Baian The Assassin–The Review.

Since I have been in an Asian mood lately, I decided to watch a popular Japanese TV miniseries entitled “Baian the Assassin” starring Ken Watanabe as Baian Fujieda, an acupuncturist by day and an assassin by night.  His preferred method of dispatching his prey is inserting a long needle into a certain place on the victim’s neck.  His friend Hiko, a toothpick artisan by day, is also an assassin by night and often teams up with Baian to assist in their complicated and diabolical deeds.  The series comes in four parts and while it was made for the general audience of television it nonetheless contains many elements of the more violent assassins like Zatoichi and the Lone Wold.

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Another interesting technique used in this miniseries is a fair amount of narration. Some found the narrator to be annoying or otherwise unnecessary, however I found it quite helpful and appropriate given my general unfamiliarity with the subtle rules of assassination.

The entire series consists of four DVDs each containing several episodes lasting about 90 minutes apiece. I must say for a TV show this isn’t too bad at all. I don’t have a problem watching one of the episodes over again particularly when I’m with somebody who has never seen the series.

All in all it’s worth a watch, but it is not always the easiest flick to find. It certainly is not crap. Plus I never knew anyone could make a living making toothpicks by hand as our friend Hiko does in his day job.

 

The Divine Weapon–Not a Bad Flick

The Diving Weapon is a decent time piece tracing the development of a Korean weapon system known as the Singijeon, a multiple rocket launcher made by Korean general Choe Mu-seon in 1377, during the Goryeo Dynasty.

The small, but righteous, nation of Josen develops the Singijeon long before the tyrannical Ming Dynasty can and uses the weapon’s devastating capabilities to establish its independence from Ming.  It is a fun story replete with diabolical generals, furious sword play, an intelligent and beautiful woman as well as good costumes.

The movie does try to be all things to all people; that is, a romantic comedy/melodrama/martial arts/swordplay film with an abundance of characters.  Even though the film tries to cram all of these themes into a couple of hours, it still has all of the elements of solid Asian historical epic making it worth your two hours to watch—I doubt you will demand the time back.  Definitely not crap. I have been advised that my rating of this movie was totally off the mark.  According to Bonnie Juettner, guest reviewer at large (and beloved fiancee), “this movie may require you to update your rating system, JP, with a level that is a step below the glory of Red Cliff and a step above the mediocrity of a mere ‘not crap.’ Like Red Cliff, The Divine Weapon offers compelling characters (including at least two strong women who even the most dedicated male chauvinist would not be able to help but admire), a strong story line in which you cannot help but root for the underdog, a historical education, and some awesome martial arts (though not at the level of the fight scenes in Red Cliff). Unfortunately, it also contains a horrific leave-the-room-for-this-part child castration scene–and, some things are really too horrible to put into the movies. I would call this level, ‘Almost Red Cliff,’ or possibly a Rosebud.”

 

Battle of Wits a.k.a Mozi Warrior. Watch it.

A great Chinese Warring States period film staring the well regarded Andy Lau (Ge Li) as the “Mozi Warrior” a quasi-monk type of order that, in addition to preaching universal love and acceptance, are experts at defending city-states against aggressors.

In the face of doom the small state of Liang (about 4,000 people) faces a Zaho army of 100,000.  The 100,000 troops are on their way to fight another large state its just that Laing happens to be in the way.  Liang pleads with the Mozi order to send an army to help them survive.  The order sends Ge LI to set up the city’s defenses against the large army.

Ge Li does manage to hold off the Zhao army which needs to get to their primary objective and can’t waste time fooling around with this insignificant city.  During the siege,  Laing turns on Ge Li who must also deal with the real world and his universal love philosophy.

Battle of Wits A-K-A Mozy Warrior

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This movie is a great film the only complaint is a sub-plot “love story” which takes away from the hard nosed winner take all warfare that plagued China for hundreds of years.

Watch it.