The Warlords (2007)

January 4, 2017

The Warlords, previously named Blood Brothers, is set in the 1860s, during the Taiping Rebellion in the late Qing Dynasty.  The story focuses on three men and their struggles during five years of war. I think what really makes The Warlords such a great film is the character development and how well Jet Li, Andy Lau, and Takeshi Kaneshiro play their characters. Definitely one of Jet Li’s best acting moments, you feel for each character and what it is they are going through. Both Jet Li and Andy Lau were up for Best Actor for the 27th Hong Kong Film Awards for this film.  Jet li won.

The action, choreographed by Tony Ching Siu-Tung, is exciting and really well done but I think the action pales before the story itself.  It did get nominated for best Action Choreography for both the 27th Hong Kong Film Awards and the 45th Golden Horse Awards. In fact that year The Warlords won 13 awards (including two Best Film, and two Best Visual Effects).

The production value was also really high and I enjoyed the costumes and locations where they shot the film.  Although very depressing at times The Warlords is definitely a movie to watch!

Peter Chan Hoh-San, Director
Raymond Yip Wai-Man, Director
Tony Ching Siu-Tung, Action Director

Jet Li Lian-Jie (Fist of Legend, Hero, League of Gods) as General Pang Qing-Yun
Andy Lau Tak-Wah (The Moon Warriors, The Three Swordsmen, House of Flying Daggers) as Zhao Erhu
Kaneshiro Takeshi (Hero, House of Flying Daggers, Red Cliff ) as Jiang Wu-Yang
Xu Jing-Lei (The Storm Riders) as Lian Sheng
Wei Zong-Wan as Lord Chen
Ku Pao-Ming as Lord Jiang
Wang Kui-Rong (The Four Tv series) as Lord Di
Zhou Bo (A Battle of Wits, An Empress and the Warriors, The Lost Bladesman) as Lu Da-Shan
Guo Xiao-Dong ( An Empress and the Warriors, Reign of Assassins) as Suzhou castle Lord Huang Wen-Jin

Asian Movie Web review

NPR review

Beyond Hollywood review

Love HK Film review