Empire of Assassins (2011) User Reviews

TIRESOME TO WATCH

[nogodnomasters · 2/10 · 26 April 2019]

The movie opens with some "defy the laws of physics" type of fighting, which I enjoy. It seems the Emperor wants to destroy all martial art fighting schools so he can reign supreme without fear of uprisings. The movie jumps 15 years ahead as a man tries to kill the Emperor. He is eventually captured placed in confinement, gets out, almost gets killed, gets better, gets arrows in both arms and can still fight 4 ninja warriors at once. He is helped and hindered by the Emperor's daughter, who thinks she know who he is. The Emperor also has a son, who apparently was the son of one of the man he killed, but he doesn't know that. He is also the brother of the would be assassin, who does know that. Got that?

The dubbing into English at times was fine, but when they fought, the grunts almost seemed comical. The soundtrack at times was modern, but also resorts back to traditional Chinese style of music. It is a tough film to watch. I would recommend getting your ninja fix elsewhere. Don't blame me, I warned you. Let me put it this way: I will be giving my copy away for free. It should be a crime to charge for it.

I think this was a movie, or a bunch of clips put together...

[hlem13 · 11 July 2011]

I think there was other things in the movie beside the fights. Scenes don't flow or follow each other much. Just a bunch of sequences following the next. They fight, gets injured, and miraculously healed in the next scene, and then fight some more, and repeat. The last couple of scenes were straight up stupid and makes no sense. The brothers fight in a house,in the middle of their fight, the story jumps to a different scene, and then all of a sudden the main guy is fighting a bunch of ninja in the middle of nowhere... then the younger brother, ninja custom, jumps out, fight and stabs him. Then the younger brother is told of his identity and is captured and is to be executed. Then some monks finds the older brother. Then the older brother, again, healed to full strength, and is now also monk, .... comes to rescue his younger brother... all of this happens in like 5-10 minutes time... and then the whole thing ends while they are still fighting... what.. the f.....

Really neat idea, brother vs brother martial arts movie. Story was good, fighting was bad, movie was cheesy. I say C

[cosmo_tiger · 5/10 · 1 July 2011]

"We crushed the 10 major martial arts schools, no one will dare oppose us now." Years after his family is killed Zhang (Tse) finally finds who he has been looking for, the murderer. The only problem is that it is his brother who he must defeat in order to get to him. Not being a huge fan of martial arts type movies I did think that this one looked good in the preview. What I found was a very low budget movie that was not that enjoyable. I will say that of the ones that I have seen have Jet Li and Jackie Chan in them, and the quality of action between them and the lesser known actors is huge. The choreography is very poor, and looks just short of what a school play would be like. The movie did have some pretty cheesy parts but the story was good. The only problem is that the bad action takes away from the story, it may have been better if the left the fighting out actually. Also, I don't usually comment on the technical aspects of the DVD, like camera work etc... but the dubbing (I watched the original Chinese version) was so bad that the mouths didn't match the sounds. I can understand if they are off in the English dubbing, but not the original. It was almost so bad that you found yourself thinking about that instead of the movie. I don't know if it says more about the sound or the movie itself. Overall, maybe hardcore martial arts fans will like this. I did not. I say C.

Would I watch again? - No I won't *Also try - Warrior's Way & Fearless

Not even laughably bad

[the-author-valerie-linds · 1/10 · 18 September 2014]

I watched this as my husband shopped Amazon for better movies (he said he gave up on it with the first line). Note to self: don't buy used movies impulsively. The acting was some of the worst I've seen. The fight scenes are done very slowly. Ostensibly, so you can appreciate the choreography - more likely, to help the actors make the moves. The amount of dust present in the 'palace' and on the fighters was astounding. Watch for the sword that wiggles with the accompanying sound. The daughter's English voice does not match the actress. Now for some positive feedback...hmm...let's see - some of the headdresses are interesting. The clothing of the father and material shimmer nicely in the light. There is a cool dragon emblem in the father's bedchamber. You will be hard-pressed to find worse dialog or translations. With a better script, talented martial artists and far better actors, this could have been a good movie

Where's the ending ????

[va3lim · 1/10 · 26 March 2020]

Not sure if I had watched dither complete movie or not, but other people seems to experience the same ... in the middle of fighting ... the movie ends. The story line & editing are very poor. Fights are too long. Don't waste your time with this garbage.

Fast forward in 1 minute. .

[slideshowp2 · 1/10 · 18 February 2020]

To be able to boot is to be lucky, to be able to kill is to be an anecdote, and to be released is a legendary family movie. It is undoubtedly a parallel import that sneaks into the theater and squeezes on the big screen. The star-studded stars are scattered in the film, and the boring bridge piece is put together into a whole film. Action comedy, which does nothing in action and comedy, is also nothing new in fun and adventure. And for the filmmakers, they have no sense of responsibility, and they continue to send rotten films to domestic films that have been rusted because of too many bad films. Difficult.

pretty good for a low budget movie!

