The Warlords (2009)

Thanks for the memories!

Expected more

I cannot think of one single thing that I would change about this film. The acting is incomparable, the directing deft, and the writing poignantly brilliant.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

This is just such a great movie on so many levels. The acting is superb, the cast is wonderful, the screenplay is impeccable. But what's really striking about the movie is that it never takes the easy path, to tell an easy-cheesy hero melodrama story that seems almost guaranteed in such an "epic" setting nowadays: ancient China, blood oath of brotherhood, Kongfu and swordplay, etc. (sounds familiar?)Instead, the movie keeps hitting you with one moral dilemma after another at every turn of the plot. It not only shows you the process of General Pang losing his last shred of humanity and becoming a monster, but at the same time presents the audience with the difficult choices that drive him through it, which makes the audience can't help but somehow empathize with him and question whether he is really that wrong? That is what makes this movie so emotionally powerful and intellectually tasteful.To me personally, this is a movie of demagogues, an epitome of the Chinese politics of the last century. General Pang always reminds me of Chairman Mao. Both are great military leaders, yet greater demagogues who use war and trickery to satisfy their personal cravings for powers, and masterfully manipulate people's longing for morality and prosperity and turn them into barbarians and monsters. Maybe it's just me, but as a fellow Chinese, I can't help but suspect that Director Chen might have the same thing in mind.

Part martial arts movie, part historical epic, director Peter Chan's film 'The Warlords' recreates the Taiping rebellion in China. Unfortunately, it's a bit of a mess; both in terms of the movements in the action scenes, and in terms of the high politics, I found it very hard to follow who exactly was doing what to whom; but all too easy to get the general drift of a movie that was big on set pieces but low on subtlety. Most crucially, the film conveys no idea whatsoever of what the rebellion was actually about in its story of three "blood brothers" motivated solely by personal oath. The result: lots of blood, but not too much in the way of enlightenment.

Recently we have been hit by a surge of Asian Cinema and historical war epics, The Warlords is one of them and with Jet Li you get some amazing action. Some of the greatest action war scenes i've ever seen were in this film, capturing the raw battle of swords and spears it really hits you.Jet Li puts in an amazing action performance, but also an emotional one also as he plays the role in this film with passion. Andy Lau and Takeshi Kaneshiro put in powerhouse performances also, even clashing swords themselves in some amazing set-pieces. The epic scale of the film is evident, in some amazing scenes as you can see thousands of extras as warriors fill the screen.To me The Warlords is just as good as Saving Private Ryan or any other big Hollywood war epics, because it captures the same raw passion of the period of time as well as the amazing fighting styles then. Even the gore and violence is realistic of the time, due to the brutality of the era of warfare. All in all The Warlords is worth seeing for all epic war fans, who want to see some amazing battle scenes.The only issues I had was that it was too short for my liking, and something on such a big epic scale should have been longer.

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.