← Back to Reviews
in
The Warlords (Tau Ming Chong)
Director Peter Chan
Starring Jet Li, Andy Lau and Takeshi Kaneshiro.
General Pang Qing-Yun (Jet Li) is the sole survivor of a huge battle. At the end when the dust clears he's surrounded by the dead bodies of his men for as far as he can see, trouble is that he's played dead to survive, and that's not an honourable way for a general to behave.
Wandering amongst refugees he's taken in by some bandits led by Er Hu (Andy Lau) who's accompanied by the young Wu Yang (Takeshi Kaneshiro). After bravely helping them storm an army column to get food, Quing Yun is sworn in as a blood brother to the two bandit leaders. As the story commences, Qing Yun persuades the bandits to join the army firstly for food and money, but soon the bravery of their men means that more and more victories are won and the men climb the ladder of power. A struggle begins between Er Hu and Qing Yun, a battle of wills and minds that's played out throughout the film is only resolved in the end.
There's enough battle in this film to satisfy a blood thirsty viewer, and well filmed it is too, looking nice in its colour leeched way, a big contrast with some of the epic historic Chinese films of recently which have tended to hurt your eyes with their brilliance.
I thought it had a slow, meandering start. Just when I was thinking that it was going to be one of those action only films, it started throwing up the first of several moral dilemmas which put the two leads into opposing positions. This had the effect of challenging the viewer, are these actions right? Did Er Hu make promises he couldn't keep? Was Qing Yun justified in doing what he did? Interesting film now, with the characters strengths and weaknesses exposed.
Some dodgy cgi, some magnificent male bonding, some terrific set piece battle moments, and no martial arts from Jet Li, but he's dead hard tho, despite now looking his age and with a slight double chin (!) . I enjoyed The Warlords immensely and would recommend it to those who like Chinese or HK epic adventures.
Director Peter Chan
Starring Jet Li, Andy Lau and Takeshi Kaneshiro.
General Pang Qing-Yun (Jet Li) is the sole survivor of a huge battle. At the end when the dust clears he's surrounded by the dead bodies of his men for as far as he can see, trouble is that he's played dead to survive, and that's not an honourable way for a general to behave.
Wandering amongst refugees he's taken in by some bandits led by Er Hu (Andy Lau) who's accompanied by the young Wu Yang (Takeshi Kaneshiro). After bravely helping them storm an army column to get food, Quing Yun is sworn in as a blood brother to the two bandit leaders. As the story commences, Qing Yun persuades the bandits to join the army firstly for food and money, but soon the bravery of their men means that more and more victories are won and the men climb the ladder of power. A struggle begins between Er Hu and Qing Yun, a battle of wills and minds that's played out throughout the film is only resolved in the end.
There's enough battle in this film to satisfy a blood thirsty viewer, and well filmed it is too, looking nice in its colour leeched way, a big contrast with some of the epic historic Chinese films of recently which have tended to hurt your eyes with their brilliance.
I thought it had a slow, meandering start. Just when I was thinking that it was going to be one of those action only films, it started throwing up the first of several moral dilemmas which put the two leads into opposing positions. This had the effect of challenging the viewer, are these actions right? Did Er Hu make promises he couldn't keep? Was Qing Yun justified in doing what he did? Interesting film now, with the characters strengths and weaknesses exposed.
Some dodgy cgi, some magnificent male bonding, some terrific set piece battle moments, and no martial arts from Jet Li, but he's dead hard tho, despite now looking his age and with a slight double chin (!) . I enjoyed The Warlords immensely and would recommend it to those who like Chinese or HK epic adventures.