【电影简介】

明朝崇祯皇帝登基后，权倾天下的大太监魏忠贤被弹劾辞官，阉党覆灭。锦衣卫授命追捕阉党。锦衣卫卢剑星、沈炼、靳一川三人是结拜兄弟，感情非常好。大哥卢剑星非常希望自己能够升到百户的职位，二哥沈炼暗恋着教坊司的女子周妙彤，三弟靳一川则有着不可告人的过去被人攒在手里。一天，内宫太监赵靖忠秘密找到三兄弟，要他们奉皇命去追杀要出京流放的大太监魏忠贤。一场追杀之后，三人带回了大太监魏忠贤的尸首，本以为凭此大功，三人的夙愿皆可实现。没想到这一切只不过是一个阴谋的开始，三人即将落入更加危险的境地。

【音频文本】

"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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