Musa

Musa the Warrior, This Korean epic it's about an brave tale in era of the strongest ... All the elements of this film should be an great entrance's creativeness from the biggest & the greatest gate of the seventh art's , also that gate must be opens & specially for Korean-Cinema only! to given another arts a dose of dramatic realism through this film! actually , the historical exquisite cinematography characteristic has been found in Korea after this film "of course"!!

(( MUSA )) is a great film that combined the same appealing attributes of war and bravery in historical films.

10/10

HOT & GREAT congratulations of us to Korean-Cinema :-)

______(( must see and must own ))______

There are several kinds of War movies. Some most interested in the romance (I do not know why but there are a lot of them) using the war as a background and others only in the facts and history.

MUSA or THE PRINCESS WARRIOR is probably in between. Because this war and almost everything that happens here is related to an unfinished love story between three characters (if you think is stupid, remember Homer's ILIADA and the reason of the Trojan War).

About seven centuries ago, Chinese got divided and a diplomatic mission from the Koryo kingdom (protected by small group of soldiers), try to make peace with the Ming dynasty. The Ming's army refuses to accept the ambassadors and escort the whole group out of the country. In the dessert, Mongolian's forces attack and kill the Ming's soldiers releasing the Koryo people in the dessert.

An ambitious, very tough (and young) Koryo general, tries to lead his people back to his country, until they found a Mongolian group carrying a Ming's princess prisoner. Engaged by the woman's beauty, he decides to rescue her, justifying his actions as a political opportunity.

Meanwhile, an ex-slave (released by the noble Ambassador before dying in the dessert), itself a great but silent warrior, gets involved in the rescue and after showing his courage and ability in combat, is forced to protect the Princess, creating obvious jealousy on the young general.

Mongolian's of course, will not accept being defeated, so they run after the small group, to recover the princess.

What happens after (the movie is more than two and a half hours long but never boring) is somehow predictably; however this is a Korean movie, so do not expect the silly and forced happy ending. What make the movie worth (a 10 / 10) is the way things are told, the beauty of the images and the poetry surrounding the story.

This movie war movie, but is not glorifying war, but the honor of people fighting for their countries. This is a love story, but a real one, were words are unnecessary and everything that happens is inside every character, but just looking at their eyes, we know what exactly are their feelings.

Halfway through the film, we realize that the line between bad and good guys is not really clear. That the real enemy is sometimes on the same side.

There are a lot of small characters, and everyone gets enough screen time, to make us care about them; sometimes even more than the main characters.

A special mention deserves the numerous war scenes. Using a slow motion, first person shots, quick editing and almost every camera trick you could imagine, you will feel in the middle of the battlefield (and a very scary one ). The blood and violence are much more realistic, than BLACK HAWK DOWN or WHEN WE WERE SOLDIERS, and the impression created is more than those two plus any other recent war related.

In brief; as far as I know this movie did not get a cinema release, but you can find it in EBAY or in some special video stores. DO NOT MISS IT; is probably the best movie of the year.

It's Ancient China circa 1375, the Koryo king sent a diplomatic delegation of diplomats, soldiers, and a mute slave to the Ming emperor to make peace between the Yuan and Ming dynasties, but they are regarded as spies, and thus are dispatched to a remote desert. So they begin a journey to get back home, but after learning that a Ming princess has been kidnapped by Yuan troops, the same troops that they had met and fought with earlier, they see that if they rescue her it's possible that they can get a ship needed to sail home. Cinematic ally this is a beautiful film, the action suitably epic and the film even poetic at times. I can safely say that this film is a wonder to behold even in it's edited Iternational incarnation.

My Grade: A

Region 0 DVD Extras: nothing and it's the 132 minute international cut. I love this film, but try your best to seek out the R2 Scandinavia 3-Disc SE, as it has the longer 155 minute version AND the international cut AND a great deal of extras

Emissaries from Korea stumble across an attempt by Mongol warriors to kidnap a Chinese princess. Nice clean and simple premise for a Summer blockbuster, one whose marketing (and casting) coasts on the popularity of Crouching Tiger and Hero but whose execution is very different.

I saw this one by accident thinking it was Hero, the massive 2002 Oscar nominee also starring Zhang Ziyi (and, for all its dodgy ideology, worth discovering for the visual feast alone). The region 2 (Korean & French audio 5.1) looked good so I rented it... Back when that was still a thing.

