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The Guillotines
Hong Kong/China/Taiwan 2012
produced by Peter Chan, Hui Yuet-Jan, Andrew Lau, Gu Guoqing (executive), Hing Qin (executive), Peter Lam (executive), Yang Teng-Kuei (executive), Yang Zhi-Guo (executive), Zhou Li (executive) for We Pictures, Media Asia, Polyface Entertainment, Stellar Mega Films
directed by Andrew Lau
starring Huang Xiaoming, Ethan Juan, Purba Rgyal, Gao Tian, Zhou Yi Wei, Jing Boran, Guo Peng, Li Yuchun, Jimmy Wang Yu, Vivien Li, Jin Shi-Jye, Andrew Lau, Stephy Tang, Wen Zhang, Shawn Yue
written by Aubrey Lam, Joyce Chan, Hui Yuet-Jan, music by Chan Kwong Wing, visual effects by Vision Glovale, Nova VFX, Menfond Electronic Art & Computer Design Company, action choreographer: Lee Tat Chiu
review by Mike Haberfelner
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China, the Qing Dynasty: Manchu emperor Yongzheng (Andrew Lau) brutally
oppresses the Han Chinese - butof late, they have a new leader, Wolf
(Huang Xiaoming), who has just the right abilities and also fighting
skills to lead a rebellion. So the emperor sends out his secret elite
squad, the Guillotines (who kill using flying guillotines), to capture
Wolf - and they're successful, too. But on his way to his public
execution, Wolf is freed by the rebels and makes a good getaway, and when
the Guillotines pursue him, one of their ranks, Musen (Li Yuchun) is
captured. The leader of the Guillotines, Leng (Ethan Juan), takes this
very personally and tries to rescue her personally, but is also captured
by the rebels. In the rebel camp, Wolf shows him the other side of his
organisation, the caring side, and his ideology and philosophy. And he
proves to Leng that he's actually a Han Chinese himself. Also, Leng learns
that Musen actually wants to remain with the rebels. Leng soon finds
himself torn between duty and compassion, but then he learns the emperor
has imported firearms from the West and thus is in no need of his elite
squad anymore - not only that, he has decided to get rid of the
guillotines ... and suddenly, Leng finds himself between a few too many
chairs, and the situation gets so out of hands before long that it can't
but end in a big bloodbath ... At heart, The Guillotines
is a big budget state of the art hommage to the usually slightly trashy
flying guillotine movies of the 1970's. And while the film's most
certainly swiftly and atmospherically directed, features breathtaking
action setpieces and stunning camerawork, it's a decidedly less than
perfect film: For one, the flying guillotines of old were wonderfully
bizarre murder weapons that had a so-bad-it's-good charm to them, the
flying guillotines in this movie are rather soulless CGI effects that seem
to boast about their clockwork-like complexity that seems to be out of
period with the rest of the movie. And in all, the film takes itself much
too seriously, talks about big politics, philosophy and ideology, but
doesn't have much to offer safe from the same old clichées yet again. That's
not to say though The Guillotines is a bad movie, there are plenty
of scenes that do blow one away ... but at the same time it's decidedly
less than perfect, narratively, and could have been much more fun, too!
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