【電影簡介】

明朝崇禎皇帝登基后，權傾天下的大太監魏忠賢被彈劾辭官，閹黨覆滅。錦衣衛授命追捕閹黨。錦衣衛盧劍星、沈煉、靳一川三人是結拜兄弟，感情非常好。大哥盧劍星非常希望自己能夠升到百戶的職位，二哥沈煉暗戀著教坊司的女子周妙彤，三弟靳一川則有著不可告人的過去被人攢在手里。一天，內宮太監趙靖忠秘密找到三兄弟，要他們奉皇命去追殺要出京流放的大太監魏忠賢。一場追殺之后，三人帶回了大太監魏忠賢的尸首，本以為憑此大功，三人的夙愿皆可實現。沒想到這一切只不過是一個陰謀的開始，三人即將落入更加危險的境地。

【音頻文本】

"Brotherhood of Blades" is the best Chinese historical action film since "New Dragon Gate Inn" and Tsui Hark's "Once Upon a Time in China" series.

Set in the final years of the Ming Dynasty, the movie tells the story of three secret police whose lives are changed after being tapped to assassinate a runaway, corrupt eunuch. Unlike other historical action films made in recent decades, director Lu Yang's product is characterized by realism and attention to detail.

First of all, there are not as many wire stunts. The characters are not flung across the screen to show extraordinary martial artist skills, they are portrayed as ordinary people, just better trained with the blades. This arrangement may reduce the amount of spectacle in the movie, but it also makes it easier for theaudience to sink into the story.

Another noteworthy arrangement is in the way the actors speak. Normally in historical movies and TV series,the characters speak a formal language which sounds rather awkward in our times. "Brotherhood of Blades" does not follow the stereotype, the conversations sound much the same as those in our daily lives, and that suggests the actors must have spent more time with the lines to be able to speak rather than recite.

The screenwriter Chen Shu takes as much credit for the lines as she does for the story. For what is lackedin spectacle, she makes up with excellent pacing and suspension building. It was the first time in many years that I was attracted to the multiple narrative and grapple to figure out what would happen next, only to be surprised by many a twist and turn.

Lastly, the movie is also scrupulous with the props and costumes. According to more scholarly critics, themovie is quite faithful to history in details such as character hairstyles, patterns on clothes and carvings on the blades. This somewhat makes the film a rarity among recent Chinese films and TV series, but I think we can appreciate that extra effort.

But unfortunately "Brotherhood of Blades" has become the latest example of how the quality of a film can have nothing to do with its revenue. 10 days after hitting the cinemas, the film has only managed to collect 70 million yuan from the box office, far less than "The White Haired Witch of the Lunar Kingdom", which is widely considered a critical flop.

The crux of this problem is gullible audiences and a huge cash influx into the industry. Apparently such favorable environment has made it easy for mediocre but resourceful filmmakers to thrive: all they need is an effective sales strategy to start a topical discussion on social media.

The crew behind "Brotherhood of Blades" have obviously failed to come up with such a strategy, but the good news is, sales is now picking up due to good critical response and word of mouth.

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