Six Assassins (1971)

A band of assassins who number is at least briefly six are sent on a mission to end a corrupt tyrant who murdered their lord. Their plan is pretty bad, and things do not overall go well, but sacrificice and setback engender a bloody determination to see the mission through to its end.

Six Assassins is a pretty decent wuxia, filmed with the kind of cinematic style you'd expect from Jeong Chang-Hwa (King Boxer) and some sharp, bloody action from Sammo Hung. The team's plan is a bit head-scratchingly bad, but perhaps we just shouldn't expect every random group of people on a mission to be unusually skilled in strategy, psychology and martial arts? There are enough movies where they are, here's one where they're not.

Neither are they especially charismatic - Ling Yun does his usual brooding stoicism, Lily Li Li-Li adds a bit of surprise glamour to the group, and the rest of them are entirely forgettable. They do pick up another member along the way in the form of James Nam, which triggers a kind of brooding stoicism showdown with Ling Yun that neither exactly wins.

I guess it's a bit of a grimdark wuxia, not much in the way of smiles and levity to be found between the credits. Whilst it's a valid stylistic choice it does tend to rub off a bit on the audience when nobody in the film is having a good time. You need that Toshiro Mifune character to introduce a bit of contrast and a conduit of connection between the audience and the team. Or maybe you just need more than 83 minutes.

This film would probably rate higher if there weren't so many other films that are broadly similar but have more character and do more to stand out. It's not so much that there's anything wrong with SIX ASSASSINS as that there isn't much reason to recommend it over countless others in the genre.