suite92 The film opens in a Japanese prison camp in Maylaysia, 1945. The Japanese experiment with chemistry to artificially produce a super soldier class so as to turn the tide in World War II. This fails and the bad stuff seems to be lost.In the present, Sunny is a buffoon in a traveling circus troupe, the Thundering Daggers. He fails at knife throwing, and does better as a clown. One night he goes with fellow troupe members to check whether a small group has found some gold. Sunny's fellow circus members knock out the gold hunters. Sunny falls down in the middle of the fight. When he gets his bearings, they recruit him for doing all the dangerous steps first. The find a bit of gold, but also release the chemicals that the Japanese experimented with.The thieves hop a boat for Hong Kong. Sunny falls into a fishing boat; he gets very hungry, eats some of the catch, and grows quite fat. The crew discover him and throw him overboard while out at sea near Hong Kong. In return for changing her tire, Sunny gets a ride home with Angel, who is a star reporter on CSS News on television. The mutated thieves stage a violent, showy, and very public attack. Two expert researchers (Suen Ho and Tai) are brought in by the police. Angel loses her job because her producer found a younger woman to sleep with. Sunny regains his usual shape the next morning. His Uncle Tak thinks Sunny is trouble. The Malaysian police blame the thieves in the troupe; Tak gets most of his possessions appropriated in recompense.Sunny goes to straighten all this out with the police. By chance he meets Angel outside the police station where a robber is holding a policewoman hostage. Sunny throws a stick through glass, then through the robber's hand. Sunny is lionized, and Angel helps him get away from the crowds. The mutated thieves see Sunny on TV, and are really angry, since Sunny recovered his normal shape, whereas they stay messed up. In fact, they are moving to a second stage. The attack soon enough, and Sunny is both quite skilled at fighting them, but sometimes also quite bad since he is unfamiliar with his mutant powers.The two researchers intervene. They also have usual abilities, but perhaps not enough to match the thieves. Sunny and the researchers eventually prevail. Sunny becomes the hero, and then a media star with Angel's help. The 'researchers' are just using Sunny as bait. More confrontations are to come, especially since the lead mutant wants to drink Sunny's blood to return to normal. In a major confrontation, Tai is killed. Sunny convinces Suen Ho to train him. Meanwhile, the mutants continue to evolve and unleash a reign of terror across the defenseless city. Angel has no idea whether Sunny is alive or dead.Who will win the final confrontation? Will Sunny find himself before the city is burned down? Will Sunny and Angel become more than business partners?------Scores------- Cinematography: 8/10 Almost always good-looking and well-shot. Sound: 5/10 The incidental music was reasonable for increasing tension. Unfortunately, in the dubbed version I watched, the translation was terrible. The subtitles did not match the spoken dubs most of the time. The sound of the voice was disinformation. Acting: 6/10 I liked the performances of the two principals, Aaron Kwok and Qi Shu in this film. However, compared to his performance in the glorious Floating City, Kwok was using less than 10% of his craft. It was like watching a master chef conducting a wienie roast. I did not believe the acting of much of the supporting cast. Hearing the dubs by anime voice actors made this much worse. Screenplay: 5/10 As an action comedy, this should have been quite good. However, the war between the subtitles and the dubbed text was a major detriment. The director's intentions were much harder to see when the voice said one thing while the subtitle said something contrary or even contradictory. When my sons were younger, I watched many hours of anime with them; this was usually the North American version of the anime. I recognize some of the anime voice actors used in this live action film. This added another layer of dissonance. SFX: 6/10 Mixed bag here. Some FX are well done and fit well with the fight choreography. Others look just plain stupid. There is also the recurrent matter of explosions that seem to have no cause at all. I found those the most annoying.

Paul Magne Haakonsen This Hong Kong action/Sci-Fi movie did have potential, and the synopsis did seem appealing, but the movie ultimately failed to live up to the expectations. And as for being a Benny Chan movie, then the movie just didn't really live up to his usual quality productions.First of all, I want to address the title of the movie, the English title is "Assassin: City Under Siege". What? This movie title is probably as far as they could get from the actual storyline and what the movie was about. So don't put too much into the movie title, as it is a hoax.The storyline was adequate, although it tended to be rather cheesy at times, leaning too much up against Marvel products, bordering on being a blatant rip-off at times. And that is what the movie suffered from the most. It was sort of a Hong Kong version of "X-Men", just on a toned down scale and a less funded scale.As for the people on the cast list, well I can't claim to be much fan of Aaron Kwok, and his performance in this movie didn't really win me over this time either. Shu Qi was the one who carried the movie for me, despite not having the lead role. And also Collin Chou, who usually does put on good performances and good action, really didn't impress in this movie either - as if his heart, wasn't fully in it.Effect-wise, then "Assassin: City Under Siege" (I just love this title) was actually quite good. The CGI worked out well, and the action sequences were nice as well. Despite this being martial arts with wires, then the fighting worked out well enough.For a Hong Kong action movie, then "Assassin: City Under Siege" was not in the usual league of action movies to come from here; there are far better action movies available even the older ones with Chow Yun Fat."Assassin: City Under Siege" is good enough entertainment for a lazy afternoon if you have nothing else to do, just don't expect to be blown away.

