Simply Perfect

hyped garbage

Best movie of this year hands down!

It is encouraging that the film ends so strongly.Otherwise, it wouldn't have been a particularly memorable film

THE WARLORDS is a typically overblown historical epic, full of pomposity and grandeur, a film of heroism, murder and larger than life characters. Such films have been very popular in Asia in recent years, with notable highlights including wushu flick HOUSE OF FLYING DAGGERS and the quite wonderful CURSE OF THE GOLDEN FLOWER. THE WARLORDS never equals the heights of those two films, but it is a good effort, a fine display of historical spectacle mixed with a three-hander character drama.My main complaint with the film is that it doesn't really know what it wants to be. It starts off as an action flick, but there's only really one notable fight scene in the whole movie. This involves a ferocious battle between two armies, with Jet Li taking to the field and cutting down swathes of the enemy. Extremely tight editing and a refreshing emphasis on the nastiness of warfare makes this scene one of the highlights of the year, but the rest of the film doesn't match it. Soon we move into a more thoughtful, character-led drama that somehow doesn't ring quite true to me. The acting is very good, and the scenes are all well shot with great proficiency in the technical details, but there's a hollowness here that just left me detached from what was going on. It may be that the story is overly familiar, or that some elements – the character of Lian and her relationships with the leads – are glossed over and feel false.I'd say that this is a film that could have been so much more. It marks an admirable move away from the outrageous 'flying' and gravity-defying situations found in the wushu genre, moving towards gritty realism and grimy authenticity. There are a handful of truly great moments, involving some wonderful acting, like the situation with the four thousand prisoners. But the way the film gradually moves away from greatness down to the climax between two individuals is disappointing and feels rushed. Jet Li shines with some of his best acting ever in a couple of places, and Takeshi Kaneshiro is the kind of amiable guy the crowd loves: good looking, fair and just. Andy Lau is also great, but used too little. Overall, it's a case of 'what could have been' rather than 'what is'; nice film, but no classic.

I couldn't finish this film and perhaps, for that reason, you should take my review with a grain of salt. But I feel strongly enough about it to write something anyway.The production values on this film are quite good - cinematography, acting, sets, action scenes, are all well done. The problem is that the story makes no sense and the politics are bizarre, to say the least.A general gets up from the battlefield. He has survived a massacre by playing dead - a premise that is made less and less credible by his heroic performance later on. He joins a group of bandits, killing some poor prisoner whom he knows nothing about in order to prove his loyalty to the other chieftains. He convinces the bandits to join the Ching army to fight against the Taiping, who are in revolt against the government because they (the bandits) can get food and money that way. They ambush a Taiping supply convoy and then offers a deal to the government army. He will take a city for them from the Taiping if they give him half the spoils. So far, so good. A man with no morals joins the bandits and, with them, becomes a mercenary soldier for a corrupt government. He plans to take a city, sack it, loot it, and keep the profits. It doesn't fit the fairly decent image created for the hero, but at least it's consistent.But then the film makers try to make this man into a genuine hero. He leads his forces selflessly into battle against Taiping soldiers - portrayed not as the ragtag peasant revolutionaries fighting with farm implements and having a religious motivation, as they actually were, but as a disciplined army with uniforms, officers, and rifles. He prepares to sacrifice his life to fight them.By great heroics, he wins the battle, ignoring the spear that has thrust all the way through his chest, and takes the city. The spear has magically disappeared and our hero seems unaffected by the wound. Then, amazingly, he orders the execution of two soldiers in his own army for raping women in the city! He says he is serving a higher purpose and will not allow that kind of stuff to ever happen again.Huh? Where did these scruples come from? He's just massacred an army for no reason other than pay. He's just fought for a corrupt government that is subservient to foreign interests and the interests of the rich landlords in the regions. He has just taken a city and, presumably, sacked it. He leaves the city with chests full of silver coins.I don't know what the Chinese writers, directors, and censors were thinking when they made this film. One is tempted to conclude that, however coherent the story might have been when originally written, it was bowdlerized to support the government above all and pretend that supporting the government is a good thing for everyone, even if it's corrupt.It was hard to take. I couldn't take it. Mao must be rolling over in his grave.

