Asian Trailer Watch: 'Bodyguards and Assassins'

Just as fans of American action movies should be readying themselves for the explosionpalooza that will surely be Sylvester Stallone's The Expendables, which brings together every big-name, bad-guy shooter of the last 20 years, so should fans of Hong Kong martial arts flicks begin bracing themselves in anticipation of the unholy ass-kicking that will be on display in Teddy Chan's upcoming film Bodyguards and Assassins. It tells the story of a group of (mostly undercover) bodyguards who must protect the revolutionary political leader Sun Yat-sen from an onslaught of highly trained assassins sent on the behest of the Emperor to quell the tide of reform in Hong Kong in 1905.

Think of it as 16 Blocks, but instead of a tired Bruce Willis protecting a witness as people shoot at him on the streets of New York, it's the amazing Donnie Yen and a pack of other Asian martial arts stars escorting a political leader across a wildly elaborate recreation of downtown HK at the beginning of the 20th century while a horde of assassins strike using darts, arrows, acid, and all manner of bladed weapon. The production design alone looks outstanding, but you'll soon be forgetting all about the set building once the fists, feet, and other limbs start destroying everything in the newest trailer for Bodyguards and Assassins (thanks to Twitch for the find).

I've included the previous B&A trailers below as well, but it's the action heavy one on top that's most likely to pique your interest -- aside from the bizarre choice of trailer music, this is one of the most blood-pumping, face-pounding, throat-grabbing, sword-chopping, pole-swinging montages I've seen in a while.

The film comes out in mainland China on December 18th, but Twitch also reports that it got picked up for distribution in the UK, Canada, and Korea a few weeks ago at the American Film Market, so it shouldn't be too long before it's readily available for import for somewhere around the world.