Actors: Andy Lau, Takeshi Kaneshiro, Jet Li
Directors: Peer Chen
Format: DVD Region, NTSC, Widescreen, Subtitled
Region: All Regions
Number of discs: 1
Product Description
Winner of the 27th Annual HK film Award for Best Picture, Best Director and Best Actor (8 awards total). 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".
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
The Taiping Rebellion has plunged the country in chaos. General Quing-yun Pang (Jet Li) is the lone survivor of a massive battle between the Christian Taiping and the Qing dynasty under command. That evening, he finds comfort in the arms of comely Lian (Xu Jinglei) but she disappears the following day. Pang encounters a group of bandits led by Er-hu Zhao (Andy Lau) and Jiang (Kaneshiro) who are having difficulty in survival. As fate would have it, the three takes a blood oath to join the Qing army to quell the rebellion.
The Taiping rebellion is among the bloodiest civil war ever recorded in history. The body count rivals the ones during World War II. The Taiping rebellion has a lot to do with religion and cultural ideology, and those powerful issues have been downplayed in favor of the theme of brotherhood, love and war. The film fails to take advantage of its historical context. Quite disappointing really, apparently, the producers presume that the usual theme of brotherhood and loyalty are more universal and more appealing to international audiences. I looked up the details of the Taiping rebellion, and I have to say, even though "The Warlords" is in no means a bad film, it's full potential hasn't been achieved. Rather, the rebellion is only used as a backdrop and not really the film's main premise.
As for the battle scenes, it may well be the bloodiest I've seen so far in Hong Kong cinema. Limbs are severed and there are a few gruesome beheadings. The sequences still have the martial arts influence, but no hints of wires are shown. U.S. audiences may need hints of Chinese history to be able to fully grasp the proceedings, there's a lot of commentary to China's tumultuous past and there is some effective human drama in the brothers' contrasting ideas regarding war and righteousness. Pang is a realist while Er-hu is an idealist, I'm pretty certain you have an idea how two opposing ideologies cannot coexist. Sadly, the missing cultural impact of the war minimizes the film's depth, making the horrors of war less involving.
Directors: Peer Chen
Format: DVD Region, NTSC, Widescreen, Subtitled
Region: All Regions
Number of discs: 1
Product Description
Winner of the 27th Annual HK film Award for Best Picture, Best Director and Best Actor (8 awards total). 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".
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
The Taiping Rebellion has plunged the country in chaos. General Quing-yun Pang (Jet Li) is the lone survivor of a massive battle between the Christian Taiping and the Qing dynasty under command. That evening, he finds comfort in the arms of comely Lian (Xu Jinglei) but she disappears the following day. Pang encounters a group of bandits led by Er-hu Zhao (Andy Lau) and Jiang (Kaneshiro) who are having difficulty in survival. As fate would have it, the three takes a blood oath to join the Qing army to quell the rebellion.
The Taiping rebellion is among the bloodiest civil war ever recorded in history. The body count rivals the ones during World War II. The Taiping rebellion has a lot to do with religion and cultural ideology, and those powerful issues have been downplayed in favor of the theme of brotherhood, love and war. The film fails to take advantage of its historical context. Quite disappointing really, apparently, the producers presume that the usual theme of brotherhood and loyalty are more universal and more appealing to international audiences. I looked up the details of the Taiping rebellion, and I have to say, even though "The Warlords" is in no means a bad film, it's full potential hasn't been achieved. Rather, the rebellion is only used as a backdrop and not really the film's main premise.
As for the battle scenes, it may well be the bloodiest I've seen so far in Hong Kong cinema. Limbs are severed and there are a few gruesome beheadings. The sequences still have the martial arts influence, but no hints of wires are shown. U.S. audiences may need hints of Chinese history to be able to fully grasp the proceedings, there's a lot of commentary to China's tumultuous past and there is some effective human drama in the brothers' contrasting ideas regarding war and righteousness. Pang is a realist while Er-hu is an idealist, I'm pretty certain you have an idea how two opposing ideologies cannot coexist. Sadly, the missing cultural impact of the war minimizes the film's depth, making the horrors of war less involving.
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