david-sarkies This is probably another example of the Hong Kong culture East meets West. Having now watched Planet Terror it is also similar to the old grindhouse sci-fi horror movies where a virus turns the antagonists into super powerful zombies, however also thrown into the mix is a man who is resistant to the virus to an extent in that he gains super powers but does not get the side effects of the virus. As such, when this super mutant zombies go on a rampage through Hong Kong it is our hero that is the saviour.Another aspect of this movie is that it is about how the weak and obscure guy becomes a hero. When the mutants first attack Hong Kong he appears and defeats them and is instantly transformed into a hero. He is no longer a nobody as he gets the beautiful and famous girlfriend and also gets the recognition. However there is a side effect in that he also attracts the attention of the other mutants. They are powerful but the side effects mean that they cannot enjoy their new found power and wealth. Thus there is that struggle between the power and the ever increasing alienation which makes then more aggressive and in the end they simply want to destroy everything.This movie is hardly original, though it has the flavour of an eastern movie thrown in with an American plot. A group of circus performers are in Malaysia and hear of an abandoned gold mine, so they go and explore it. However it turns out to be an old Japanese lab and when they open the cannisters looking for the gold they unwittingly release the virus. They then return to Hong Kong and it is by that time that the virus has taken hold. Our hero, however, at first seems to have been effected but after a good nights sleep he has returned to normal with the exception of having super powers.This was an enjoyable movie, but once again nowhere near the classic Hong Kong cinema of the 1980's. Gone are the wires, though there is still a lot of dazzling martial arts and excitement. However a lot has changed since the heyday of the 80's, though they still have something that sets them apart from the movies of Hollywood.

webmaster-3017 So cheesy and cliché that it is actually funny...It's been a while, since I actually had fun watching cheesy and cliché humour. The latest Benny Chan's sci-fi action extravagant, City Under Siege is an outright cheesy movie that one can either enjoy or doss with respite. Aaron is on the back of a string quality acting roles, returns to his former self as the poster boy of expensive action displays. Not unlike, 2000AD and his 90s antics, Kwok plays a rather simple and empty character that aims to deliver the cheesiest lines in HK cinema. A prime example will be the moment that Kwok starts to woo Shu Qi on screen, out goes the background music sang by Kwok. It reminded me of the days when Kwok used to woo Kelly Chen in too many 90s rom-com. Still, I burst out laughing in the middle of the cinema. Embarrassed, may be a little, but shameless I was. By the time, the film credits were rolling rigorously, I have already laughed out due to extreme cheesiness a hand full of time. Is the film bad? Probably, but the unintentional humour brought a cheesy taste within my tongue.Aaron Kwok kicks of the title of the most hideous laughing clowns in town. He is a genuine, laid back and simple-minded person who aims and strives to take the stage and throw some knifes. In fact, that is his lifelong goal. Mr. Colin Chou overacts immensely over-the-top and the result is a performance that is both hilariously bad and also his funniest role of his career. Shu Qi is still pretty enough to justify an eye candy presence, despite being overhaul by a rookie newsreader (played by Chrissie Chau) due to having a bigger pair of candies. Still, Kwok and Qi lack chemistry, but due to the nature of the movie, it leads to further funnier moments. On the other hand, Zhang Jin Chu continues to still the show in a sympathetic performance and martial artist Wu Jing shows that he is superhuman without being a mutant. In fact, one can highlight the somewhat anticipated fight scene between Jing and Chou, but the fury pacing ruins any sort of enjoyment in that scenario.All in all, City Under Siege is a highly uneven, cliché, weird, corny and insert any other synonym of cheesy kind of movie. Yet somehow, it manages to be funny and somewhat enjoyable to endure. Director Benny Chan is well known for creating expensive action blockbusters. In City, he manages to be loud, routine and offers nothing special. It is a kind of film that one can easily be turned off, but luckily, for whatever reason, I find this film unintentionally funny in both a good and a bad way...(Neo 2010)I rate it 6/10www.thehkneo.com