First, this is not Hero, nor is it a wuxia or wire-work driven martial arts film. This is a Historical action film, and despite the prowesses of its heroes, Musa's violence is realistic and brutal. It is a very clever men-on-a-mission flick, with interesting balance and variety within the team, with echoes of Seven Samurai. Where things take an even more pleasant turn are in the interesting portrayal of our characters: a borderline unlikable "hero" (or so he seems at first) and princess, great nobility in the lower ranks, and a surprisingly likable and charismatic villain, if indeed you can call him that.

In production value terms, this can compete with anything Hollywood churns out, and the technical credits, from editing to earthy cinematography, are all excellent. Fast-shutter action, made popular by Saving Private Ryan and Gladiator, is put to brutal use here, and there is a fine balance of chaotic individual moments and interesting strategies, something that would later be explored in John Woo's Red Cliff. This film procures that very rare delight of watching a film and knowing exactly where all the money, effort and care went, because it is all up there on screen, and for once, equally distributed, performances included. Something you have got to see.

For your consideration, ladies and gentlemen: Musa.

I think it was nearly a year ago that I came across the website and first started anticipating the movie eagerly. The site contained lots of stills from the movie throughout, and every single one of them was utterly beautiful, like it had been painted to perfection rather than captured in motion. It seemed unreasonable to expect the whole movie to look that good, but I was pretty sure that it was going to be impressive. With so much anticipation and hope for a movie, it seems almost inevitable that you are going to be disappointed when you finally see it. All the more surprise then that MUSA meets and surpasses my expectations in every way!

First things first, yes... it really does look that good! All the way through . Like Zhang Yimou's SHANGHAI TRIAD, practically every frame is beautifully composed and rendered, and could easily hang on a gallery wall somewhere. There wasn't a single shot that I could imagine looking better than it did. The production design is incredible, the locations stunning, the special effects groundbreaking (the gore). I can't imagine how much time and money must have gone into its production, let alone talent and dedication.

MUSA is epic in the word's biggest sense - I couldn't help thinking of Homer's ILIAD and ODDYSEY in many parts, and those are basically the two stories that the word 'epic' was invented for. It makes Gladiator, Crouching Tiger etc look positively inconsequential. The movie is also made with an attention to detail that is remarkable. It is certainly the most convincing evocation of [relatively] ancient times that I have seen. You will really believe that you've been transported back to 400 something AD China, where Zhang Ziyi happens to be a princess and Yu Rong Guang a Mongol general. I really felt "Yes, this is what life was like back then. This is how things looked, this is how people behaved".

Despite the epic nature of the story, the central focus is always on a small-ish cast of characters, each of whom is very well conceived and developed throughout the movie's course. I'd guess there's about 15 major characters in the story, and a significant cast of minor characters. The performances are all superb - I'm pretty sure the actors themselves were quite convinced they really were their characters. The believability is enhanced by the costuming, makeup and I guess just good casting - all the different factions involved in the story totally look the part.

No epic would be complete without battle scenes, and MUSA has quite a few. These are all stunningly choreographed and filmed, not in a HK style like Bichunmoo, but in a completely real style. Beautifully shot of course, but the men fight like skilled soldiers really would (I'm sure), and get wounded/killed equally convincingly. The special effects of arrows and blades penetrating flesh are sometimes shockingly convincing. This might be disturbing to some, but it isn't played for titillation - it just adds to the gravity of the experience. It may be a little conspicuous that the heroes all manage to dispatch many times their own body weight in enemies, but you've got to give them *some* leeway for narrative convention .

There is a lot of planning involved in the battles, of a military nature, and this is also very convincing and fascinating. Almost as large a part of the process as the actual getting down to it with the weapons. A very believable insight into how battles were waged in the days when a bow & arrow was as hi-tech as weaponry got.

Hmmm... is there any aspect of the movie I haven't gushed praise over yet? A nod to the soundtrack I guess - good, very fitting. Sound effects in the battles are excellent. Ummm... and the lighting is really good too .

A cursory nod must be made to the films flaws as well though, lest I leave the reader with expectations of *total* perfection. The main flaw is that the movie wanders rather too far into melodrama & a little cliche towards the end. It would probably be kind of cheesy, except that it's all so well done you can't get too upset with it .