Reign of Assassins screening at the NYAFF - day 10

director Su Chao Pin after the screening!

Drizzle my nizzle, my kung fu sizzle chest brethrens! The Reign of Assassins screening at the NY Asian Film festival would rain martial arts heaven in all its wu xia glory! I was shocked that this 1pm screening was not even close to being at full capacity. Perhaps the showing of Heaven's Story at the Japan Society at 2:45 pm stole the show? Reign of Assassins would slowly strip tease itself as a revenge-love story combo punch that would cast Michelle Yeoh as the character of “Drizzle”, an assassin that would be knee deep in tofu, busy slaughtering, laundering, & scheming about with the dark stone gang. One of Drizzle's main projects was to find then hide the centuries old remains of a great buddhist monk which is said to provide immortality & eternal life for someone possessing the corpse because of the high level of karma that this monk had achieved before his passing! Deception, love, & vengeance would all come into play when Drizzle decides to leave her past behind with the dark stone chain gang and live a normal life! Michelle Yeoh’s character wields an unflappable, bendable, & unbreakable double edge sword with an advanced technique called water shedding which basically shreds her opponents with precise ginsu cuts! It’s tough for Drizzle because she needs to hide her past & that includes public display of her martial mastery! Only a man like John Woo, Nicholas Cage, or John Travolta would understand her situation! Drizzle’s new found husband is also a bumbling idiot that can double as Mr. Magoo or can he? He is a man who is passionate about his noodles including having first hand knowledge of tortoise powder! The end game would reveal who the real eunuch is & the motives for the endless slashings by the chinese lord sith! Love will be the final say as I wiped a tear or two away in the finale! The director Su Chao Pin was on hand after the screening for a brief discussion with Grady Hendrix! (see the Q & A video below). The director explains that Reign of Assassins is loosely based on an old martial arts novel that he tweaked & twisted with a non-traditional ending! So far, I have screened about 15 films at the NYAFF and Reign of Assassins is my favorite to date at the festival! I usually don’t fall for love stories but vengeance fueled the fire with lots of martial arts eye candy as support, but the relationships in this film do poke away at you in the heart! I'm sure this movie will get a release in movie theatres near you sometime soon!