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34 out of 40 people found the following comment useful :-
War Is Hell, 4 March 2008
9/10
Author: indofinmusic from United States

Last night I had the opportunity to view one of the best films i've seen in a very long time. One that stays with you far after the closing credits. One that requires time after viewing to untie all the knots in your stomach.

Peter Chan's "The Warlords" is a period epic in every sense of the word. Chan covers a lot of ground here depicting war and the consequences thereof consisting of his anti-war sentiments. It tells the story of three "brothers" played brilliantly by Jet Li (Fearless), Andy Lau (Infernal Affairs) and Takeshi Kaneshiro (House Of Flying Daggers) who make a pact of brotherhood to one another that consists of killing anyone who harms one of the brothers and killing any brother who harms another brother as they lead an army through war after war taking over city after city.

It's incredible to watch the thought process of making vital decisions during a battle or within their own army to defy humanity for the "greater good". It shows the internal and external struggle of these decisions by opposing points of view. The emotions felt by these men translate in any language and leave you emotionally drained after watching the film through to its tragic end.

The cinematography is outstanding, the budget is huge, the directing brilliant and the war scenes brutal as can be. We're talking decapitations, gushing blood, limbs sliced off and a man being blown up by a cannonball. Chan is delivering a truth in the brutality of war rather than dressing it up to keep (most of it) realistic.

War is hell.... and this film will take you there and back. Highest recommendation.

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53 out of 78 people found the following comment useful :-
Get your history right, 26 December 2007
9/10
Author: R Tang from Hong Kong

I'm afraid the previous commentator has got his history very wrong. The story is set in the 1860s during the late Ching Dynasty; so "early Chin and Ming armies" is complete cobblers. Both the Ching government troops and the Taiping rebels were bankrolled and supplied with firearms by the Western powers who wanted to spread their bets on which side came out as the victor. Hence the firepower depicted in the film is historically accurate. But I have to say those trenches for the Suzhou siege were a bit "O-O-T" but Sir, the Marginot line was not made of trenches, trenches actually belonged to the 1st World War !!!

The film is great overall though. The acting is in particular top-notch.

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45 out of 67 people found the following comment useful :-
A Nutshell Review: The Warlords, 13 December 2007
10/10
Author: DICK STEEL from Singapore

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

Two's a company and three's a crowd. In movieland, that is almost always true, with no black and white, but with shades of grey instead. Of late, period or martial chivalry movies either look aesthetically beautiful like Zhang Yimou's trilogy of Hero, House of Flying Daggers and Curse of the Golden Flower, or opt for the grittier, more down to earth look with plenty of dirt and grime like Battle of Wits. Director Peter Chan's The Warlords follows the latter with its strained colors and muck on everyone's face, in parallel of the grey that befalls everyone in this tale of a trio's struggles with the System, and amongst themselves.

Those who are familiar with stories featuring similar themes like brotherly bonds, blood brothers and the likes, will find that The Warlords, when striped away to its core, conforms to the same. But what Peter Chan did, and I thought succeeded, was to fuse really hard core battle action sequences with character driven drama, and having the stellar leads of Andy Lau, Jet Li and Takeshi Kaneshiro play something quite unlike their usual on screen personae, well, except maybe Kaneshiro. Publicity talk has been rife of Jet Li's unbelievable pay package taking up almost 40% of the production cost, but if that was true, I'd guess it must've been a reward to take on something risky (to a screen idol that is), and as it turned out, it could instead be a career defining role for Li, who doesn't get as much opportunity to show off those slick martial arts moves, no doubt in part wanting to stick the movie as close to reality as possible (bye, shawdowless kick!)

Li opens the movie as a disgraced general Ma Xin Yi, who was betrayed and only survived a massacre of his troops by the cowardly act of playing dead (Yes! Jet Li, playing a coward, pretending to be dead! Told you!) In his quest to survive incognito, he chances upon a bandit Zhang Wen Xiang, played by Kaneshiro, who acknowledges General Ma's fighting prowess, and recruits him to the gang of Lau's Cao Er-Hu. However, the bandit life is not for a man of war, who sees the poor bandit village getting their arses kicked when soldiers of a rival court raid them, 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, the trio of Ma, Zhang and Cao sign a blood oath, and thus the blood brothers are born - one a charismatic leader, one a general looking to reclaim his honour, and one in every bonding, the earnest and faithful follower.

