Peter Chan’s take on the historical wuxia drama is far grittier and more grounded than we’re used to, with a fine performance by Jet Li that will surprise his critics – but do we really need another film like this?
Set against the Taiping Rebellion in the late Qing Dynasty in the 1860s, director Peter Chan’s (He’s a Woman, She’s a Man, Perhaps Love) period drama is packed with tumultuous battles, rivalry, betrayal and political intrigue.
The only survivor of a battle where his entire army was slaughtered, Qing general Ma Xinyi (Jet Li, The Forbidden Kingdom, Fearless) wanders aimlessly, believing his life is effectively over as well, until a chance meeting with a local woman who nurses him back to health. Befriending two bandits Cao Er-Hu (Andy Lau, Protégé, Infernal Affairs) and sidekick Zhang Wen-Xiang (Takeshi Kaneshiro, Red Cliff, Chungking Express), Ma finally convinces them to join the civil war going on around them when the village they control is raided by a Qing military, and the three become blood brothers.
The woman who helped Ma turns out to be Mi Lan (Xu Jinglei, Confession of Pain, Heroic Duo), Cao’s wife, who begins an affair with Ma. Meanwhile Ma and his new comrades quickly make a name for themselves with his former superiors, defeating a vastly greater force. Ma’s plans to take power and lead China away from the corruption lead him to boast that he can capture the Taiping strongholds Suzhou and Nanjing – a task that proves far more challenging than he ever could have imagined.
Rifts between the trio begin to split their vision of a new China, even as success is within their grasp – and however more sophisticated Ma believes his is than his comrades, is he truly a match for China’s ruling classes?
If the story sounds (vaguely) familiar to those with a greater knowledge of Hong Kong cinema then it should: the source material is the same real life events that inspired Zhang Che’s 1973 film The Blood Brothers. Chan has admitted he was influenced by it – even at one stage naming his film under the same title, before it was changed to avoid confusion.
Of course, beyond the basic similarities of the plot, the two have little in common – mainly because they come from such different cinematic language – save the melodramatic tone that pervades both versions. Indeed, Chan’s film spends so much time at near hysterical levels to become almost exhausting.
In many ways it thwarts much of good done by Chan’s more realistic vision of a period drama. The battle scenes are a brutal, fast-paced, giddy mix of swords, spears, guns and cannons – reminding you that these events were taking place at the same time as the American Civil War – that have more in common with the opening sequence of Saving Private Ryan than Hero, despite being masterminded by the same choreographer as the latter Ching Siu-tung. (Indeed scenes of the trenches surround the siege of Sozhou have far more in common with those of the first World War.) Siu-ting avoids his usual, and frankly wonderfully, baroque style (take some of the battle scenes in Curse Of The Golden Flower, for instance) for a more grounded style. The abilities of our trio, though still fantastic, stick to just this side of believable.
The cast spend much of the film dirty, greasy-haired, un-makeup and living in such squalor to highlight just how glossy most of these period dramas have been, even the films of Zhang Yimou. Of all these dramas, it seems closest to Kim Sung-su’s Musa The Warrior in style and tone, though Chen Kaige’s The Emperor and The Assassin seems another possible influence, exploring similar themes. It definitely adds a depth to the film uncommon in such work – beautifully photographed by cinematographer Arthur Wong (Double Vision, 2000 AD) and all in grittily sharp focus.
The acting itself, on the other hand, though solid steers towards the overplayed end of the spectrum, particularly Lau and Kaneshiro – reunited for the first time since House Of Flying Daggers. If anything it’s Jet Li whose performance stands out, seeming far more considered – even in comparison with his co-stars – that will surprise his critics. (You almost get the impression director Chan instructed him to simply tone everything down.) His character ultimately seems more manipulative than sympathetic, making difficult choices to further his career and achieve his vision of a new China. Xu Jinglei is also superb as the woman caught between the affections of two men.
Certain aspects jar with the attitudes of the era the story is set within. Ma’s chastising and subsequent execution of two soldiers who are found guilty of rape, for instance, seems to obvious a reference to the atrocities performed in Iraq by US soldiers – even if it does set up the very difficult decision Ma has to make later on with the captured soldiers of Suzhou.
Overall The Warlords is a strong example of this sort of period drama, exploring far more complex territory than other period dramas about war and idealisms that have to be put aside in order to achieve victory. It’s easily on of the best in this genre of movie – trouble is there have been so many of them, it’s hard not to want Hong Kong and Chinese filmmakers to look elsewhere for inspiration And with Ching Siu-ting’s return to the directing chair An Empress and the Warriors, and John Woo’s first Chinese language film in years Red Cliff (also starring Kaneshiro) still to come, that doesn’t look like it’s going to happen anytime soon.
The Warlords was shown as part of the London Film Festival, and goes on limited release around the UK from 7 November.
