“Assassin” Poster
AKA: Assassination: 1932
Director: Zhou Jiu Qin
Cast: Wang Ming, Jin Long, Cheng Qi, Jinhao Guo, Ray Lui, Di Wang, Tang Hao Yuan
Running Time: 90 min.
By Paul Bramhall
One of the quirks I always enjoy in the world of Chinese streaming movies is the occasional oddly worded credit introduction, and 2025’s Assassin offers up a good one in the form of ‘Special Invited Lead Actor Ray Lui’, who presumably, by virtue of having his name appear in the credits, was happy to accept the invite. A mainstay of Hong Kong cinema since debuting in the Shaw Brothers production The Informer in 1980, like many familiar faces from Hong Kong’s golden era, Lui has carved out somewhat of a niche for himself in the Chinese streaming era in recent years. Leading roles in the likes of 2023’s Quick Counterattack and 2022’s Shanghai Knight act as kind of modern day iterations of his 90’s outings like Thunder Run and To Be Number One, ensuring a steady stream of work even as he reaches 70 (despite the fact that he doesn’t look a whole lot different from the Flash Point era almost 20 years earlier!).
In Assassin Lui steps into the familiar role of a respected gangster (complete with an omnipresent cigar), considered to be “the king of Shanghai”, who we’re introduced to in the opening meeting with the Japanese military in the club he owns. Resistant to the Japanese suppressors demands, their discussion is interrupted when a foursome from the Iron Blooded Anti Traitor Squad (the subtitles words, not mine) infiltrate the club, and start pumping the small army of Japanese inside full of lead. It’s an impressive 10-minute action sequence that has the outnumbered foursome weaving in and out of the club’s opulent surrounds, all the while taking out as many Japanese (including a sumo wrestler!) as their supply of bullets will allow.
Led by Wang Ming (The Wicked Wife, Legend of Hunter 2: Forest of Reincarnation), he’s ably backed up by Cheng Qi (King Kong vs. Giant Serpent, Action Thunder), Jin Long (Sword of Destiny, Ip Man: Kung Fu Master), and Zhao Zhenhua (Yellow River Monster, SWAT Mission: Sniper Storm). If none of the titles ring a bell, you’re not alone, with the Chinese streaming landscape in 2025 having transitioned from its low budget beginnings 10 years ago to now having its own ecosystem – with directors and actors exclusively working within the streaming arena. Much like Hong Kong cinema in the 1980’s and 1990’s titles are churned out at an alarming rate, and for the most part in the western world we only get the cream of the crop. These tend to be actioners with names attached to them like Ashton Chen, Xie Miao, and Qin Peng Fei, so the release of Assassin provides a look into what else the steaming world has to offer.
Directed by Zhou Jiu Qin, after making his debut in 2018 with A Case of a Missing Cat, he’s become one of the many filmmakers who exclusively direct for China’s many streaming platforms (Assassin debuted on iQiyi in August 2025). With 8 feature length productions already too his name, amongst them 2018’s time travel cross dressing comedy Don’t Touch Me, Your Majesty and 2021’s disaster cum monster movie Crazy Tsunami, the breezy slice of Japanese occupied action that Assassin provides falls squarely into his remit. Interestingly story wise Assassin feels like it has more in common with recent Korean productions, where the “Assassinate a senior member of the Japanese oppressors” plot trope is done with such regularity it could practically be its own genre.
The plot here involves Lui who, impressed with the foursome’s raid on his club to take out the large gathering of Japanese, tells hem about a ship that’s enroute to Shanghai carrying a high-ranking Japanese official who’s visiting for his daughter’s wedding. The catch is the official will only be in China for one day before returning to Japan, so they have a small window of opportunity to strike, but it’ll be a worthwhile one to take out the army’s chief strategist. Agreeing to take on the mission, the Iron Blooded Anti Traitor Squad put together a plan to infiltrate the ship and assassinate their target.
Jiu Qin’s story has echoes of similar outing like 2015’s Assassination and more recently 2023’s Phantom. Much like the action in those productions owe an inevitable nod of the hat to John Woo, the bullet riddled action here favours a frantic, kinetic energy, and at one point there’s even some doves thrown in for good measure. On action director duty is Su Guan (Sniper Vengeance, Return of Wu Kong), and he does a worthy job considering the budget of Assassin clearly isn’t in the upper echelons of Chinese streaming content. As much as I hate making the comparison since it’s usually a lazy one, there’s also a debt to the John Wick gunplay aesthetic clearly on display. Any time a character disables another one in some kind of leg or arm lock, raises their gun to shoot another character coming at them from another direction, then gives the guy they’ve still got in a lock a shot to the head, we have John Wick to thank.
Ironically the foursome ends up enlisting the services of a character with a Korean background, one who’s been collaborating with the Japanese, played by Tang Hao Yuan (Wrath of Silence, Lost in Apocalypse). Laboured with a rather difficult role that’s tasked with both giving Assassin it’s jingoistic beats (you can bet he eventually sees the error of his ways and declares his love for China), and also providing a frequently misplaced dose of comedy. The later approach fails to land, with his cowardly antics often played for laughs, complete with an accompanying soundtrack straight out of a travelling circus tent. Even worse is the scene in the middle of a gunfight when he’s saved by Cheng Qi, in which she pulls him close to protect him from the bullets being sprayed everywhere, and it switches to slow motion while he ogles her chest. More cringe inducing that funny, the comedy would have been better left on the cutting room floor.
Thankfully the brisk 90-minute runtime means any of the more laboured moments never last too long, and the action hits frequently. By the time the hour mark hits it feels like a welcome throwback to Hong Kong cinema of old, as Jiu Qin opts to have everything go to hell, and a number of characters who I’d assumed were going to make it to the end meet a painful death. The direction the narrative heads in gives lead Wang Ming, who comes with a welcome amount of onscreen charisma, and Cheng Qi the opportunity to let loose on the action front, with Qi in particular getting a short but sweet one on one against a Japanese officer.
If there’s any downside to Assassin apart from the ill-placed attempts at comedy, it’s that the lack of budget shows through on more than one occasion. Jiu Qin has taken on a pretty epic tale of underground freedom fighters, and the dastardly Japanese forced that oppress them, but the scope of the era feels like its lacking in what’s shown onscreen. Streets feel sparse, costumes feel a little too new, and particularly when the story begins to unfold on the ship, an establishing shot that pans down to show couples waltzing in the ballroom makes it look like there’s only 8 guests on the entire ship. It ends up stretching the credulity of the group being able to skulk around unnoticed when it doesn’t look like there’s many people on it to begin with. Some may also hold the one-dimensional portrayal of the Japanese against the production as well, but for those familiar with Chinese cinema, the portrayal won’t be a surprise.
Despite these flaws though, ultimately Assassin delivers a decent dose of 1930’s era action with a likeable cast who are easy to root for. As a director Zhou Jiu Qin isn’t a frequent visitor to the action genre, but it’s clear from his work here that he has the ability to put together a decent action movie, and with a bigger budget could be an up-and-coming talent to look out for. Here’s to higher budgeted adventures of the Iron Blooded Anti Traitor Squad in the future.
Paul Bramhall’s Rating: 6/10
was very enjoyable film liked it alot.