Review: THE WARLORDS

Directors Peter Chan and Wai Man Yip have made what is easily one of the biggest, most epic stories in the history of modern Chinese cinema. The true story of a 19th century General Pang (Jet Li) and his blood brothers, is beautifully shot, incredibly moving, and has as much action as any one could ever want.

When THE WARLORDS starts General Pang is playing dead on the battlefield surrounded by the bodies of his brothers and soldiers. His army was tasked with wiping out another, and the Kui army was supposed to back him up. Instead, the Kui army stood and watched as Pang’s army was wiped out completely. Pang, shamed with his loss hides out for a while, before running into some bandits and joining their ranks.

Pang and the bandit leaders Xiang (Takeshi Kaneshiro) and Er-Hu (Andy Lau) become blood brothers out of revenge for an army that’s done them both wrong. Together they gather 800 men and soon become a true military force, taking cities with  unparalleled  courage and honor. You really do get the feeling that these men would do anything for each other, through their actions, and beautifully delivered words.

Sadly there are points in the film where the narration and story is a little hard to follow. There are huge amounts of time that pass and characters motivations change without really showing why. This doesn’t hinder the film too much, but it’s a little confusing and might take some people a little while to catch up to what everyone is doing.

The films strong points are it’s action scenes by far. This is by far the bloodiest Jet Li film I’ve ever seen. The action isn’t the wire-fu (wushu) martial arts many Jet Li fans may know. Instead it’s a military combat style of film, along the lines of Braveheart, Kingdom of Heaven or the beginning of Gladiator. The choreography is beautifully done in it’s quick brutality. I can’t count how many times I was saying “oh wow” at the over the top flurry of blades. Gone is the dancing style of sword fighting and instead blades sink deep into shoulders, heads and throats with large amounts of blood flying from wounds and showering the ground. It’s incredible.

What pulled me in even further into the film was Jet Li’s performance of General Pang. He was an old, gruff, battered man who’d obviously been through quite a lot. Li’s really playing a distinguished man, a man who’s age shows with every crack in his face. Pang is often referred to as “Big Brother” and he grabs onto that and shows some real leadership. There are no speeches or rally cries like you’d see in almost every single Western action film. There’s no “They’ll never take our land…” but you never question that these men would follow Pang into the gates of hell if he asked.

The dynamic between Pang, Xiang, and Er-Hu is completely believable. Their loyalty for each other is the central force of the film and it really does work. How these three interact is incredible. The interactions between Lau’s Er-Hu and Li’s Pang will have audience members really battling over who they identify with more. While these three men are brought together through a lust for revenge, their priorities are completely different, and what they want for their men are often drastically opposed. Both of them are in the right and the wrong in many of the situations they’re in, and will have you talking about it well after the film’s last frame.

THE WARLORDS is one of the best films I’ve seen out of China in quite a while. Huge set pieces, sprawling battlefields with hundreds of extras, in full costume, riding horses and carrying swords into what looks to be certain doom for the idea of honor and revenge. Cinema doesn’t get much better than this.

4 1/2 out of 5 stars