The Warlords

Peter Chan's opulent military action film (co-directed by Wai Man Yip) is set during the Taiping Rebellion of the 1860s. General Pang Qingyun (Jet Li) is the sole survivor of a massacre, able to escape only because he plays dead while his troops are overtaken. Given shelter by the lovely Lian (Jinglei Xu), Pang later joins a gang led by bandits Zhao (Andy Lau) and Zhang (Takeshi Kaneshiro), forming a union as “blood brothers” in a bonding ritual that involves cutting the throats of three strangers. Matters are later complicated by Pang's love for Lian, who happens to be Zhao's wife. The Warlords is a visually stunning film full of brilliantly staged battles that delivers both old-style screen spectacle and a harrowing view of warfare's less glorious aspects. The film's crowning achievement involves the blockade of Suzhou City, a sequence offering harsh insights into the effects of combat on everyone, from the organizers to the trench soldiers ordered to fight despite disease and starvation. Fueling the action is Li's vigorous performance, which features surprisingly dark edges as Pang's militaristic strategies run afoul of his bandit partners' guerrilla-style attacks. The one weak link is the love triangle, which feels like an afterthought, but aside from this subplot, The Warlords is a very satisfying film. Recommended. [Note: DVD/Blu-ray extras include a “117 Days” production journal (36 min.), deleted scenes (27 min.), and trailers. Exclusive to the Blu-ray release are a behind-the-scenes featurette (18 min.), an HDNet promo featurette (5 min.), and the BD-Live function. Bottom line: a solid extras package for a fine war epic.] (P. Hall)