Warlords
Set during the Taiping Rebellion, Warlords opens with the massacre of General Pang Qing-yun’s (Jet Li, in his best role since Hero battalion, leaving only Pang as the sole survivor. That night, after wandering the desert wounded and exhausted, Pang falls under the care (and into the bed) of Lian, a kindly peasant woman who disappears by morning. He soon encounters Zhao Er-hu (Andy Lau) and Jiang Wu-yang (Takeshi Kaneshiro), as the pair leads their bandit horde in a raid on Taiping forces. Pang saves Jiang’s life, but complications arise when the men return to the bandit’s village, and Pang discovers Lian is Zhao’s wife. Swearing a blood oath to each other, the three friends conscript their outlaw band into the Imperial army, leading to successful raids on Shu City and other rebel outposts. With each victory, the warlords’ prestige and power increases, until the siege upon Suzhou turns into a stalemate. In his follow-up to Perhaps Love (SIFF 2006), director Peter Chan and three of Asian cinema’s biggest stars collaborate to create one of the most impassioned Hong Kong epics to emerge in recent years, filled with panoramic battle sequences, courtly intrigue, and a tragic love-triangle.
Sponsor:
The Hong Kong Economic & Trade Office, San Francisco
Cast & Crew
Director: Peter Chan, Wai Man Yip
Producer: Andre Morgan, Peter Ho-sun Chan, Huang Jianxi
Editor: Wenders Li
Screenwriter: Xu Lan, Chun Tin-nam, Audrey Lam, Huang Jianxin, Jojo Hui, He Jiping, Guo Junli, James Yuen
Cinematographer: Arthur Wong
Music: Chan Kwong Wing, Peter Kam, Chatchai Pongprapahan
Principal Cast: Jet Li, Andy Lau, Takeshi Kaneshiro, Xu Jinglei
Filmography: Perhaps Love (2005); The Love Letter (1999 ); Comrades: Almost a Love Story (1996); Who's the Man, Who's the Woman (1996); Ma ma fan fan (1995); Tom, Dick and Harry (1993); Alan & Eric: Between Hello and Goodbye (1991)
World Sales: Media Asia Distribution
Average rating:
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- 5
(1 review)
User reviews
-
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- 5
Shakespearean slant, May 26, 2009
By zhwang
“From "The Banquet" to "Curse of the Golden Flower" to this... The Chinese cinema seems to have taken on an obsession with Shakespearean tragedies. It's a solid piece of war epic, with three solid male leads and some solid character conflicts. Just remember to stay away if you are afraid of seeing”
… full review
-