First of all, I think it's the first movie I've enjoyed in about half a year, so decided to comment. I read the good reviews on this one, and agree with most of them. Everything in this movie is superbly done.There's little story in this movie and it's more of a background for the characters' portrayal and the battles, both of which amazingly done. The characters' portrayal is very successful due to the great acting. The battles and the fight choreography deserves a solid 9. Both artistic, like the martial arts beauty, and brutal, like real war is.This movie doesn't have unnecessary emotion, or unnecessary gestures from main characters. That's where this movie succeeds. That's where 'Azumi' or 'Braveheart' succeeded. And that's where 'Troy' and 'Gladiator' failed to deliver. They all have great cinematography, brilliant fight choreography and superb acting staff - but that's only the technical side. 'Warlords' succeeded to deliver in all the aspects. Simple and little story with no over-dramatizing and no inconsistencies.If one's wondering why I gave only 7, it's because, beside of Er-hu, I didn't find one likable character.

Joint Chinese-Hong Kong venture The Warlords is a somewhat troubled but additionally somewhat interesting account of the relationship between three men, told amidst the backdrop of something far grander, that is the true event of an allusive and mysterious murder that happened in China, in 1870. Rather than have an opinion of or make a statement on these events; it is more a study of power play and control, and how with so much at stake and so many at one's disposal, things can quite feasibly fall drastically apart if trust and loyalty between those within the higher-ups isn't prominent. Alas, the film sounds more interesting than it is; providing us with a collection of interesting ideas and themes but placing them in scenes that feel mechanical and obligatory as everything plays out to the conclusion.For all the sense of scope and the sheer grandness behind it, what with the hundreds of extras and the vast, open settings; the fact of the matter that The Warlords essentially boils down to the link between these three male individuals, and one additional female, is quite extraordinary. There might even be an argument that the film makes for a better romance picture, and by the end is more interested in the destructive nature of love than lust for power and control over territories. The three men predominantly involved are Zhang Wen-Xiang (Kaneshiro); Zhao Er-Hu (Lau) and Pang Qingyun, who is played by Jet Li. The film thrusts us into the the forefront of Qing Dynasty China, with a nasty; sweaty; bloody battle coming to an end in which Jet Li's character General stumbles away as the sole survivor of his forces following the dishonourable act of pretending to have been killed so as to avoid further fighting. From here, a certain female by name of Lian (Xu) is introduced, as are the other two mentioned warriors; both of whom are happy to join Pang's military connections when it appears all is lost for the clan-come-townspeople they live with following a raid which leaves them starving and in bad shape. As one observes: "Better dead than this life". Over the course of The Warlords, these four characters' will have their lives transformed as they venture, interact and conquer with one another.But it's frustrating how the film doesn't seem to seal the deal with aplomb. The new recruits are pretty content with their new roles as sword wielding, uniform-clad soldiers whose job it is to seriously injure the opposing force; and there's that sense amongst them that they want to fight and want to push on into battle in order to get that chance. It's here that, indeed maybe for some, the characters' attitudes will echo those of the watching audience who are brought in under the pretense they're initially in for an action film. It's here that The Warlords touches on another dominant aspect, or theme, of the war genre. To pluck a random example out of the air, cast your mind back to 1986's Platoon and how that film's first person retelling of what war was really like got across a sense of not wanting to be there; not wanting the uniform and the weapon and really getting across a sense of terror. The Warlords sees its characters invite the warfare, indeed violence is got across as the only way in which to solve problems in the film.There is also that sense of repetition; that sporadic and unnatural flow of battle scenes inter-cut with visits to the Quing lords for reinforcements as well as a few instances in which the trouble amidst the three lead males is becoming more and more apparent. Sprinkle in a couple of silly proverbs-come-one-liners such as "Dying is easy, living is tough." and the reassurance that "Loyalty is everything." and you have pretty wavy, uneasy passage of scenes. Trouble is, most of the conflict within the higher-ups is moderately interesting at best, with conflict arising over how rapists ought to be punished and whether, in one particularly cold blooded scene, dozens of prisoners of war should be executed. While there isn't much in the way of suspense nor peril during most of the battle scenes; in the sense you don't have the immediate feeling that anyone is in danger; or might get hurt or injured.The film creaks and thuds into its final third, with the character of Lian taking the reins and driving the actions of these men as their antagonism changes from push to shove. The film has been released in various countries with various different levels of distribution over the last couple of calendar years, hitting Asia in late 2007 before gradually crawling across Europe, in certain forms, between the winter of 2008 and into the spring of 2009. In 2010, it'll get its American release and I think it'll do well; what with its overall arc of nobodies or 'underdogs' rising out of their respective shells and attempting to become big fish by taking them on at their own game. I think the casting of Jet Li and the promise of some big battle scenes all blended together with a romance sub-plot which'll form the basis for a love triangle spells good things, financially. It's probably worth seeing, overall, but I did not feel as involved as much as I would have liked.