Les guerriers de l'Empire céleste

I knew nothing of this movie before I watched it.

I wish people would stop comparing every single Asian film to CTHD. The film is not trying to be CTHD or better it. It is trying to be something different from the wire-fu extravaganzas that are coming out of China.

I was pleasantly surprised by the quality of this film. Certainly one of the better Asian films to be released in recent years. It's not perfect but I found it to be entertaining and would recommend it to anyone who appreciates simple adventure yarns. The story is simple but why should stories be complex to be good? The best stories are often simple ones.

Go and see it but don't expect a wire-fu spectacle and you won't be disappointed.

Warriors of Heaven and Earth is a decently made movie with some good plot developments.

The fighting scenes. All of the fighting scenes were done relatively well, being more towards the real side of battle, instead of the fighting scenes from the other big names (Hero, House of Flying Daggers). My only complaint with the action scenes, is that nobody is affected by the death of their comrades. I understand you cannot stop fighting unless you want to join your brother in heaven, but they all took their deaths as the grim reality. I suppose in a way, it is more realistic (we're all going to die anyway, maybe he was lucky to get to heaven sooner). The camera work and plot however did do an excellent job of making you feel sorrowful when a character died.

The romance. Wait, excuse me, romance? Vicky Zhou? What?

This point nearly ruined the movie for me until I got back into the mindset of hey, there are good fight scenes, let's enjoy them. Vicky Zhou's character is completely extraneous and was a waste. Although her voice is nice as the narrator of the story, and she still has a pretty face, she was utterly useless. Not only did she not fight (unless you call the one to two minute scene in the end "fighting"), she had about 10-15 minutes of full, on-camera footage - mostly devoted to questioning Li's criminal activities.

Overall. Lai Qi (Kiichi Nakai) and Li Zai (Wen Jiang) carry the entire movie. It's interesting that Jiang is not in the credited cast as he probably had the most screen time in the entire movie.

Should you see it? There are a couple things to take into account. 1) If you're not used to HK films, this isn't a good one to start with, unless you abhor the Chinese humor in older less epic films 2) It will probably make you depressed. Maybe it's just me... What else has made me depressed you might ask? Let's see: So Close, Hero, House of Flying Daggers...

I give it a 7 out of 10. I had hoped for something slightly better, but then again, it was realistic and the final battle scene reminded me of what the LOTR battle for Helm's Deep would have been if the good guys hadn't all survived -- Classic.

Warriors of heaven and earth

This is an excellent film. While I do not personally think it is as good as Hero I can see why the film commission in China choose this film as it's official selection. This film is somewhere in between the magic and fantasy of Hero and brutal realism of MUSA. The Wire-fu is kept to a minimum only used to slightly punctuate certain scenes. There is a element of fantasy but it does not make it'self apparent in every frame of the film.

The acting was good, the battles were pretty good. Personally however if you had not seen either and were thinking about a film to buy I would suggest MUSA. The most major complaint I had with this film was the costumes some times looked a little corny.

One last thing…While the marketing department tried to sell the lead female role as a woman warrior empowered much like the characters of Crouching tiger or Hero don't buy it. She is window dressing and while her characters has awesome dramatic and story potential is mostly wasted.

Though this is a "heroic epic" telling of the Golden Age of China, director Ping He does an outstanding job of blending depth of character with period- and action-realism within only 115 minutes.

The springboard/wire-fighting is kept to a minimum and is subtly crafted. These are heroes who have skills far beyond the ordinary, and the fighting effects merely convey that without rubbing it in or going over the-top.

Every major character is developed in this story except for the young monk, and you'll understand why at the end. We even spend a little time with Lai Qi's 3 loyal soldiers and their families, getting to understand what they've been doing and what is important to them.

The plot does involve a magical object, but there are only two scenes with associated special-effects, which were as nicely done as any Hollywood CGI. The first time, it is essential to developing the story and our understanding of why these men will fight so hard to protect it. The second time, only to establish its proper role in the epilogue.

There is a hint of a love-story, which I find unnecessary in films like these, but I didn't moan or groan here because it is kept deep in a minor subplot and used primarily to demonstrate that the protagonist is not truly a criminal or a bad man. Not that Ping He doesn't know how to tell a good love story, as he did brilliantly in 1994's "Red Firecracker, Green Firecracker" (Pao Da Shuang Deng). I think he was forced to add it, and simply relegated it to the lowest priority.

I don't understand how someone could like "Jet Li: Hero" or "Crouching Tiger..." better than this film, unless they have little taste for dramatic, action-adventure epics, and must have a perfectly happy-ending every time. I thank thee, Buddha, that Hollywood hasn't taken over the Chinese film-making industry!

This movie is the story of an Imperial Agent sent to bring to justice a murderer, his final mission before he is allowed to go home to his family in Japan. The murderer, a former army officer accused of mutiny when he refused to kill a group of women and children. The movie is the tale of their trek across the desert fighting against each other and with each other. The dialog was great, short and delivered impeccably by an incredible cast of characters. It has been a long while since I have seen such thoughtful, dramatic acting. The movie is shot mostly in the desert but it is all done beautifully and with exactly the right tone and feel. I enjoyed the period costumes and the fight scenes were extremely well choreographed. It is seldom that I watch a hollywood movie and come away feeling satisfied, I can only hope that Asia continues to pump out incredible movies like this one and that Hollywood will wise up and stop trying to feed me drivel like the Last Samurai.