As the story unfolds, you begin to see how de-facto leaders always feel threatened by young upstarts, both in the politics within the small band of brothers, and in the bigger picture with the court officials. With individuals, there's almost always a clash of ideals, with many methods available in achieving common objectives, and one man's insatiable ambition will put the others at risk in Machiavellian terms. Finding themselves stronger in unity, repeated success on the battlefield start to change folks and reveal true intentions. Even the rule of law established becomes subject to interpretation based on the moment's convenience, and core principles like honour and gentlemen's agreement get tossed out of the window. As innermost desires are revealed, you'll begin to see how seriously or not, the blood oath is being treated by each individual, especially when one finds the other being externally threatened, or betrayal of temptation in the highest order courtesy of female lead Xu Jinglei's Lian as the token flower amongst the thorns.

However, the story bore strength in its presentation of key moments where you'll be called upon to question and even judge the characters, their decisions, and at times, forced to choose sides. You may be convinced by one argument, yet understand the necessity of why something else was done instead. And I'd think you'll probably won't stick to one side for the most parts, and such bringing out the shades of grey that you'll experience for yourself, if you happen to be in the shoes of the trio's foot soldiers. Naivety is truly unkind, and sometimes one is just a pawn in situations far beyond one's grasp, and you can see how this rings true for almost every character here.

While it is easy to dwell on the battle sequences and make this one heck of an action romp in the veins of 300 (ok, so this one had its "108 heroes" moment in a nod towards probable upcoming Water Margin movies), which it did look to suspiciously tread along the same vein, I thought the filmmakers here were smart to know when to show gore, with the decapitations, piercings and the likes, to knowing when to retract such in your face moments for maximum effect. In the hands of a lesser director, perhaps a key brutal scene will mean to show the obvious full frontal, but in showing you something else instead, with focus on individual reactions and the reactions of compatriots at one point in time, I thought it achieved a more powerful effect, with the audience I'm with tonight completed dumbfounded and silent throughout the scene.

A remake of sorts of Shaw Brothers' Ci Ma some 35 years ago (directed by Chang Cheh and starring David Chiang, Ti Lung and Chen Kuan Tai in the lead roles), Peter Chan has brought to us a worthy Chinese epic movie with lavish production values, and one deserving of being called a magnificent effort. And yes, this deserves a watch in seeing who's actually playing who, and with a stellar cast to boot, I don't see why not. Highly recommended!

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25 out of 36 people found the following comment useful :-
The Lord of War, 15 December 2007
9/10
Author: samuelding85 from Singapore

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

Director Peter Chan's latest blockbuster was a highly anticipated production during the Christmas season, where it is the only Chinese production that seems to stands out from the other Hollywood blockbusters at the same period.

For the price of one ticket, you will not only get to see three well known actors (Jet Li, Andy Lau and Takeshi Kaneshiro), but also a war drama between the country and brotherhood, which has exceed most people's expectation.

Set during the Taiping Rebellion during the 1860's to 1870's in China, we were introduced to General Pang Qing Yun (Li) as the only survivor in a war with the enemies. He was taken in by a lady named Lian (China actress Xu Jing Lei), where he developed feelings for her when she offers him some food. Later, he follows two brothers, Zhao Er Hu (Lau) and Jiang Wu Yang (Kaneshiro), who were Robin Hood liked bandits, to rob for food from the military.

After Pang saves Zhao from the military, he sworn into a brotherhood with Zhao and Jiang. They entered the military together with other male bandits and their bonds becomes stronger after going through a war. However, this marks the beginning to end the brotherhoods among the trio.

Pang wants to conquer the other states at all cost, while Zhao insisted in peace talks to avoid more casualties. At the same time, Pang develops feelings for Lian, and upon to know that Lian is the wife of Zhao, Pang takes back Zhao's promises to a group of soldier under their captivity of releasing them by killing them.

The war has come to an end and the trio has been living in peace. However, Pang wants more than what he has, and for that, he turned towards Zhao to achieve his motives, and Jiang wants to stop the break-up of the brotherhood at all costs.

While The Warlords is based on the late Hong Kong movie director Chang Cheh's 1973's The Blood Brothers, Chan has make The Warlords looks much more better, yet preserving the spirit of Blood Brothers at the same time. It is amazing that a director who makes romantic dramas could churn out a great war epic with swordfighting elements, and at the same time, brings out the emotion of the humans.