[lucius_420 · 6/10 · 9 July 2011]

It is true that this movie lacks some image gloss and the English voice dubs were so horrendous as to make it utterly laughable, there were several redeeming qualities that kept me enjoying the film all the way up until the horribly written ending that leaves the story hanging in mid-air (literally) when the credits roll and you feel robbed of a proper ending. Maybe it was supposed to be symbolic with the imagery, but it definitely leaves me wondering where the ending was. I actually liked the fight scenes even though they were wacky at times. There were a few scenes that actually looked pretty good. The story was pretty intriguing as a concept, just lacked a decent ending. I definitely was surprised by a few things. Lionsgate?!? Then to see some kung fu movie veterans Chuen-Hua Chi (bad guy from Fong Sai Yuk 2 and Legend of Shaolin and a few other Jet Li movies), Ka-Yan Leung (acting in kung fu movies since 1969, played a similar role in Tue Legend aka Si Qi Er), and a special cameo by Yuen Biao (who made many many films with Jackie Chan and Sammo HUng Kam Po as well as starred in several of his own amazing films sad that we don't get to watch him whoop arse in this film, but super kewl that I actually got to see him in a recent film). The art direction was actually rather quite nice despite a few serious goofs. Looked like they dug deep into the old Shaw brothers studio warehouse of giant sculpture replicas and such. Despite the action looking a little goofy at times (low budget remember?) it was very fun most of the time. I could tell the old hands had a hand in it. Great to see these guys in a movie again. It was a decent movie that could have become a really great film had Lionsgate given them more money to work with.

Awful, Awful Picture

[JDDask · 16 July 2011]

This film was so bad that I was mesmerized by its total lack of value. I could not believe that any honest effort in art could produce such a mess, and I decided not turn it off until it showed SOME merit. So, I saw some silly fight scenes, like you'd expect from an Asian version of the Three Stooges. And the story line was something that you'd get if I translated a Chinese script, myself, then shuffled the pages, like a deck of cards. Something about a man avenging his family's murder. He comes back to kill the clan that did it, and the army mostly stands around and allows him to fight them one man at a time. The fight scenes were hilariously too-long, and the man would get shot by an arrow, put some cream on it, and he'd get up like nothing's wrong. This was Awful, in my opinion.

To put this in perspective...

[zdac · 4 October 2011]

Empire of Assassins is not actually a "movie" at all, but an abridged version of a Chinese TV series. Many people here have commented on the poor production values, but I think they are selling the series short. The production values are actually quite high for television, and aside from the fact that it's shot on (rather good looking) digital video instead of film, the costumes, editing, cinematography, fights, etc... are all easily par with an average 1990's style Hong Kong Wuxia movie. I've seen a few of these adapted TV series before, and this one looks better than most, honestly. The dubbing seems "off" because even in China, these series are often shot without sound, and all dialogue and sound effects are added later.

However, all of that can't save the plot from being fragmented and oversimplified, since it's been cut down from an original that would have been many, many hours longer. It helps to know what you're dealing with... this is NOT a lavish cinematic affair like CROUCHING TIGER or HERO. This is a condensed version of a cheap little TV action drama... and in that sense it not so bad if you're looking for a little bit of that retro wire-fu action. Think of it as Saturday morning cartoons, with more blood and exotic weapons. :)

Between watching this and eating a turd, choose eating a turd.

[jubil-early · 3 September 2011]

The only reason I gave this movie a rating of 1 is because there is no option to give it a ZERO. A monkey could have directed better fight scenes. The story was horrid and made absolutely no sense. The "acting" is worse than a school play put on by 6 year old children. The cinematography was laughable. The ending was as if whoever wrote the script had no clue how to end the movie, so they just decided to destroy part of the set and then cash out. Even if you get the chance to see this movie for free, choose to be punched in the groin numerous times instead. The pain of the punches to your genitalia will pale in comparison to the pain you will undergo from watching this steaming pile of feces. I only wish there was a way to go back in time and punch MYSELF in the groin numerous times to stop myself from watching this. If it were possible to file a class action lawsuit against a movie-maker (and I use that term very loosely in the case of this "movie") I'd sue the hell out of every single person involved in creating this filth. Their families should bow their heads in shame that a member of the family was involved in this crap.

Stupid screenplay, scenario plus bad acting and fighting scenes

[rightwingisevil · 7 July 2011]

This is a very bad Chinese martial arts movie with a very stupid simple-minded 1-dimensional screenplay and scenario. The fighting sequences are so stupid and ridiculous. The guy tried to revenge for his family, sometimes very dominant and strong, sometimes very weak, making me feel very confused to determine he's really strong enough to successfully seek revenge. The worst thing is the ridiculous English voice over, especially when they say their Chinese names. The sound effect is also so formulaic with lot of Ah, He, An...grunts. The endless fighting scenes are just too much and over the top. The acting of all the actors, especially the young actress, my Lord, are so bad.

This is a very tiresome 1-dimensional stupid movie and worsened by the stupid English voice-over.

What Did I Just See?

[brotherorto · 21 August 2011]

A friend told me if I wanted to watch a B movie with terrible dubbing, horrible fight scenes and no ending, I should watch this. So I did and he was correct. This is one for MST3K. It takes place in ancient China but the dubbed audio has things like, "you're going' down" and "piece of trash". That's the funny part. The main character nearly dies several times in the movie only to get back up a few seconds later to kick butt and then nearly die again. Scenes are haphazardly edited together which makes the story line hard to follow. Then there's the ending...wait, there is no ending, never mind. I had to get on line to find out if I were missing a disk that contained the ending. No, I had the full movie. Lions Gate just forgot to edit in an ending. I hope this didn't cost more than "Sick and the Dead" did to produce. I just feel sorry for anyone who may have gone to a theater to watch this.