Bodyguards and Assassins, oh my!

There's a new movie in town, and it's called Bodyguards and Assassins (十月圍城). Okay, it hasn't actually been released yet, but Bodyguards and Assassins, really? Is that the title of a movie that has this cast - Donnie Yen, Tony Leung Ka Fai, Eric Tsang, Hu Jun, Simon Yam, Leon Lai, Nic Tse, and Fan Bing Bing? I guess I shouldn't complain since we're talking about an industry that produces gems like Raped by an Angel and Don't Shoot Me, I'm Just a Violinist!

Anyway, I caught a quasi-trailer they have out. It's a promotional short that outlines the story and provides some behind the scenes footage of the set. The movie's about a group of guys who are protecting Sun Yat-sen from assassination and takes place in 1905, hence the elaborate set design. Guess they have a lot of imperial palaces lying around but not so many faux turn-of-the-century Hong Kongs. It looks intriguing and I'm looking forward to it. I was amused though by the cast introductions which have a large English typeset. They certainly get to the point. Nicholas Tse RICKSHAW MAN, Hu Jun ASSASSIN, Li Yu-chun DIVA, Fan Bing-Bing CONCUBINE, Cung Le HENCHMAN, Leon Lai BEGGAR. (Leon's looking pretty pretty in that headshot though.) So there you have it, no complaints about who's who.

See it for yourself.