Guan yun chang

I really cannot praise it enough. It is probably the best Chinese film I have seen in years, and easily one of the best period films I have seen. Of Donnie's recent films, I really cannot find a comparison, this is truly stellar. Wen Jiang is so amazingly charismatic as Cao Cao. I couldn't help but be engaged whenever he was on screen, he is probably my current favorite actor, including Hollywood. He may be the best actor in the World currently. Betty Sun is very enjoyable in her role, and added another level of depth to the story.

From the opening, I knew I was in for something special. The soundtrack, the cinematography, the acting, just excellent.

In short, if you enjoy Asian Cinema to any degree, this film will be nothing but a delight.

If you are admirer of the Romance of The Three Kingdoms, it is a must see. If you are fan of martial arts, it is a must see, too. If you have the nostalgia about Three Kingdoms series, it is , off course, a must see. But, more important, it is a correct version , in each detail , of the story of Guan Yu . And that defines it, near the performance of Donnie Yen , as a nice option for a not remarcable but surrely good film.

The movie underperformed at the local box-office at the time of its' initial release. The main factor for its' "failure" was Donnie Yen -- standing at 5' 8" -- portraying a real-life soldier and war general that was bigger and supposedly much taller (more than 6'). But since there's no proof of Guan Yu's height and size, there's only alot you can do to imagine the historical figure's appearance that would come close to the facts.

Directing duo Alan Mak and Felix Chong does something that no other filmmaker would dare doing: Doing their own interpretation of Guan Yu without any myths surrounding his worship-like and over-the-top/exaggerated status, and sticking to the roots as realistically as possible. For that, I think they did a great job creating a totally humanizing version of Guan Yu and Donnie Yen making the character relatable to pretty much anyone situated on historical and modern battlefields. Donnie himself gets to showcase his acting skills once again, and his performance deserves applauds for not going his own route of method acting but actually immersing himself into the character without flaws apart from the dialogue being dubbed in Mandarin, which affects his overall acting (Donnie's a native Cantonese speaker) a bit. However, Jiang Wen as Cao Cao is the movie's true standout with his strong charisma and very impressive acting.

Moving on to the action scenes... It's freaking great! Truly inspirational and undoubtedly the best fight scenes of its' type (Chinese weaponry in warring scenarios) in a very long time. Donnie has said many times that he's setting a goal to break new grounds in action choreography for each production and this is what he's providing us with here as well: Originality and lots of guts breaking away from conventions. Donnie continues to learn new tricks and improving as an action director, and this movie shows it despite being released over 10 years ago.

This film, based on a story from the 'Romance of the Three Kingdoms' opens with warlord Cao Cao attending the funeral of Guan Yu. The action then moves back twenty years; it is a time of conflict. Guan Yu has been separated from his brother and is serving Cao Cao. During a battle he slays a senior general of Cao Cao's enemy and is later tasked with escorting his sister-in-law through hostile territory; people have been ordered not to stop them but this order is frequently flouted and Guan faces many battles.

Not knowing the original story I can't say how well this film captures its essence. As a piece of entertainment I found it to be pretty good. The story isn't too complex... a good thing given that the subtitles on my DVD were quite hard to read (small and often white on a pale background). Guan moves from one action set piece to the next; each is exciting and well-choreographed. They could have felt repetitive but the action was varied. Donnie Yen does a fine job as Guan and Jiang Wen impresses as Cao Cao, Sun Li also impresses as Qilan, Guan's sister in law/ potential love interest. Overall I'd recommend this to fans of Chinese historical action films.

Donnie Yen is really good at Martial Arts, but you already knew that. Some don't think he's a very good actor though. But the role he has on hand here, is really serving him good. He plays a loner and that suits him very well. The action scenes are phenomenal as expected and the story is good enough (while you could argue there is too much kitsch in it, I think it's the right amount).

It's not a masterpiece, but I think it's a good movie overall, with great story points and turns that while you might expect them, they still come down crashing on you. What's also true, the movie does not loose much on a second viewing. I even liked it better the second time around, because I knew where it was heading and could see small touches in between the settings.