Saw Reign of Assassins (thanks, Basil1) It was another Chinese wire-fu. This one was about a female assassin who defects from her assassin-cell with part of an ancient Chinese MacGuffin. She goes into hiding with unnecessarily complex plastic surgery where she becomes a clothing merchant. She falls in love and starts a new life, but her past (of course) catches up with her and, in an interesting variation, she must protect her hapless husband. The film is not a comedy, however, and therefore this ridiculous reversal cannot last. He reveals late-stage badassitude and she becomes kind of hapless soon after. Ah well. Also there's evil eunuchs, just for tradition's sake.
The film recurrently refers to a Buddhist story about a monk who wanted to be reborn as a bridge. This symbol of devotion is swooningly returned to at various times, sometimes in grotesque, corrupt ways (the villain knows this story too.) I suspect there's also some allusions I'm missing out on (the villain is called the "Wheel King" which is apparently a reference to some Buddhist entity about whom I know nothing.)
That said, I didn't like this film very much. It's not bad, mind you, but it has the feel of the same old thing. I decry its lack of subtlety (though the usual caveat applies that without having caught most of the references, I may simply be deaf to the subtler notes) and its adherence to formula. What was once novel is now routine. I missed out on this one. Blarg.
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