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Title: The Warlords (2007)
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| 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 | |
|
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Bo Zhou | ... | Lu Dashan |
| Zhaoqi Shi | ... | He Kui | |
|
|
Yachao Wang | ... | Gouzi |
|
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Xiao Yun Wang | ... | Fu |
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Peng Guo | ... | Shun |
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Ailei Yu | ... | Wang Xiaoshou |
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. Written by Sonja Pavkovic
..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.