The battle scene which appears shortly after the the start of the movie marks the success of the movie, where we see people sacrificing themselves for the bonds of brotherhood, and towards a better life. This is one of the values that can be seen through in the movie. In some way, the battle scene resembles the climax of Edward Zwick's The Last Samurai (2003).

At the same time, the relationship between Pang, Zhao, Jiang and Lian shows the desire and the dark side of the human nature and emotions, which is also similar to Zwick's The Legends of the Fall (1994), where father and sons fall out over a woman they loved.

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.

Human emotions and war have never looked so good when combined together. And to amaze the audience even further, this is the first time Peter Chan tried to combine the two elements together. Chan has exceeded the expectations from the audience after several martial arts flop of similar genres from art-house and drama directors, ever after since Ang Lee's Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000) has put Chinese martial art on world map.

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23 out of 33 people found the following comment useful :-
An intricate epic on the complicated relationship between 3 'brothers', 6 March 2008
9/10
Author: jxharding from South Africa

This is not Crouching Tiger. It's as good as Hero,House of Flying daggers. You wont be amazed by the CGI special effects. You will be stunned by the intense constant evolution of the story line and relationships between 3 men who have much to learn from each other.

I don't wanna spoil further. I want to say that i am really disappointed in the west for turning a blind eye to eastern movies in general. This movie is an epic. It deserves 20 000 votes. I cannot believe some of the movies that reach Nr 1 at the Box Office when only a relative few informed bothering with movies like this.

This is some timeless movie making.

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25 out of 37 people found the following comment useful :-
Good Chinese cinema, 13 February 2008
10/10
Author: nicolovvassil from Germany

I read all the reviews here (there are only 21 by this time)and there were just 2 reviews that didn't come from Asia. Here is a third one. "The Warlords" is a great epic war movie based on historical events:the last decades of the Qing dynasty, in particular the years of the Taiping Rebellion (1850-1864) that cost the lives of 70 000 000 people (that's 10m more than World War II, but who's counting). I agree that this is the best Chinese movie 2007, though Ang Lee's "Lust.Caution" is very good too. The Warlords movie budget was $ 40 million(after seeing it you will ask yourself "How did they do that with so little money?!?")A production of the same caliber would cost in the US at least $ 100 million. But this movie is the proof that cheap stuff that comes form China isn't always bad.Same with the outstanding performance of Jet Li(out of the $40m budget he received $13m payment)who was worth the money.There is a lot of drama in the movie, but also a lot of action.If you like battle scenes like in "Braveheart" this movie will deliver.If you liked "Crouching Tiger, hidden dragon" and "Hero" you will like this one."The Warlords" though is not a fairytale like those two, it is very realistic and if you are expecting to see people flying around,kung fu fighting or something like that, you will be disappointed.There is none of this here.But the movie is good. ten stars.

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12 out of 14 people found the following comment useful :-
Not bad, actually, not bad..., 10 January 2009
8/10
Author: Razvan Alexandru from Romania

..for a movie that's a bit difficult for Western audiences to enjoy. I mean, let's face it, we're not exactly suckers for blood oaths as the main plot device, which is the case here, and the story may feel hard to follow at times.

Two things made be enjoy this one. For one thing, the Chinese did a pretty good job as far as giving the movie the proper epic side it needed. There's only a fine line between epic cinematography and drollery and these guys managed not to cross it, unlike, say, Gladiator or '300'.

Then, there's the acting. Having only seen Jet Li in Hollywood movies before I thought he was something of a Jackie Chan without the funny face. I stand corrected, he gives a great performance in Tau Ming Chong, he is truly believable as his character, general Pang, gradually turns into a ruthless backstabbing freak for power. Finally, kudos to the actor playing Er Hu, Andy Lau. I hope I'll get to see more of him.

Having seen the abominable blockbuster that 'The Last Samurai' really is the other night, it definitely enhanced my appreciation for this title.

