Reign of Assassins – review

reign of assassins
Michelle Yeoh in Reign of Assassins: 'handsome'. Photograph: Tang Chak Shun Tang Chak Shun/PR

It would seem appropriate that a Chinese martial arts film called Reign of Assassins should have a heroine named Drizzle. She's a member of the Dark Stone assassins and, like many hit persons, decides to go straight. Taking a hint from co-director John Woo's Hollywood movie Face/Off, she undergoes surgery to become the handsome, rather older Michelle Yeoh and settles down to a happy married life as a market stallholder. But she has a secret that the Dark Stone gang need, so there can be no rest for her. After a decent enough opening it becomes a fairly ordinary affair, the principal attraction residing in the heroine's weirdly flexible sword.