Review for 14 Blades

Introduction

If there is one aspect of Chinese cinema that leaves me cold, it's the historical fantasy epics, their equivalent of the superhero movies, with fantastic warriors with amazing abilities having all sorts of over the top adventures. It usually results in some mix of Jedi powers and copious amounts of wirework, and in recent years tons of CGI as well. My problem is that I lack the shared worldview that would help me appreciate the stories; I don't have that cultural background that gives me an understanding of who these characters are meant to be. It's like learning about Robin Hood without any knowledge of 1066, the Normans and the Saxons, and the Crusades. It turns into a guy in green tights, with a bow and arrow, robbing from the rich to give to the poor, superficially entertaining, but in the end quite thin. I'd recently just lost two hours of my life in the company of Storm Warriors, and I wasn't quite prepared for a similar experience, but regardless of my wishes, 14 Blades turned up, in which Donnie Yen plays an uberpowerful guardsman, tasked with an impossible mission, impossible if you aren't attached to any wires that is…


The dawn of the Ming Dynasty sees an attempt to consolidate power and maintain security by the emperor. He gathers orphans from the street, and through a tough and brutal upbringing, they become his most loyal Brocade Guard, the Jinyiwei. The leader of the guard is Qinglong, and he is given 14 Blades to dispense justice with. They are the strength of the Empire, but when the royal court falls to corruption, they become brutal tools of repression. Lord Jia from the royal court comes to Qinglong with an imperial order, to take a treasure box belonging to Zhao Shenyan into custody at whatever cost. Zhao is suspected of treachery. But it is Jia who is the traitorous one. Zhao's duty has always been to guard the Imperial Seal, and Jia needs the Jinyiwei to scythe their way into Zhao's residence so that he can take the Seal for his co-conspirator, the exiled Prince Qing. Betrayed by his own men, Qinglong must go into hiding and then escape long enough to thwart Jia's plans. In his flight the Justice Escorts and their leader's beautiful daughter Qiao Hua help him. But safeguarding the Imperial throne won't be easy, as he's been tagged as the most wanted man in the land, and on his tail is the lethal assassin Tuo Tuo, Prince Qing's own daughter.

Picture

14 Blades gets a 2.35:1 anamorphic PAL transfer, which is really quite pleasant on the eyes. The film is barely six months old, so as you would expect there's no problem with age or print damage, compression artefacts were absent, and given the stylised cinematography, the fabulous locations, and the lavish production design, this ought to be a transfer that shows this film at its best. Alas, we have a triumvirate of issues to deal with, the first being the worst placed layer change I have seen in many a DVD, straight in the middle of an action scene. The second is that the subtitles are burnt into the image, which is terribly old fashioned, although fortunately they are in a fairly unobtrusive font. Finally, and most annoyingly are the ever-present haloes indicative of edge enhancement, which is prevalent enough, even on smaller screens, to be a distraction. It's a shame as this is a film that deserves to be seen at its best, and this isn't it. However, Icon Home Entertainment are also releasing this film on Blu-ray, and surprisingly at the same R.R.P. so if you are capable, the choice is obvious.

Sound

Another odd selection when it comes to the soundtracks for 14 Blades, with a DTS 5.1 Mandarin track, and a DD 2.0 Surround Mandarin track. There's no DD 5.1, which is odd. As I mentioned the subtitles are burnt in. The DTS is lively and punchy, with a whole lot of low frequency effectiveness when it comes to the film's pounding action scenes. This is also a film with a lot of noisy location shooting, so ADR is the order of the day, and perfect lip sync isn't a priority. You soon get used to it though. I sampled the surround track and it got the job done.

Extras

The disc autoplays with trailers for The Collector, and The Disappearance of Alice Creed. The menus' animated design is pretty nifty, taking a page from their Blu-ray cousins. Select an option, and the disc animates a submenu scrolling down from the main menu bar for you to choose your next option from, or navigate through the scene select. It's half a job though, as they forgot to animate transitions back to the main menu, and instead the screen just switches back to the main menu screen.

