AniInterview Sorry, this movie sucks

Voxitype Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.

Guillelmina The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

Raymond Sierra The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

J_Charles Epic battle scenes, remarkable backdrops and scenery, excellent cinematography and photography. This movie is beautiful to look at. Even the gruesome battle scenes are poetry in motion. Whomever is in charge of filming this deserves attention.The acting is pretty good by the principals. Sung-Kee Ahn was very good at his portrayal of the Sergeant who takes on a more prominent role as the movie progresses. The movie seems to shift is focus from the general, to the slave, to the sergeant. Zhang Ziyi plays the princess but her range seems more limited here (in one of her early roles) compared to now. It's actually quite surprising because I thought she did an excellent job in "The Road Home" which was her first major film. Perhaps here she didn't have as much to work with?9/10Story wasn't too complicated but the character development is interesting. The battles were amazing. And the scenery, choice of camera angles, and lighting were all impressive.

freemantle_uk There is a nothing like a good epic film. Here is a fine entry to the genre from South Korea, a nation that doesn't normally make these sort of films. Film in China and staring the beautiful Zhang Ziyi it had potential.Set in 1374 relations between Korea and the Ming Dynasty in China are at a low. The Koreans send a diplomatic mission to resort their relationship, led by General Choi-Jung (Joo Jin-mo). However when arriving in a city he team are captured and exiled from China. Left for dead in the desert their run into a Mongol army party which have captured Princess Bu-yong (Zhang Ziyi). The Korean party save her and hope to return her to Emperor, saving their mission. Within the party is Yeosol (Jung Woo-sung), a recently freed slave who was loyal to his master and excellent fighter with a spear. He and the Princess have an attraction to each other. After freeing the Princess, the Mongols are upset. There were hoping to use her as a bargaining chip against the Ming's China. They chase the Koreans and destroy countryside villages to get her back.The story and plot are simply and believable within the context of the film; always good signs. Within the group many of characters and relationships are developed, especially Yeosol, the General, the Princess and Jinlip, the veteran of the group. Even the main bad guy has some nobility about him. The costumes and weaponry are excellently done. The warfare was brutal and shows woman and children getting killed, something that rarely happens in Hollywood films. The film is deliciously violence. My only real problem with the film, which lets it down is the action. It is good that the action is violence, but it is so overly edited and the shaky-cam make it difficult to follow. If the action was better then the would have been even better.If you enjoy films like the Lord of the Rings trilogy, Gladiator, Conan the Barbarian and Red Cliff, you will like this film.

thomasaaa123 Musa: the Warrior reminds me of war movies made in the 1980s or earlier. Pretty fun, a little inspiring, but ultimately too simplistic.Despite the 2 hour plus duration, the story stays on a rather rudimentary level and certain promising subplots are not quite developed. There's some hints of romance, of course. But the movie refuses to sufficiently branch out to be taken as anything other than a pure war movie.There are occasions when the subthemes of love/infatuation, longing for freedom, loyalty, and honor are given the spotlight. But the focus proves too brief, and the subthemes are never adequately and delicately explored beyond being mentioned with clichés and acknowledged with unrefined lines and grossly unsubtle actions. It's as though the movie tries to touch upon so many subthemes that it fails to treat anyone of them with enough attention.Having said that, though, the movie manages to offer some good simple entertainment. Movies with obvious ambitions--even when the ambitions are not quite well fulfilled--are almost always fun to watch. Musa is no exception. While the filmmakers didn't lavish on extras and grand scenes, the fact that they made the characters go through an unnecessarily long journey (and war) so that there'd be more opportunities for the characters/actors to impart a deeper impression shows the filmmakers' enthusiasm and desire to make an epic out of the material.Overall, I'd recommend this movie if you would like to reminisce about the old movies with likable characters in difficult situations--in simple and straightforward exposition. But a deep story with strong emotional and intellectual pull, the movie is not.

cchamb I typically enjoy films like this one, but there is a lot of room for improvement for North American release of Musa.Overall it was pretty good. There are several great battle scenes with great choreography, but don't expect the same gravity defying fights you'd see in a movie like Crouching Tiger or House of Flying Daggers. These fights were more along the lines of Braveheart. In other words, the laws of physics were generally observed during battle. The fight scenes are mostly believable.The story also works on multiple levels. Key themes included leadership under pressure, loyalty, love, designated class roles, and courage. This isn't simply an action movie. The characters are believable and interesting. The story is well written and well executed.One of my favorite things about this movie is the landscape. I really felt a sense of "being there" in the alternately scorching and freezing desert. The region where it was filmed is clearly both beautiful and forbidding at once.Now for my complaints. First, I don't think the translation to English subtitles was very well done. The subtitles were filled with spelling and grammatical errors, but that wasn't as bad as the very brief length of time they were displayed on the screen. Sometimes the words would appear so briefly that I had to rewind two or three times to catch a key phrase. This didn't happen terribly often, but it was often enough to be annoying. It made me wonder if this DVD went through any sort of quality assurance before being packaged.Second, two languages are spoken throughout the movie, Korean and a dialect of Chinese, (Cantonese maybe?). Communication between the Korean and Chinese characters, or the lack thereof, plays a significant role in the movie. Not being able to tell the difference between the two languages, I feel like I missed out on something. For example, when one of the Korean soldiers was addressing the mixed party of Korean and Chinese characters, I just assumed everyone could understand him. Later I realized that wasn't the case. It was a mental exercise to remember who on the screen would be able to understand whomever was speaking at the moment. Obviously a native speaker of either language would have had a much easier time following this aspect of the storyline.Third, I found it difficult to understand the cultural motivations and distinctions between some of the characters. There were several social classes represented in the movie including peasants, royalty, envoys, slaves, military officers, and enlisted soldiers. The caste system wasn't explained and didn't translate well to a Western viewer like myself. A viewer with a prior understanding would have gotten more out of this aspect of the movie, recognizing what kind character interaction is normal or taboo.