Everyone
hates the Jinyiwei Imperial Guard (assassins), a.k.a. the Northern Bureau.
Nobody better understands why than Shen Lian. He has done things he is not
proud and witnessed worse. His two former cronies are currently unaccounted
for, so he will have to navigate another murky conspiracy largely on his own in
Lu Yang’s Brotherhood of Blades 2: The
Infernal Battlefield (trailer
here), which
opens this Friday in New York.
Shen
Lian does not have many friends, so it really irks him when he loses one to in-fighting
with the rival Eastern Bureau agency. It seems they really do not want him
investigating the murder of a government official who was responsible for inspecting
the Emperor’s dragonboat, right before it sank. The Emperor was rescued just in
time, but getting waterlogged did not do his delicate constitution any favors.
Thanks
to his many sins, Shen has amassed a small collection of Bei Zai’s paintings,
because his Buddhist monastery of choice gives them as gifts in gratitude of
large donations, sort of like PBS tote-bags. Unfortunately, Bei Zai also
happens to be a dissident painter, known for including sly commentary in her
work. Even more inconveniently, she is deeply involved in a conspiracy against
the Stephen Bannon-Harry Hopkins-like eunuch Wei Zhongxian, the real oppressive
power behind the throne.
Consequently,
the Jinyiwei captain is deeply conflicted when he is dispatched to dispatch
her, especially when he sees she is played by Yang Mi. Despite his better
judgment, he ends up killing his fellow officer instead. Of course, that really
lands him in the soup when he learns the creep was Wei’s godson. He will
continue to protect her, even when her co-conspirators blackmail him to commit
treasonous acts, which he feels rather ambivalent about. Frankly, it is his
survival instinct and a possible love for Bei Zai that will drive his decisions.
The
first Brotherhood was a solid period
action film, but the second is even stronger, ironically because it ditches the
brotherhood and focuses on Shen Lian, partly making him out to be a Yojimbo-esque
free agent and partly a High Noon-style
lone wolf. Still, there are very definitely themes of Esprit De Corps and
solidarity, especially with respect to Shen’s complicated relationship with his
commander, Lu Wenzhao.
Once
again, viewers will enjoy some nifty hack-and-slash action in Blades 2, but the relationships and
intrigue really make it dance and sing. In addition to the awkward romance,
Shen forges an unlikely alliance with Captain Pei Lun of the Southern Bureau, who
was originally assigned to investigate him, which becomes the stuff of wuxia
gold.
Returning
as Shen, Chen Chang really ups the ante this time around. He still broods like
a monster, but he also starts to lose his cool rather spectacularly. He also develops
terrific chemistry with Yang Mi and Lei Jiayin as his unlikely allies, Bai Zai
and Pei Lun. Zhang Yi is delightfully roguish and Machiavellian as Lu Wenzhao,
while Xin Zhilei shows some impressive moves as Ding Baiying, the conspiracy’s liaison
to Shen Lian, who is quite lethal with a blade.
Like
any good franchise, Blades 2 has a stinger
that teases a further sequel. In this case, it promises some rather baffling
turn-of-events, but we’ll take it anyway, because the second is so much fun. It
manages to be simultaneously tragic and action-packed, as well as cynical and
sentimental, like all the finest wuxia films (and you can easily walk into it
without having seen the prior film). Enormously satisfying, Brotherhood of Blades 2: The Infernal
Battlefield opens this Friday (12/1) in New York, at the AMC Empire.
