The Warlords (2007)

China, 1860s: Having his army slaughtered, General Qingyun joins 2 bandit leaders in raids on rebels and in blood oath. They form a Qing loyal army with eyes on rebel held Suzhou and Nanjing.

Directors:

Peter Ho-Sun Chan (as Peter Chan), Wai-Man Yip (co-director)

Writers:

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

Stars:

Jet Li, Andy Lau, Takeshi Kaneshiro

18 wins & 27 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Jet Li	...	General Pang Qingyun (as Lianjie Li)
Andy Lau	...	Zhao Erhu (as Dehua Liu)
Takeshi Kaneshiro	...	Jiang Wuyang (as Wu Jincheng)
Jinglei Xu	...	Liansheng
Xiaodong Guo	...	Huang Wenjin
Jacky Heung	...	Shi Jinbiao
Zongwan Wei	...	Lord Chen
Pao-Ming Ku	...	Lord Jiang
Kuirong Wang	...	Lord Di
Bo Zhou	...	Lu Dashan
Zhaoqi Shi	...	He Kui
Yachao Wang	...	Gouzi
Xiao Yun Wang	...	Fu
Peng Guo	...	Shun
Ailei Yu	...	Wang Xiaoshou

Storyline

Set in China in the 1860's during the Taiping Rebellion, the story is based on the assassination of Ma Xinyi in 1870. Loyalist General Qingyun is the only survivor of a battle with anti-Qing rebels. He encounters a starving village, whose inhabitants engage in banditry to survive, where he is nursed back to health by the attractive Liansheng. With his strength regained, Qingyun impresses one of the village bandit leaders, Jiang Wuyang, with his fighting skills. Wuyang introduces him to his "big brother", who also happens to be Liansheng's husband, Zhao Erhu and Qingyun begins to assist them with their raids. Qingyun convinces his two new comrades to form a loyalist army unit to fight the rebels and feed their own people. The three men swear a blood oath. Their stunning military successes impress the governing powers, but as Qingyun's influence begins to grow, they soon fear him. The political and emotional stakes will be tested, leading to differences between the blood brothers.

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Plot Keywords:

blood brothers | betrayal | 19th century | qing dynasty | historical event | 

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Genres:

Action | Adventure | Drama | History | Romance | War

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for sequences of strong violence

Did You Know?

Trivia

The film was originally titled "The Blood Brothers". Director Peter Chan said it was influenced by the late Chang Cheh's 1973 film "The Blood Brothers", which is itself based on a famous high profile assassination of a local governor in 1870, but denied that it is a remake. He also decided to change the title to The Warlords in order to avoid confusion.

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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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Alternate Versions

The UK version is cut by 16 secs to remove shots of cruel horsefalls.

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Connections

Featured in Films of Fury: The Kung Fu Movie Movie (2011)

User Reviews

In Chinese, Jet Li can act.

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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Details

Official Sites:

Official site [China] Official site [Japan]

Country:

Hong Kong China British Virgin Islands

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 USA:

$10,073, 4 April 2010

Gross USA:

$129,078

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$42,883,181

Company Credits

Production Co:

Media Asia Films, Morgan & Chan Films, China Film Group Corporation (CFGC)

Technical Specs

Runtime:

126 min 113 min (international)

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital DTS (5.1)

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1