The Warlords

No sooner do we end one great contest, than its time for another! Next up to win are three copies of Jet Li’s The Warlords, from Metrodome Films. This one is again open to all, but be aware that these are R2 discs. Set during the Taiping Rebellion, the Qing Dynasty was brought to its knees by a militant dictator who attracts hundreds of thousands of disgruntled insurgents to his cause, thrusting the nation into chaotic infighting and warlordism. Emerging from a field of corpses, Qing General Pang (Jet Li) is the only member of his troop to survive a fatal battle with enemy forces. Wandering through the impoverished land, he encounters young outlaw Jiang (Takeshi Kaneshiro) and ends up joining a gang of bandits led by the brash and brazen Zhao (Andy Lau). Realizing that the only way to survive during such times is to join the fight,

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The Chinese historical epic has gone from strength to strength in recent years, with films such as “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon” and “Hero” through to John Woo’s mega budgeted blockbuster “Red Cliff” bringing the past to life in increasingly grandiose fashion. One genre outing which has stood out from the ever growing crowd of pomp and spectacle obsessed productions is Peter Chan’s “The Warlords”. Originally released across Asia back in 2007 and having since enjoyed a successful run on screens in the West, the film is a very different proposition, being far more downbeat and thoughtful than its peers. A loose remake of the 1973 Shaw Brothers classic “Blood Brothers”, the film was not only a massive hit at the box office, but also won over the critics, grabbing a slew of international accolades, including Best Film at the Golden Horse and Hong Kong Film Awards. The film has now
James Mudge

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Director: Peter Chan. Review by Tim Irwin. Imagine an historical war/action epic film, starring Jet Li, Andy Lau, and Takeshi Kaneshiro. Now think of how awesome it would be if it was well made and coherent. Throw in an extra dose of tragedy, and you have /The Warlords/. It's 1861, and a bedraggled Jet Li pulls himself out from underneath a sea of bodies. He's the sole survivor of the army he was commanding, but now he walks like a dead man. He stumbles down a road filled with refugees fleeing the fighting of the civil war, in which Teiping rebels are trying to defeat the Ching Dynasty. A woman stops to help him and cares for him through the night. The next day he gets caught up with a band of thieves and travels back to their village. This is an epic, so to avoid taking an hour to

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