14 Blades (7/10)

Thank goodness there's Donnie Yen. He has single-handedly brought back Chinese martial arts to the silver screen now that Jackie Chan and Jet Li are cutting them down. I have to admit that some roles suited him better than some others but fortunately he's a competent actor as well.14 Blades technically did not require Yen's expertise in martial arts because there was almost zero choreography. Anyone else who is fit could have taken up the role, but Yen made it looked better than what anyone else could.The story reminded me a lot of the old traditional Hong Kong series, the ones I watched when I was a kid. It definitely needed that two-hour running time in order to have a storyline that felt complete. Hence the reference to Hong Kong series. An impressively well written piece by writer-director Daniel Lee. I'd keep my eye out on his next project. He was even able to make Zhao Wei likeable because I never liked her in her past few movies like Hua Mulan and the Red Cliff series. So kudos to Lee.His talent didn't stop there with Zhao. He also made Wu Chun into one hot property of a hunk. Wu Chun has never looked as manly as he did here and the way Lee showed him off was very subtle, not what we are used to see from other over-stylised directors. Wu however still needs some work on his Mandarin pronunciation.But of course everything still rested on Donnie Yen's shoulders. And by now everything just looks easy for him. I do look forward to his Ip Man 2.