The story follows 3 blood brothers in the middle of a war. Based on a Qing Dynasty story, The Assassination of Ma.
Directed by – Peter Chan, Wai Man Yip
Written by – Tin Nam Chun, Junli Guo, Jiping He, Jianxin Huang, Jo Jo Yuet-chun Hui, Oi Wah Lam, Lan Xu, James Yuen
Starring – Jet Li, Andy Lau, Takeshi Kaneshiro, Jinglei Xu, Bao-ming Gu, Xiaodong Guo, Zhagqi Shi, Kuirong Wang, Yachao Wang, Bo Zhou
Now this type of film isn’t one I would normally pick to watch even though I’ve seen quite a few of them. I did really like it though. It’s got a great story and amazing action sequences. Huge armies battling to the death, cannons firing, arrows flying and plenty of limbs being chopped off here and there.
Of course you’re treated to great performances from the three lead actors and there’s lots of emotional sub-plots to keep the movie from just being one battle after another. Jet Li is the catylyst for the three blood brothers to join the army in an effort to protect their village and end the war. At first his idea is for a greater good but winning slowly breaks down his attempts to remain morally good. Andy Lau and Takeshi Kaneshiro play the remaining brothers who begin to wonder if all of this is worth it.
Each brother begins to have his own idea of what is right or wrong until they ultimately butt heads over what to do. The ending was powerful and it really builds into a beautiful story. There’s lots going on in this one and plenty of seperate plots that blend together wonderfully. The battle scenes are well done and look amazing. To me, this is always the strong points of the ‘epic history’ war flicks, how great it looks with hundreds or thousands of soldiers engaged in battle. It always impresses me that such an enormous event can be put together for a film.
If you enjoy this type of flick then you’ll love it and should check it out.
0 (ZERO)
Jace Junggru Kim, 4 min
The vicious cycle that vengeance breeds animated in starkly beautiful black calligraphy ink strokes.
Sadly, I missed this one. So, yeah, I can’t really give you much insight into it. I guess I’ve gotta get into the theater faster from now on!
Under the marquee – Will
Woohoo! Glad to hear Warlords was good. I love Jet Li movies and will watch anything he’s in, but I’m a total nerd for this genre of film anyway. I love me a big epic tale with amazing visuals any day of the week.
BTW, amazing you got so much posted. I was busy all weekend and am making the site rounds and couldn’t believe how much more content is here.
I don’t think I’ve seen one of these epic war tales that I haven’t liked yet, guess this is just another for the list.
Thankfully I’m caught up with the reviews so I can slow down again. Of course that also means less for you guys to read!
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