyuan). These three friends soon
discover that they are being used as pawns, and become entangled in a complex
web of conspiracies and double-crosses, all while each of the men also have
their own complicated storyline.
Shen Lian is in
love with an imperial brothel girl named Miaotong (Liu Shishi), though it is
plutonic and somewhat one-sided despite her profession. While Shen Lian is busy
saving money to buy the girl’s freedom, Yichuan must pass his money along to a
thief blackmailing him to keep a secret about his true identity. His love
interest is the innocent daughter of the local doctor. Meanwhile, Jianxing is
the only one with a narrative involved in the politics rather than romance. In
attempting to offer the appropriate bribes to achieve a promotion, Jianxing
instead finds that he has been selected to be set up in the mission against the
eunuchs.
The action is
fantastic without delving into the unbelievable, leading up to a series of
bloody climactic show-offs. It all builds to a very compelling final
30-minutes, though the emotional impact may have been greater with few
characters and more time to understand those with most significance to the
plot. The film does a lot in 112-minutes, but it may also be a bit more than
any average audience member will be able to keep track of in the span of two
hours. The Blu-ray bonus features include a new English-language track, for
those unable to read subtitles (which are admittedly flawed), as well as the
film’s trailer.
Entertainment Value:
6.5/10
Quality of
Filmmaking: 6.5/10
Historical
Significance: 5/10
Special Features: 2.5/10
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