Last weekend I saw the big movie –The Warlord, which is also known as Tou Ming Chong in China, and I must say this is really a nice one. Not because of the big production and art direction of this movie, but the good story and the performance shocked me the most.

Pang Qing Yun(Jet Li) opens the movie as a disgraced general who was betrayed and only survived a massacre of his troops by the cowardly playing dead. In his quest to survive incognito, he chances upon a bandit Jiang Wu Yang(Takeshi Kaneshiro), who acknowledged general Pang’s fighting skill, and recruits him to the gang of Zhao Er Hu(Andy Lau). However, the bandit life is not for a man of war, who sees the poor bandit village getting assault by the rival army, and thus finds the catalyst to encourage the bandit men to draw salary and food, by joining the army. Suspicious and needing assurance of the general Pang, the trio of Pang, Zhao and Jiang sign a blood oath, and thus the blood brothers are born - one a charismatic leader, one a general looking to reclaim his honor, and one in every bonding, the earnest and faithful follower.

The blood brothers build up Battalion Shan after they joining the army, and win several important battle. They became more and more famous and stronger, however, the Insatiable ambitions of general Pang and Zhao’s seductive wife Lian(Xu Jing Lei) finally draw their destiny into a tragical ending.

Commenting on the performance of the leading cast, Jet Li gets a major makeover in the film, followed by Andy Lau and Takeshi Kaneshiro. Playing the role of General Pang, Li express himself with more dialogues than action. Unlike his previous Hollywood productions, one will not see much action from him. More rather, he can tell you that he is more than just a actor who knows how to fight with martial arts. He will surprise you with the emotions that has been brought out to the audience. Lau, as Zhao Er Hu, creates a different feeling to fans who has watched his previous productions. He is more emotional and easily reveals his feelings than anyone else. This is another great change seen from Lau, compared to his previous productions.

Kaneshiro and Xu, on the other hand, were not given enough spaces to explore themselves. Playing the role of Jiang, Kaneshiro was the youngest, and the most innocent and easily influenced among the trio. He show he has what it takes to bring out the hatred and struggle among himself (which can be told from the head cutting scene in the battle). Xu, as Lian, the woman whom both Pang and Zhao in loves with, seems to be unimportant in the film. She appears only when both Pang and Zhao needs her to be by their side. Xu could have been given more opportunities to explore the relationship among herself and the three men.

Peter Chan, the director of this movie, has perfectly combine human emotions and war together in The Warlords. It’s far more better than Zhang Yi Mou’s trilogy of Hero, House of Flying Daggers and Curse of the Golden Flower(I must emphasize these movies’ really suck) in my opinion.

Filed under: Fun Stuff