Hey, someone's taking a photo of us! Lets stop kicking ass for a second and pose for the camera!
Bodyguards and Assassins is a 2009 Hong Kong Martial Arts Movie with an Ensemble Cast which includes Donnie Yen, Leon Lai, Nicholas Tse, Simon Yam, Tony Leung Ka-fai, Fan Bingbing, Eric Tsang, and loads and loads of Hong Kong's biggest stars. And also Jacky Cheung, for a 15-second cameo in the opening scene.
Set in 1905 China at the end of the Qing Dynasty, Dr. Sun Yat-sen
, Father of the Nation of modern China is making a personal visit to Hong Kong to meet with his fellow revolutionaries and overthrow the corrupt Qing Dynasty. But the Imperial Court already knew ahead of his visit, and dispatches an army of killers to assassinate Dr. Sun. Only a band of elite bodyguards and defenders loyal to the doctor can prevent his assassination, even if they will have to give up their lives in the process.
This film contains examples of:
- Anyone Can Die: The entire cast consists of both popular and rising stars of Hong Kong at the time the film was made, and at least 11 of them failed to outlive the credits.
- Big Badass Battle Sequence: The finale, where the defenders, one after another, fights against wave after wave after wave of killers.
- Bittersweet Ending: Dr. Sun's meeting is a success, the revolution to overthrow the Imperial Court is at full swing, the bodyguards have accomplished their mission... with almost none of them surviving the aftermath.
- Body Double: For most of the battle, the bodyguards aren't actually bodyguarding Dr. Sun, they're bodyguarding Dr. Sun's rickshaw as it goes around Hong Kong fulfilling his official errands in town while the doctor is secretly meeting with a council of revolutionary leaders to lay out the plans for the first stage of the revolution. The person actually in the rickshaw is Li Chongguang, who is killed by Yan at the end of the chase as a direct result.
- Boom, Headshot!: More than once, including Yeung Ku-wan and one of the Mook Lieutenant shot by Shen Chongyang.
- Building Swing: In the final battle, most of the assassins gets around like this using grappling hooks attached to steel wires.
- Characters Dropping Like Flies: In the last 20 minutes or so, we have one major character dying every three minutes in one fight scene after another.
- Combat Hand Fan: Liu Yubai's preferred weapon.
- Conspicuously Public Assassination: Rather than operating covertly, the Imperial Court decides that the best way to assassinate Dr. Sun is to send literally nearly a hundred assassins, most whom are Highly-Visible Ninja, to Zerg Rush towards the doctor and kill him in public.
- Death by Cameo: Popular Cantopop singer and 90s icon, Jacky Cheung plays Yeung Ku-wan, a political leader who gets assasinated in the first 3 minutes of the film.
- Ensemble Cast
- Exact Words: To celebrate his son getting accepted into a Western university, Li Yutang gives away rice to people in the streets, as much as they can carry in one hand. Most people grab one one-pound bag. The enormous Wang Fuming is able to pick up five.
- Fire-Forged Friends: The entire team of bodyguards, after going through thick and thin, banding together for one last battle against the legion of killers.
- Good Old Fisticuffs: Yan, unlike his mooks, prefers fighting with his fists instead of using weapons. And he proves to be the most dangerous enemy of the defenders.
- Gratuitous Ninja: The assassins all resembles ninjas, what with their face-concealing masks, habits of showing up from out of nowhere, and travelling by leaping from roof to roof.
- Greater-Scope Villain: As intimidating as Yan is, the true antagonist of this film is still the Empress Dowager, who commands Yan and the assassins, and is also The Ghost considering she is only mentioned, but never appearing onscreen.
- Hero Killer: Yan Xiaoguo, a massive Implacable Man leading the assassins, who carves a bloody path through the defenders. Most of the main characters who dies in the finale are by his hands.
- Hold the Line: More than one bodyguard who ends up fighting legions of killers alone ends up performing their respective Heroic Sacrifice for the mission.
- Fang Tian fights off assassins in the opera house, killing as many as he can while the others can escape with important information for the defenders.
- Liu Yubai fends off one enemy after another while stopping the assassins from taking a shortcut, eventually receiving too much injuries and succumbing.
- Deng Sidi gives it all getting Sun to safety and racing the assassins to reach reinforcements, fatally injured in the process.
- Improbable Weapon User: Liu Yubai and his Iron fan of Death.
- Loophole Abuse: The British don't want to get entangled in the affairs of the Chinese court, so they order the Hong Kong police to clear the streets by a certain time so that the bodyguards and assassins can settle matters between themselves without getting the British involved. But a captain in the police who is a friend of Li Yutang exploits those orders by giving him, and by extension the bodyguards with him, a police escort as a gesture of respect towards an important civic figure until one minute before that deadline, during which time the assassins dare not attack for fear of getting the British involved in their affairs. This gives the bodyguards a much needed breather.
- Outliving One's Offspring: Li Yutang survives the battle, but his son Chongguang is killed in the final fight.
- Ragtag Bunch of Misfits: The bodyguards are all from different backgrounds and have different allegiances, but in the end they are all part of the same team against a common enemy.
- Riches to Rags: Part of Liu Yubai's backstory involves him being the heir of a wealthy family, before losing it all and becoming a beggar.
- Sole Survivor: By the end of the movie, the only defenders still alive are Tony Leung's Chen Shaobai and Wang Xuegi's Li Yutang.
- Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: Yan, as deadly as he is, and completely undefeatable in direct combat, eventually meets his demise when Chen Shao-bai shoots him.
- Taking You with Me: If a named defender didn't get killed by Yan or hacked to death while outnumbered by assassins, chances are they're fulfilling this trope.
- Fang Hong blew up herself and several opponents while destroying the assasins' convoy.
- Wang Fuming is killed while destroying an archway to block several enemies from advancing.
- Shen Chongyang holds off The Dragon and after a lengthy fight scene, both combatants managed to score a Mutual Kill.
- Undying Loyalty: The bodyguards are ready to die for Dr. Sun's safety. And indeed they do, with their ranks dying one after another in the climax.
