Musa (2001)

Director:

Sung-su Kim

Writer:

Sung-su Kim (writer)

Release Date:

7 September 2001 (South Korea)

Genre:

Action | Drama | History | War

Tagline:

We must go back to Koryo!

Plot:

1375. Nine Koryo warriors, envoys exiled by Imperial China, battle to protect a Chinese Ming Princess from Mongolian troops.

Plot Keywords:

Princess | China | Korea | Desert | Horse

Awards:

2 wins

Cast

  (Credited cast)

Woo-sung Jung	...	Yeo-sol
Sung-kee Ahn	...	Jin-lib
Jin-mo Ju	...	Choi Jung
Ziyi Zhang	...	Princess Bu-yong (as Zhang Ziyi)
Yong-woo Park	...	Ju-myeong
Jeong-hak Park	...	Ga-nam
Hye-jin Yu	...	Du-chung
Seok-yong Jeong	...	Ha-il
Du-il Lee	...	Ji-san
Yeong-mok Han	...	Dan-saeng
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Er Cha Huo	...	Ying Jie-na
Jae-ho Song
Hae-jin Yu
Rongguang Yu	...	Rambulhua, Yuan General

Also Known As:

The Warrior (UK) (USA)
Musa the Warrior (Canada: English title)
The Warrior Princess (working title)
The Warriors (informal English title)
Wu shi (China: Mandarin title)

MPAA:

Rated R for strong bloody battle sequences.

Runtime:

158 min | Argentina:155 min | Canada:154 min | Hong Kong:129 min | UK:132 min

Country:

South Korea | China

Language:

Mandarin | Korean

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Certification:

USA:R | Germany:16 | Argentina:16 | Australia:MA | France:-12 | Hong Kong:III | New Zealand:R16 | Norway:18 | Singapore:NC-16 | South Korea:15 | UK:18 | Malaysia:(Banned)

Filming Locations:

Liaoning, China

Company:

Beijing Film Studio

Trivia:

During filming in China, Woo-sung Jung got knee-injury while shooting one of his fight scenes and had to stay behind after the Korean crew came back to Korea.

Probably the best War/Romance Movie ever made

There are several kinds of War movies. Some most interested in the romance (I do not know why but there are a lot of them) using the war as a background and others only in the facts and history.

MUSA or THE PRINCESS WARRIOR is probably in between. Because this war and almost everything that happens here is related to an unfinished love story between three characters (if you think is stupid, remember Homer's ILIADA and the reason of the Trojan War).

About seven centuries ago, Chinese got divided and a diplomatic mission from the Koryo kingdom (protected by small group of soldiers), try to make peace with the Ming dynasty. The Ming's army refuses to accept the ambassadors and escort the whole group out of the country. In the dessert, Mongolian's forces attack and kill the Ming's soldiers releasing the Koryo people in the dessert.

An ambitious, very tough (and young) Koryo general, tries to lead his people back to his country, until they found a Mongolian group carrying a Ming's princess prisoner. Engaged by the woman's beauty, he decides to rescue her, justifying his actions as a political opportunity.

Meanwhile, an ex-slave (released by the noble Ambassador before dying in the dessert), itself a great but silent warrior, gets involved in the rescue and after showing his courage and ability in combat, is forced to protect the Princess, creating obvious jealousy on the young general.

Mongolian's of course, will not accept being defeated, so they run after the small group, to recover the princess.

What happens after (the movie is more than two and a half hours long but never boring) is somehow predictably; however this is a Korean movie, so do not expect the silly and forced happy ending. What make the movie worth (a 10 / 10) is the way things are told, the beauty of the images and the poetry surrounding the story.

This movie war movie, but is not glorifying war, but the honor of people fighting for their countries. This is a love story, but a real one, were words are unnecessary and everything that happens is inside every character, but just looking at their eyes, we know what exactly are their feelings.

Halfway through the film, we realize that the line between bad and good guys is not really clear. That the real enemy is sometimes on the same side.

There are a lot of small characters, and everyone gets enough screen time, to make us care about them; sometimes even more than the main characters.

A special mention deserves the numerous war scenes. Using a slow motion, first person shots, quick editing and almost every camera trick you could imagine, you will feel in the middle of the battlefield (and a very scary one ). The blood and violence are much more realistic, than BLACK HAWK DOWN or WHEN WE WERE SOLDIERS, and the impression created is more than those two plus any other recent war related.

In brief; as far as I know this movie did not get a cinema release, but you can find it in EBAY or in some special video stores. DO NOT MISS IT; is probably the best movie of the year.