Reign of Assassins

A female warrior attempts to leave her killing days behind in this polished but overblown Chinese period swordplay adventure. Action specialist John Woo takes a co-director credit, though he acts more as producer, with Su Chao-Bin taking most of the directorial duties in a tale that rehashes the identity-swapping conceit of Woo's own Hollywood schlockbuster Face/Off. Here, it's assassin Drizzle (Kelly Lin) who undergoes reconstructive surgery (they used bone-munching beetles to do it back then) after she double-crosses her gang and makes off with the bodily remains of a fabled monk. Drizzle decides to live the quiet life in her new guise of Zeng Jing (played by Michelle Yeoh), but her former colleagues are determined to find and punish her. Inevitably, they succeed in doing so, which is when the movie lurches into overdrive with an exhilarating showdown involving flaming blades, bending swords, flying needles and lots of Crouching Tiger-style rooftop scurrying. It's a shame that the story descends into a series of unlikely character revelations and credibility-busting twists, but it's gamely played by the pan-Asian cast, with Barbie Hsu a delight as a psychopathic nymph, and the experienced Yeoh bringing a much-needed steadying presence to proceedings.