The Warlords

The Warlords
Theatrical release poster
Traditional	投名狀
Simplified	投名状
Mandarin	Tóu Míng Zhuàng
Cantonese	Tau4 Ming4 Zong6
Directed by	Peter Chan
Produced by	Peter Chan Andre Morgan
Written by	Xu Lan Chun Tin-nam Aubery Lam Huang Jianxin Jojo Hui He Jiping Guo Junli James Yuen
Starring	Jet Li Andy Lau Takeshi Kaneshiro Xu Jinglei
Music by	Chan Kwong-wing Peter Kam Chatchai Pongprapaphan Leon Ko
Cinematography	Arthur Wong
Edited by	Wenders Li
Production company	Media Asia Films China Film Group Morgan & Chan Films
Distributed by	Media Asia Distribution
Release dates	12 December 2007 (2007-12-12) (China) 13 December 2007 (2007-12-13) (Hong Kong)
Running time	127 minutes
Country	Hong Kong China
Language	Mandarin
Budget	US$40,000,000
Box office	HK$27,495,779 (Hong Kong)

The Warlords (Chinese: 投名狀), previously known as The Blood Brothers, is a 2007 epic action war drama film directed by Peter Chan and starring Jet Li, Andy Lau, Takeshi Kaneshiro and Xu Jinglei. The film was released on 13 December 2007 simultaneously in most of Asia, except Japan.^[1] The film is set in the 1860s, during the Taiping Rebellion in the late Qing Dynasty in China and centers on the sworn brotherhood of three men.

Plot

The film is set in China in the 1860s, during the Taiping Rebellion. It is based on the assassination of Ma Xinyi in 1870. In the beginning, there is a battle between loyalists and rebels, during which all of the loyalists are killed except Qingyun, the general. Qingyun goes to a village nearby where the inhabitants engage in banditry, being led by two men, Erhu and Wuyang. He offers his assistance in executing a raid against a rebel convoy. However, a loyalist army assaults the village shortly afterward and seizes the spoils for themselves. Around this time, Qingyun begins an affair with Erhu's wife.

Since the villagers are poor and starving, Qingyun convinces them to fight the rebels as an independent loyalist war-band. Erhu and Wuyang are distrustful of Qingyun, so the three of them perform a blood ceremony where, under the pain of death, they promise to care for each other like brothers. The war-band wins a series of victories. Qingyun becomes ambitious and prepares to attack Suzhou and Nanjing. However, the government becomes fearful of Qingyun's growing influence, and decides to deny reinforcements and provisions. As a result, the attack on Suzhou becomes a year-long siege.

Erhu attempts to kill the enemy commander by sneaking into the city in disguise. He is quickly captured, but to his surprise, the enemy commander was already planning on surrendering, and allows Erhu to kill him in exchange for sparing his troops from execution. However, Qingyun refuses to honor the deal and has the prisoners massacred. Erhu considers desertion, but Qingyun convinces him that the attack on Nanjing will liberate millions of innocent lives.

Nanjing is easily taken, and Qingyun, in return for his grand success, is awarded the position of Nanjing's governor. As Qingyun waits for his inauguration, he tries to make friends with other upper-class people. Erhu, however, has been jaded by the war, and does improper things such as handing out bonus pay without permission. Qingyun responds by arranging for Erhu's murder, fearing a loss of reputation with the upper-class. Erhu, as he dies, curses the name of a rival, not realizing that he was betrayed by his own brother.

Wuyang, having discovered Qingyun's betrayal and Qingyun's affair with Erhu's wife, reacts by killing Erhu's wife. On the day of the inauguration, Wuyang jumps out to kill Qingyun, but is unable to defeat him. It is then revealed, through a flash-back, that Qingyun's promotion was fake, and that the government's real desire was to murder Qingyun for gaining too much influence. At this point, a government soldier appears behind Qingyun and shoots him in the back. The government then frames Wuyang for the murder and gets ready to execute him. The film closes with Wuyang observing that "Dying is easy. Living is harder."

Cast

• Jet Li as Pang Qingyun
• Andy Lau as Zhao Erhu
• Takeshi Kaneshiro as Jiang Wuyang
• Xu Jinglei as Liansheng

Production

From left, director Peter Chan and stars Takeshi Kaneshiro, Andy Lau, and Jet Li at the premiere of The Warlords at SF World Cinema, CentralWorld, Bangkok.

The film was originally titled The Blood Brothers (simplified Chinese: 刺马; traditional Chinese: 刺馬). Director Peter Chan said it was influenced by the late Chang Cheh's 1973 film The Blood Brothers, which is itself based on a famous high profile assassination of a local governor in 1870, but denied that it is a remake. He also decided to change the title to The Warlords in order to avoid confusion.^[1] (Note that there is another Chinese film with the English title Blood Brothers released in mid-2007.)

When asked why he chose to move away from his familiar turf of romance films, Chan said that The Warlords is actually not a martial arts film at its heart, though it contains elements of the martial arts. He added that he had made a wish to make a film depicting men's affections after watching John Woo's 1986 film A Better Tomorrow over twenty years ago, and has now finally gotten the chance.^[2] His goal is thus to "lead [his] audience to reclaim [the same kind of passion]" as in A Better Tomorrow, which he said is lacking in recent films.^[3]

Shooting began in early December 2006 in Beijing. Many outdoor scenes were shot in Beijing, Shanghai and the town of Hengdian in Zhejiang province.^[4]

The film ran into copyright troubles on 19 March 2007 when Chinese artist Wang Kewei filed a lawsuit against the film company for using his work in the promotional artworks without his consent. Wang claimed that in a short promotional video shown during a press conference held on 11 December 2006 in Beijing, the film company used ten pieces of his work with minor alterations. The film company has not given an official response.^[5]

Production of The Warlords officially wrapped up on 28 March 2007.^[6] Post-production work was divided among Hong Kong, Los Angeles and Bangkok.^[1]

Jet Li received US$15 million, while Andy Lau received US$6 million and Takeshi Kaneshiro received US$2 million for the film. The film had a budget of US$40 million. The producers explained the huge salary for Li (over a third of the film's budget) by saying Li's participation ensures an international distribution for the film.

Reception

In IMDB the film has received a rather positive review of 70% by over 17 000 film critics and viewers.^[7]

The film won many prizes in many Hong Kong, Chinese, Asian and international film festivals in 2008-2009.^[8][9]

In Rotten Tomatoes the film has an aggregated score of 65% based on 51 reviews.^[10]

Perry Lam of Muse has also given the film a generally positive review, praising it for taking 'a clear-eyed but sympathetic look at its flawed heroes'.^[11]

Awards and nominations

See also

• List of historical drama films of Asia

Notes

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to The Warlords.

• Official website
• The Warlords at the Internet Movie Database
• The Warlords at AllMovie