Title: The Warlords (15)
Year: 2007
Running Time: 108 minutes
Director: Peter Ho-Sun Chan with Wai Man Yip
Cast: Jet Li (General Pang Qingyun), Andy Lau (Zhao Erhu), Takeshi Kaneshiro (Jiang Wuyang)
Notes: Won numerous awards. In Mandarin.
Rating: 9
Thoughts: A heroic tale of three blood brothers finding a path through brutal warfare and political intrigue.
This feels epic from very early on as the three lead characters come together. They swear to harm any that harm them, then set out to capture numerous enemy cities through brutal warfare.
In the battles, there is a real sense of the difficulties of leadership and the horror of war. Indeed elements of this film are quite anti-war.
It looks great, in terms of some of the sets, the scenes, and the costumes, and there is a genuine feeling of loyalty and later, betrayal. It's also nice, considering one of the stars, that this is about a drawn-out, rebellion and not a martial arts fest.
Epic in scale, brutal in delivery and emotional throughout, this is a strong foreign language film.
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