Assassins of Brotherhood is a 2018 Chinese historical mystery directed by Bo Zhang and starring Junjia Hong, Rui Liu, and Zhang.
The story concerns an investigation into an attempted rebellion and uncover betrayal in the Empire under the Ming Dynasty.
Tropes:
- Assassins Are Always Betrayed: Wei used to be a member of the titular brotherhood, until after an assignment, he's betrayed and ambushed by his own former brothers-and sister-in-arms. He barely survives, and ends up escaping into the mountains where he's rescued by some monks and upon recovering, sets off for revenge.
- Battle in the Rain: The movie ends with Wei battling an army of enemy soldiers through a corridor in the middle of heavy rain, with puddles as obstructions throughout, in order to reach his target at the other end - his own adoptive father who betrayed him.
- Combat Clairvoyance: Subverted when Wei faces his former brother-in-arms after surviving a betrayal. The ex-brother had predicted Wei's moves, and played out in his mind how he will defeat Wei by forcing Wei to move to his back before taking down Wei with an Offhand Backhand (he even has an Imagine Spot where he utterly obliterates Wei in a twelve-second Curb-Stomp Battle). But Wei, having survived their initial assassination, and having spent several months with the monks who rescued him, achieving inner peace in the process, no longer practices the same fighting moves the assassins are trained with - in the ensuing duel in Curb-Stomp Battle has Wei emerging the winner, killing his brother via Slashed Throat.
- The Oner: The tavern fight where Wei marches into a seemingly-empty building, only to be ambushed by two dozen mooks, which he kills in a couple of minutes in a single-shot take leading from ground level to the second floor and back to the bottom, with plenty of dead bodies behind him. All in one uninterrupted take.
- Razor Floss: One of the titular assassins, an unnamed Dark Action Girl, uses a fine wire hidden in her bracelet as her weapon, to stealthily slit her victims throats. She attempts this on her own mentor late into the film, only to have her mentor deduce her ambush... and slit HER throat, with her own floss.
- Single-Stroke Battle: The movie has the battle between Wei and his second brother-in-arms, two of them in a field at dusk. The sun is setting, the audience only see their silhouettes as they dash at each other. A slashing noise is head as the camera pans out, then pans in again, switching between Wei and his brother as they have a heartfelt, final chat on how they're destined to kill each other... then the brother collapses.