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33 out of 57 people found the following comment useful :-
Peter Chan's anti-war effort & a tweak with the HK gangster genre, 21 December 2007
8/10
Author: fundaquayman from Hong Kong

I'm not a fan of Peter Chan's films... didn't like COMRADES, ALMOST A LOVE STORY (1996), thought HE'S A WOMAN, SHE'S A MAN (1994) was OK, but not spectacular. His films are often injected with a little too much calculated sentimentality to me. Yet after watching WARLORDS (2007), I must say this is the first film that made me feel the calculations worked. Peter Chan learned from the mistakes of Zhang Yimou with HERO (2002), HOUSE OF FLYING DAGGERS, and that lame piece of crap CURSE OF THE GOLDEN FLOWER (2006), he learned that big production and art direction doesn't mean the audience won't expect a good story and direction to go with a film, he also learned that Andrew Lau's triad-gangster-cop INFERNAL AFFAIRS formula can get old if you keep heading toward a beaten path... furthermore, any film that glorifies gangster camaraderie almost means doom with the Chinese film board.

What Peter Chan did was very clever, he actually found a story that allows Andy Lau's affected style of acting to fit the context of a story - WAR. Lau's acting never convinced me in contemporary story lines, but it worked with WARLORDS. In fact, he used all three of the male leads to their type-casted best - Jet Li reprises the hero who sees the greater good but has to accept the fact - that nothing comes without a price, while Takeshi assumes, again, the role of a passive and reluctant hero caught in a crossfire. All the special effects come from the same software you see in big budget films whether it is South Korea, Hollywood, Europe, or Japan, and production value is nothing less than any of the pretty-but-empty period-pieces Zhang Yimou or Chen Kaige tried to fool audiences with... I can see the homage/inspiration from Coppola's APOCALYPSE NOW, the original GET CARTER,... there were even moments where I thought I was watching a tribute to John Woo's A BETTER TOMORROW or THE KILLER -- WARLORDS (2007) is Peter Chan's best film to date, and while there is plenty of sentimentality in the key scenes, the context and the flow of the story actually lifted it from what could have been melodrama, to quite compelling performances.

Whatever calculations and formulas Peter Chan used on his previous films that I didn't like, the math worked for WARLORDS (2007)... and what results is some of the best performances I've seen from Jet Li that doesn't start and end with just fight scenes...

What I'm amazed with is how a Chinese period film is also one of the better anti-war movies I've seen in a long while.

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12 out of 16 people found the following comment useful :-
In Chinese, Jet Li can act., 20 May 2008
8/10
Author: suntonova from United States

In "The Warlords," another rendition of the classic Chinese tale of loyalty and betrayal of three brothers, we see evidence of something many may not realize: when not hampered by his horrible accent, Jet Li can act, in fact, for this role he received an Asian Film Award nomination for Best Actor. He may not be a Deniro or a Denzel, but he's at least got that certain intensity that makes Clint Eastwood. We do not, however, get to see what American audiences know Li for, his martial arts prowess. As winner of the Hong Kong Film Awards both for best film and best director, Peter Chan ("The Eye," 1 through infinity it seems), we see here an exemplary piece of cinema which demonstrates the high quality of movies coming from China today. The cinematography is well done, costumes are excellent, epic battle sequences are choreographed beautifully and the characters and complex character relationships are well developed, sincere and sympathetic. In addition to Li, we see moving performances by Andy Lau, a winner of numerous Asian film awards, and Takeshi Kaneshiro, both who Americans may know from "The House of Flying Daggers." If you are looking for a "Jet Li movie" you may likely find yourself bored. Despite the war background of this movie it is, at heart, a drama, and a very good one at that.

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9 out of 13 people found the following comment useful :-
Great ensemble piece, 11 September 2008
8/10
Author: kosmasp

Since I've watched MUSA (The Warrior) a few years ago, I'm kinda spoiled. It's really difficult for any other movie, that sets out to outdo MUSA. I haven't watched any movie who could outdo it. Warlords didn't achieve that either, but it's still a very good movie. Which is thanks to the stellar cast (performances), which include Andy Lau, Jet Lee and Takeshi Kaneshiro.

Unfortunately the first time I watched the movie, I did see the dubbed (english) version of it (with Greek subtitles). I couldn't really enjoy it, because quite frankly the dubbing was really bad (you can't re-create a certain mood), but I had the chance to see it again recently and as expected I did like it a lot. I even saw a few new things, character bits in it. It has also great (battle) fight scenes in it, it has a political side to it and small love story. If you're not afraid of watching an Eastern or even better, you like watching them, than you should give this a try!

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