The Warlords (2007)
"Tau ming chong" (original title)

It's a heroic tale of three blood brothers and their struggle in the midst of war and political upheaval. It is based on "The Assassination of Ma," a Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) story about ... See full summary »

Directors:

Peter Chan, Wai Man Yip

Writers:

Tin Nam Chun (screenplay), Junli Guo (screenplay),

Stars:

Jet Li, Andy Lau, Takeshi Kaneshiro

15 wins & 11 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Jet Li	...	General Pang Qingyun (as Lianjie Li)
Andy Lau	...	Zhao Er-Hu (as Dehua Liu)
Takeshi Kaneshiro	...	Zhang Wen-Xiang (as Wu Jincheng)
Jinglei Xu	...	Lian
Xiaodong Guo	...	Huang Wen Jin
Jacky Heung	...	Shi Jin Biao
Zongwan Wei	...	Lord Chen
Bao-ming Gu	...	Lord Jiang
Kuirong Wang	...	Lord Di
Bo Zhou	...	Lu Da Shan
Yachao Wang	...	Gou Zi
Xiao Yun Wang	...	Xiao Fu
Peng Guo	...	Xiao Shun
Ailei Yu	...	Wang Xiao Shou
You Zhang	...	Liu Jin

Storyline

It's a heroic tale of three blood brothers and their struggle in the midst of war and political upheaval. It is based on "The Assassination of Ma," a Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) story about the killing of general Ma Xinyi. The story was filmed by Zhang Che in 1973 as The Blood Brothers.

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Plot Keywords:

blood brother | assassination | general | dynasty | soldier | 

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Genres:

Action | Drama | History | War

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for sequences of strong violence

Details

Official Sites:

Official site Official site [cn]

Country:

Hong Kong China

Language:

Mandarin

Release Date:

12 December 2007 (China)

Also Known As:

The Warlords

Filming Locations:

Beijing, China

Box Office

Budget:

$40,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend:

$10,073 (USA) (2 April 2010)

Gross:

$128,978 (USA) (14 May 2010)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Media Asia Films, Morgan & Chan Films, China Film Group

Technical Specs

Runtime:

126 min 113 min (international)

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

The main battle sequence had a detailed script treatment of over 20 pages and a maximum of 8 cameras rolling simultaneously.

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Goofs

25 minutes into the movie, the curse word "gou ri de" (literally: dog, Japanese, of) was used. The expression means "Japanese dog" which originates from the Japanese invasion during World War II. The movie takes places in the 19th century, so the expression had not come about yet.

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Quotes

General Pang Qingyun: Remember my face, so you can seek vengeance in the next life.

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Connections

Referenced in Bad Movie Beatdown: Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen - Part 1 (2011)

User Reviews

The epic movie worth all the awards it has won

Perhaps the quality of this film becomes most apparent when compared to other productions of similar genre. My experience of watching Three Kingdoms has become a fading memory on a dusty shelf after I watched Warlords. It's the kind of movie that reminds you that there are websites where one can review movies, and doesn't let you rest until you tell others about it.

Essentially, Tau Ming Chong is a tragedy, making a steep turn into the dark closer towards the end. It may be a bit on the heavy side, but by the time you realize that, the movie has already sucked you in completely.

An excellent acting team led by Jet Li makes sure that everything else is just frosting around the cake of well developed characters. That's not to say that the frosting is inferior. This movie has everything going for it: choreography, special effects, sound and story. It has a something for everyone, although Warlords is definitely a boys' movie, full of hardcore violence, brotherhood issues and politics. The story is raw and keeps the mind occupied with some of its steeper turns.

If you liked movies like Troy, chances are you'll enjoy it's much darker Eastern family member Tau Ming Chong, possibly one of the best movies ever created.