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 f John Wayne was still alive and making movies about the
divine might of the U.S. of A., he would probably make something like Ping He's
"Warriors of Heaven and Earth", which is, in a nutshell, about the
divine might of China. To be sure, "Warriors" is an
entertaining movie first and historical film second; there are even elements in
it that not only stretches credulity, but makes you scratch your head and wonder
what writer/director Ping He ("Sun Valley") was thinking when he wrote
the script. About an hour into "Warriors", the movie's Macguffin -- a
sacred Buddhist relic wanted by the movie's villains -- reveals itself in what
can only be called extremely lame CGI.
"Warriors of Heaven and Earth" stars veteran
Chinese actor Wen Jiang ("Devils
on the Doorstep") as Lieutenant Li, a soldier in the service of the
Tang Emperor circa 700 A.D. Having declined to butcher civilian Turks (China's
main enemy of the time), Li goes on the run with a small band of loyal men.
Years later, the Emperor dispatches Japanese emissary Lai Qi (Kiichi Nakai) to
seek out and kill Li once and for all. But a problem arises: after being saved
from certain death by a soldier guarding the sacred Buddhist relic, Li finds
himself indebted not only to the soldier, but to the mission. As it turns out
the Turks want the relics badly, and has negotiated with local warlord and
all-around kook Master An (Xueqi Wang) to get it for them.
Li and Qi meet, but after a brief duel the two men agree to
escort the caravan and its valuable Macguffin to its proper destination. Li's
men, long settled down, decide to come out of retirement to help out despite
their former boss's best efforts to discourage them. Also along for the ride is
a young girl name Wen Zhu (Vicki Zhao, "So
Close") who Qi was escorting somewhere. There's also an old mercenary
nicknamed Old Diehard and a young kid named Lizard. Can this rag-tag bunch
outrun Master An's army of bandits? Better yet, why does "Warriors of
Heaven and Earth" look like a shorter version of the Korean epic "Musa",
minus the unnecessary extra hour of running time?
As mentioned, "Warriors" is a dead ringer for
"Musa", which
was also about two opposing personalities escorting something valuable to a
certain location as an army relentlessly pursues them. Both movies have young
and pretty Chinese actresses (Zhang Ziyi in the other movie, Zhao here) to
inject some extraneous bits of romance and draw in the younger audience. But as
it turns out, Zhao's role as sometimes narrator but mostly superfluous presence
echoes Ziyi's role in "Musa",
but it should be said that Ziyi's character engendered more genuine storylines
in the Korean film than Zhao's role in this Chinese production. Of course it
helped that "Musa"
was about two young male bucks, while "Warriors'" leading men are
Jiang and Nakai, and both look to be in their late '40s. Having said that,
seeing Zhao's character making eyes at Jiang's Li is a bit disconcerting, to say
the least.
Action-wise, "Warriors" is for the most part
grounded in reality. The swordfights are brief and violent, but it's nothing on
the scale of say "Braveheart"
or the aforementioned Korean epic. And unlike China's other big historical epic
of 2003, "Hero",
there are few, if any, wireworks in "Warriors". As a pure action
movie, "Warriors" works. There are plenty of bloody engagements, and
people die by the dozens. The fights are often too chaotic to really see what's
going on, but I suppose that's the reality of actual combat. (Then again it goes
without saying that this is just a movie, and more coherent fighting
choreography would have been preferred. But alas...)
The one thing "Warriors" excels at is the
performances of its two main leads. Both Wen Jiang and Kiichi Nakai ("When
the Last Sword is Drawn"), also a veteran of the acting trade in his native
Japan, are more than capable of handling their complex parts. Both characters
are men of honor, determined to complete their respective missions to the bitter
end. The script does a wise thing and not make the men become bosom buddies by
movie's end; instead, they share a quiet admiration for one another, but there's
no doubt they'll still kill each other as their respective duties dictate.
Another notable difference between "Warriors" and
a number of Chinese historical epics (in particular the recent "Crouching
Tiger, Hidden Dragon" and the Jet Li starrer "Hero")
are the costumes. Taking place in the year 700 A.D., the characters wear
uniforms that look more comfortable on a French or British cavalry officer than
a Chinese swordsman. It's all a bit "off", at least according to every
Chinese historical movie I've seen. I'm sure it's all historically accurate, but
it's still odd to see.
Unfortunately the movie's second half de-evolves into a
series of run-and-fight scenes, culminating in a final battle at an old military
town. That final confrontation comes across as extremely rushed. Clocking in at
just under 2 hours, I get the feeling that there should have been an extra 30
minutes added to "Warriors'" running time. Mind you I don't think I
would have enjoyed an extra 30 minutes, but it just seems as if the movie is
incomplete without them. Also, the movie's ending leaves something to be
desired. Let's just say that the lame CGI re-appears, inching a somewhat good
movie dangerously close to being plain dumb, if not downright "comic
book-y".
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