Warlords (2007)

Warlords opens with a brief history lesson explaining the time period to those unfamiliar with Chinese history. After this introduction and opening credits, a haggard and beefy looking Jet Li emerges from amidst a sea of corpses. He is revived by a mysterious woman in a nearby village and soon finds himself joining the ranks of a group of bandits led by Zhao Er-Hu (Andy Lau) and Zheng Wen-Xiang (Takeshi Kaneshiro). Having problems of their own caused by the Ho army (the same ones who allowed Pang Qingyun's (Jet Li) army to get massacred), Quingyun convinces the bandits to join up with the Qing forces to get paid (in order to feed their families) and also get power. The rest of the film follows their exploits as an army and the downfall of the heroes trying to deal with the political aftermath of their success as well as their own strained relationships.

The film's battle sequences are shot in a very gritty style reminiscent of that seen in Segei Bodrov's Mongol. The battles are bloody, muddy, and brutal. There are no wires and mystical action like that seen in some of Zhang Yimou's latest films (Hero, House of Flying Daggers); Director Peter Chan has a very different interpretation of how war should look. The film is lacking in vibrant colors and everything is gray and often set in the rain. Despite the high levels of drama, the imagery in the film is dark and often depressing as if to show off the ugly truth behind the romanticism of the three war heroes. Even with the darker tone, the battles scenes are epic and beautiful. In one of the major conflicts of the film, there is a high angle shot showing the battlefield in which Qingyun's forces are surround by circling horses of the enemy which are in turn surrounded by the circling forces of his reinforcements; the formations look like the spiraling eye of a storm. Jet Li may be in this film, but this is not quite the martial arts action picture that his presence brings to mind. There are elements of martial arts within the film, but the action is mostly about war and large-scale conflict over one man's particular ability to fight another. Jet Li is very convincing and shows a great deal of range in what may be one of his best performances. Andy Lau and Takeshi Kaneshiro are also very good additions making the acting in this film stand out.

The story follows the formula of some of the classic romantic epic tragedies: full of war, betrayal, love, death, and the rise and fall of heroes. There is one scene that resonates strongly after watching the film and that is the scene depicting the Suzhou Massacre incident. Part of what makes this scene so memorable are the reasons behind the way it turns out. Both sides have their own point of view but the reality demands that a certain resolution, despite how horrible it may sound, may be the only realistic option to go through with. The film is full of the tragedy of dead soldiers and you can see the weight of their deaths on the shoulders of the three heroes with all the shots showing the mountains of corpses that seem to be the result of each fight. Though Quingyun is determined to save the land and is convinced that what he is doing will result in long lasting peace, the price of his ambitions and goals are paid for in bodies.