To War
Jet Li is General Pang Qingyun, leader of hundreds of men in the Ching Army. He manages to survive an onslaught of Taiping soldiers by hiding amongst the dead at the outset of the film. The Ho Army, who were told to join Qingyun and his forces, betrayed them and everyone in Qingyun’s army died, except for him. Saddened and nearly dead, he manages to stumble into a small village where he is helped by Lian (Jinglei Xu). They strike up a relationship that night, but it’s abruptly ended when Lian disappears the next day, leaving Qingyun confused about his time with her.
The following day, Zhang Wen-Xiang (Takeshi Kaneshiro) attacks Qingyun, but Qingyun defends himself. Impressed, Wen-Xiang takes Qingyun back to his bandit camp to introduce him to Zhao Er-Hu (Andy Lau). Qingyun also finds Lian there, but she is owned by Er Hu, and the dangerous love triangle between Qingyun, Lian, and Er-Hu begins. This becomes a very important subplot throughout the film.
Intending to leave the next day, Qingyun is resting when suddenly the Ho Army attempts to raid the camp. Qingyun, Er-Hu, and Wen-Xiang fend them off and inspire the other bandits. Afterwards, the three decide to become blood brothers, defending themselves, each other, and their beliefs, at all costs.
As hard times fall upon the bandits, Qingyun convinces the camp to join in the army. They do so, and with this blood brother trio at the helm, the Ching Army begins to see victory against the Taiping. Their influence and granted power from the war council grows, but their relationships begin to strain and eventually completely fail. The high tension between the brothers eventually erupts into tragedy for all three brothers.
I’ve seen several of these epic historical re-telling films, such as Hero, Red Cliff, House of Flying Daggers, The Curse of the Golden Flowers, and to compare this one against those, I would say it’s somewhere in the middle or lower end of the pack. It’s not that the acting or directing is poor, but the story was too dramatic and romantic, if not Shakespearean, for my liking. The action scenes are nicely done, and are primarily of the epic warfare variety where hundreds of men bludgeon themselves with spears and arrows. Jet Li gets a few cameo action sequences, such as when he fends off Wen-Xiang early in the movie when they first meet, but this isn’t the type of film where Jet Li gets into long, solo combat sequences like in Hero. That’s understandable given the story is about the three blood brothers, not just Qingyun. While I’m not sure more Jet Li solo action, or more action in general would have been the right fit for the movie, I would have preferred that in comparison to the many dialogue, drama heavy scenes.
As it stands, The Warlords is certainly a good movie, but, similar to something like House of Flying Daggers or Curse of the Golden Flower, it’s too dramatic to warrant many repeated viewings. It’s a powerful drama with strong characters, but once you’ve seen it through, you don’t have that feeling of necessarily wanting to see it again (in contrast to something like Hero, Fearless, Red Cliff, or Ip Man).
On Blu-ray
The Warlords on Blu-ray comes packaged in a standard Blu-ray case. Image quality is very good, but I wouldn’t call it outstanding. There are several scenes with some significant grain, but these are generally pretty rare. Far more often, you’ll see some impressive set design and locales that are complimented by great technical quality. The DTS-HD 5.1 audio doesn’t disappoint, and you’ll hear ever cannon, scream, and dialogue with impressive clarity.
There are quite a few extra features included with Blu-ray. Most are in SD, but the quality and quantity are very good. Included are:
-Deleted & Extended Scenes (27m SD and 19m HD respectively) – Plenty of extra footage here that didn’t make the final cut.
-Making of (39m, SD) – A fifteen part making of feature.
-Warlords In 117 Days (35m, SD) – A production diary complete with plenty of production and behind the scenes footage, as well as interviews.
-Warlords Behind The Scenes Special (18m, SD) – Additional production footage.
-HDNet Warlords Feature (4m38s, HD) – Peter Chan is interviewed; lots of footage from the final cut too.
-International Trailer (3m40s, SD)
That’s what you can expect on The Warlords on Blu-ray. Let’s get to the summary…