Extras to accompany the film include the theatrical trailer, and the Making of Documentary. This lasts 21 minutes, and offers the usual mix of clips, behind the scenes footage and interviews with the cast and crew. Interestingly, this section and the movie clips within get player forced subtitles instead of burnt in ones.

Conclusion

I sat down with a somewhat resigned and grumpy attitude last night, fully expecting 14 Blades to be twice as tedious and dull as Seven Swords. Did you see what I did there? Fortunately, while they both may be Donnie Yen vehicles, both set in the mists of Chinese history, and both peopled with fantastic characters bounding around for the duration, strapped in all manner of wire harnesses, the two films couldn't be further apart when it comes to the effect they had on me. I enjoyed 14 Blades. I was entertained by it, gripped by it, glued to the screen for its runtime. 14 Blades may be based on a story and era I know nothing about, its story may still be incomprehensible, and the wirework suspending the characters may be nothing compared to the suspension of disbelief required on the part of the viewer, but in all other respects, it's a wholly fun film to watch.


It doesn't look that way at first though, throwing the viewer straight in at the deep end, with Mandarin voiceover man setting the scene at a breakneck pace, with a narration that really demands that you pause every few seconds to take notes, and that you revise them before continuing with the film, packed as it is with jargon and history, interrelationships and motivations. But then I realised as the film progressed that this is stuff that you really don't need to know, as the film really isn't about a rebellion during the Ming Dynasty, it isn't about the schemes that arise with a shift in power in the Jinyiwei, the plotting between Jia and Prince Qing, and the various factions and characters that jockey for power in this story. It's really about the relationship that develops between Qinglong, and the girl he encounters during his escape, Qiao Hua. I have to admit that the first ten minutes is pretty incomprehensible to me, although the action is exciting, and the character drama engaging. The film really only begins when an injured Qinglong winds up on the doorstep of the Justice Escorts bodyguard agency looking for help.


It's where he first encounters Qiao Hua, the daughter of the leader of the escorts. As to be expected, when two such diametrically opposed characters are thrown together against adversity, it's a rocky start to their relationship. Qinglong has been a loyal tool of the Empire, ruthless and unrelenting in the way that he carried out his orders, never questioning the brutality of his methods and the justice in his actions. Now that he has been betrayed and put in the position of his victims, he has to re-evaluate his life, and it's through meeting Qiao Hua that he begins to find his humanity, buried away since childhood. Qiao Hua is a somewhat tomboyish character, eager to help her father in his business, but not too eager to get married and settle down, especially after a previous failed marriage. She's been looking for a hero type to fall for, and in Qinglong, it seems that man has arrived. Unfortunately his first priority is his position as leader of the Jinyiwei and his loyalty to the Emperor. Which is why when the escorts are attacked as they try to sneak him out of the city, he decides to kidnap Qiao Hua and take her along as leverage, while the Escorts go the other way, spreading false information about his whereabouts. The two continue on their journey, by turns rubbing each other the wrong way, and gradually falling for each other, until Qinglong arrives at a position where he can strike back against the people that betrayed him.


So rather than being one of those historical fantasies with oodles of wirework, 14 Blades turns out to be a love story set in the framework of a historical fantasy, with oodles of wirework. It's action packed and fast paced, but the difference between this film and the usually tedious classic Wushu dramas is that this one focuses first and foremost on character, and the joy comes from seeing the impish Qiao Hua tease and coax Qinglong back to humanity. The leader of the Sky Eagle Bandits they encounter, Judge is also a formidable screen presence, while all the other character, the assassin Tuo Tuo, the conspirator Jia, the machiavellian Prince Qing all make an impact. Also, the location filming and desert vistas make for a very different experience from the usual Chinese historical fantasy. This is a very striking and individual film.


Icon Home Entertainment's presentation of 14 Blades leaves something to be desired, but the film itself is fun and entertaining, and there's a lot more to it than just suspending your lead actors from a bunch of wires, and having them wave swords at each others' faces.