Pluskylang
Great Film overall
Gutsycurene
Fanciful, disturbing, and wildly original, it announces the arrival of a fresh, bold voice in American cinema.
Invaderbank
The film creates a perfect balance between action and depth of basic needs, in the midst of an infertile atmosphere.
Leofwine_draca
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.
BA_Harrison
1861: Ching general Pang Qingyun (Jet Li), the only survivor of a bloody battle against the Taiping rebels, falls in with a village of bandits, swearing a blood oath with Zhao Erhu (Andy Lau) and Jiang Wuyang (Takeshi Kaneshiro). Convincing the poor, starving villagers to join the Ching army for a better standard of life (wages, food and a nice uniform), Pang leads his men to victory against the rebels of Shu City, but his next campaigns, to take the cities of Suzhou and Nanking, prove far more challenging, causing the blood brothers to turn on each other. Meanwhile, rival general Ho (boo, hiss!) waits on the sidelines to steal Pang's glory.For anyone with a strong interest in China's history, The Warlords will likely prove to be riveting stuff, director Peter Ho-Sun Chan bringing to life a particularly tumultuous period in the country's history with excellent production design, a strong cast (Li is particularly impressive), and brilliantly handled battle scenes that effectively drive home the brutality of combat. Unfortunately, those with only a passing interest in the political machinations of the period might find the bits between the hacking and impaling of bodies all a bit of a drag after a while: there's lots of talking, scheming, soul-searching, tragedy, crying, and a completely superfluous love triangle, all of which is intended to add substance to the film, but which actually serves to make it a bit of a chore when the blood ain't flying.
MrAwesome1022
This was one of the best movies I have ever seen, by far the best performance I have seen from Jet Li. He and this film were well worthy of their Hong Kong Film Award victories and nominations. The acting and emotion were strong throughout the movie and you could feel the pain and anguish of the characters in those moments.The script at times (or perhaps the direction) didn't seem to fit with jumping ahead in some situations, but that didn't hurt the grand feel of the film too much. Andy Lau and Takeshi Kaneshiro also were incredible, each had their opportunity to show their talent and definitely delivered.Jinglei Xu had a very powerful scene at the beginning of the movie and a few other portions where she masterfully used her face to tell a story without dialogue. All the acting was top notch and the story was definitely gripping. If you want to see Jet Li at his best you should definitely give this film a watch.
ameyer2
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.
