"The Guillotines": Heavy on drama, light on wu xia action
By Han Wei Chou | Posted: 31 December 2012 1245 hrs
"The Guillotines" promotional poster.
SINGAPORE: Contrary to what its trailer makes it out to be, "The Guillotines" is not exactly a kung-fu film.
It is actually more of a drama with a dash of action in it.
Set during the Qing Dynasty, The film revolves around The Guillotines, a secretive band of assassins that do the Emperor's dirty work, and hunt the enemies of the Chinese imperial court.
They use a special weapon that is thrown at their victims and quickly decapitates them, the Flying Guillotine.
Leng (Ethan Ruan), who commands a detachment of these assassins, is tasked with the capture of Wolf (Huang Xiaoming), the leader of a rebel faction.
But he soon finds himself embroiled in a deadly web of intrigue that involves his childhood friend Haidu (Shawn Yue), who leads the rifle squad that threatens to replace The Guillotines, the enigmatic Wolf, and the Emperor himself.
The main focus of the (rather lengthy) 113-minute film seems to be Leng's inner conflicts.
He repeatedly finds himself in situations that force him to consider where his loyalties lie.
Quite a lot of attention has also been paid to the conflict between old and new, as Haidu's rifle team gradually makes The Guillotines irrelevant, when it comes to eliminating the Emperor's enemies.
While these facets of the story are interesting, developing them takes up a very large chunk of the film, and leaves very little space for the action, most of which does not even feature the Flying Guillotine.
Even the big finale consists of only guns and explosions, with the Flying Guillotine, one of the most famous weapons in wu xia lore, nowhere to be seen.
That said, though fans of the wu xia film genre may feel a little disappointed by the lack of Flying Guillotine action, "The Guillotines" is still quite an engaging film, and will appeal to those who enjoy intricate storylines with thought-provoking plot twists.
Directed by Andrew Lau and produced by Peter Chan, "The Guillotines" has much in common with Lau's police thriller "Infernal Affairs" as well as Chan's gritty film war film "The Warlords" – both pretty good films.
"The Guillotines" just feels like it has some trouble deciding what sort of film it wants to be – a thriller, a war epic, or an all-out kung fu flick - and ends up spreading itself too thin trying to cover all the bases.
On a final note, those who want to catch "The Guillotines" may wish to watch the standard version of it instead of the 3D one, as there are precious few (and mostly inconsequential) 3D scenes in it.
3/5 stars.
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