Yesterday a great-looking wuxia film from China arrived in Australian cinemas. Brotherhood of Blades (绣春刀) comes from Beijing-based director Lu Yang (his third film after My Spectacular Theatre, 2010 and A Motor Home Adventure, 2012) and it looks like they got an awful lot out of US$5M in budget and a 67-day shoot.
The film stars Taiwanese actor Chang Chen (who played The Razor in Wong Kar Wai’s The Grandmaster) and Chinese actress Liu Shishi (TV drama Scarlet Heart, also recently in Badges of Fury), and it’s a late Ming dynasty swordplay picture, complete with powerful eunuchs, conniving secret police and secret plots-within-plots. Early reviews have looked good (here’s one from Film Biz Asia), and we should have our own review up here shortly.
You can find screening details on China Lion’s Facebook page or in cinema listings — it looks to be in Sydney, Brisbane and Melbourne only at this stage.
Here’s a short action trailer: