From all the reviews that I read above me seems like no one knows that 14 Blades is a Shaw Brothers remake of the 1984 movie Secret Service of Imperial Court directed by Tony Liu Jun Guk. Now that I got that out of the way the modern version 14 blades is directed by mostly hit or miss Daniel Lee.His credits include Black Mask,What Price Survival,Three Kingdoms Resurrection of the Dragon,Star Runner Aka Kumite,Dragon Squad aka Dragon Heat and the upcoming Wuxia White Vengeance.As you can see from those credits most people that have seen his movies only Black Mask and What Price Survival were their favorites. The cast includes both new actors old school Kung Fu actors from the Shaw Brothers era like Chen Kwan Tai,Wu Ma,Lam Chi Tai,Fung Hak On.From Golden Harves of course Sammo Hung which has only a supporting part and does not lay a finger on nobody,Duel to the Death's Damian Lau (if you blinked you missed him because i don't even remember him being in it).Wu Chun who looks like a pretty boy Asian Jack Sparrow,Vicky Zhao Whei,and Donnie Yen filling up for Leung Kar Yan aka Beardy. The Cinematography is nice too look at as well as the special effects.Donnie Yen barely saves this movie and the supporting cast seems to be weak and not backing him up at all.There is both some wire fu and some good fighting scenes in this movie but unless you're a Donnie Yen fan this one is an OK movie better than Three Kingdoms but not better than its rivals like Ip Man movies and True Legend by Yuen Woo Ping.Watch the Original it is 10 times better and did not need wire fu or GGI to make it a good movie.

As i said in the summary this movie is like a candy for a chocolate lover! If you are the kinda person who likes the martial art movies, if you wanna see some kungfu kicks and wanna hear swusshhhh of the swords, this is the movie for you. Story is not that extraordinary, screenplay is good, locations are good. In the second half of the movie they added this middle-eastern styled city, it looks like a place straight from Arabian desert cartoon and Chun Wu's appearance fills the role of Aladdin lol.Wei Zhao was good in her role but I'm not sure how much you gonna like her. She is not the Wei Zhao of shaolin soccer or red cliff, shes more of a Wei Zhao of warriors of heaven and earth. she does not know any martial arts in the movie and the love story between Donnie and Wei is not that impressive. The box of swords used by Donnie and the all little gadgets its embedded with is quite new and very good. Kate Tsui's role was good, she had the exact amount of screen time that was needed and she did exactly what she was supposed to do. However there are quite a lot mistakes but hey come on, its a martial arts movie. The ending of the movie could have been different and better.Final verdict: Good acting, good action scenes, okish story, nice locations and worth watching MA. Its definitely watchable movie, i got exactly what i expected to see, not a penny more not a penny less. I give it a rating of 6.

Donnie Yen have been in some stinkers recently so I wasn't expecting much but I found 14 Blades rather enjoyable.Its a set period piece where Donnie Yen plays Qing-Long (Green dragon) the leader of the imperial bodyguard/secret police/death squad. He gets tricked by the palace eunuch to help steal the imperial stamp. The movie is about his exploits in getting it back.As in most movies there is a love story as well but its more to add depth to Donnie's character rather then some sappy mushy mess. This movies is a Martial Arts Western with bits Prince of Persia thrown in. For some reason Donnie also look like he has dreadlocks and look like a pirate. Fight scenes are good and very fast.The revelation to me was Kate Tsui as Tuo Tuo. She should actually get 3rd billing for this movie. She hardly says anything but her presence as the "bad guy" and her fight scenes are very good. when watching I kept thinking ..."perhaps the next Bridgette Lin for martial Art movies"If you are not looking for a deep story with great acting but an action adventure, 14 Blades fit the bill.

This MA drove me into writing my first movie review in IMDb. Yet another one of Donnie Yen's best, I would say. Less meaningful impact than 'Ip Man' and 'Bodyguards and Assassins' in terms of overall storyline but for original ancient MA screenplay, this was a very good one. It's a martial art movie with a non-cheesy love story (I could remember The Myth for MA+cheesy love story).Character developments were mainly focused on the protagonists (Donnie and Vicky), especially their attraction to each other. What I personally like most about this movie were their love story, creative martial art moves(as usual in most Donnie Yen's movie) and some comical relief from Donnie Yen. A much improved pairing since 'Painted Skin' where they both lack of connection to each other. Just like in recent movies, Donnie Yen never failed his viewers and this time gave even more, by showing off his tattooed six pack torso. And this was by far my favourite character from him, as the anti-hero Green Dragon on his deadly pursue for redemption. And not forgetting his 14 blades, even thought it's the title of the movie but not really the highlight throughout the movie, unlike 'Seven Swords'. Disappointingly, except that we knew the name and functionality of each blade, we never really see them in action, and when they did, I was not sure which blade was being used.As for the nemesis acted by a promising young TVB star, Kate Tsui, personally I am not a fans of her, and I think she looks too young for a great assassin. I would prefer if they could cast some really talented martial art actor with convincing moves and not just some lifeless and 'pretty' stances from young stars, and heavily CG-ed MA move from Tuo Tuo, especially her disrobing move. Same goes to the other anti-hero Wu Chun's Judge. I did not recognize him instantly as I was not into Taiwan boyband scene but I know right away he is some sort of young model or prettyboy actor. A lot of cool and pretty pose from him but his character serves no purpose, well, maybe his character will earn my acknowledgement if he looked older and less prettyboy. Their acting skill? Don't expect much, just enjoy their costume and weapons, OK.At the end of this movie, I feel that I will watch this movie again but just for Donnie Yen and Vicky Zhou.