The Lost Bladesman

A partial tale of perhaps the most famous warrior in Chinese history, Guan Yu.

To me, Donnie Yen was a miscast as Guan Yu. He just doesn't have the physical appearance that you'd expect Guan Yu to be (which he had in abundance when he played Yip Man). But there is no one, I mean no one in current Chinese movie actors inventory who can pull this role off. Other movies that portrays the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, cleverly avoids putting any of the monstrously powerful warriors from this story on screen (or relegates them to relatively insignificant role in the story that don't require them to showcase their terrific might). Maybe if they can find equivalent of Chris Hemsworth when they made the movie "Thor", movies portraying the heroes of this story will succeed.

The movie just didn't have it. It lacked the juice that story of Guan Yu has in the Romance of the Three Kingdoms. His enemies were all pathetic shrimps too. There was no big battle scenes where Guan Yu would dispatch the most ferocious warriors the enemy can call to bear on him. Supporting characters, lacked the flare that the characters in the original story has. Also, why the movie chose this particular segment of Guan Yu's career to be put on screen is a mystery. It was one of the flattest part of his story.

Maybe it'll take a CG to produce a character that would even remotely resemble Guan Yu, and the other heroes of this story.

A dud, and just doesn't do any justice to the magnificent lore of Guan Yu.

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.

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.

TFor starters, Donnie Yen as Guan Yu certainly raised a few eyebrows, although you realize the filmmakers may have wanted to break conventions. I can live with that, having Guan Yu more of Donnie's physical stature, although traded off with being a little bit more nimble. While Yen's portrayal of Guan's fighting prowess is excellent par none, with the actor also taking up action choreography responsibilities, his dramatic range is undoubtedly hampered, nary breaking into a smile (which is a good thing after that very smiley performance in All's Wel, Ends Well 2011). Thankfully this got compensated by the presence of Jiang Wen as Cao Cao, adding much needed gravitas to a role that Jiang excelled in making Cao both a hero and a villain, who on the outside does and makes everything fine and dandy for Guan Yu, but harbouring deep evil beneath the facade that we see behind closed doors amongst his most loyal of generals.

And given that the set action sequences are spaced far apart, it is Jiang Wen who prevented the film from sagging in its middle act, as we see Cao Cao's dogged pursuit to build camaraderie with Guan Yu, and wonders just what it takes to have men of quality joining his ambition to rule all of China. Meanwhile we have a romantic interlude that deals with Guan Yu's infatuation with Qi Lan (Sun Li) the woman he loves but cannot woo because she is betrothed to Liu Bei. While this was inserted to show how Guan Yu is a man who sacrifices personal happiness for others, what with his saving of her skin a number of times and with his escorting her back to Liu Bei's camp, this was perhaps the weakest link in the story given Yen's unconvincing performance, and Sun Li's role being nothing more than decorative and a pretty face to build on the temptation factor.

But the second half picked up from where the first scene left off, with large action pieces to thrill audiences with Guan Yu in full battle, despite not having his famed Green Dragon Crescent Blade with him, nor the story of the Red Hare steed incorporated, which would be a nice touch to build on established mythos. Yen shows why he still has it in him as a top notch action star and choreographer with a variety of fighting styles and mano a mano battles against opponents hell bent on slaying his Guan Yu to gain instant recognizing and fame. The characters Guan Yu come up against are adapted from the infamous Five Passes Crossing, which happened because of Cao Cao's instruction to go against his own word, or that of his subordinates' defiance of orders (which is why Jiang Wen is best here as an astute politician presented with a dilemma with trying to please one man at the risk of losing loyalties of the others), and becomes almost like a computer game with the clearing of one boss level after another.

There's Kong Xiu (Andy On) refusal of safe passage resulting in a fight within a constricted passageway getting in the way of weapons in full swing (sort of reminiscing Yen's swordplay in Tsui Hark's Seven Swords), Han Fu's betrayal and his poisoned dart episode, Bian Xi's ambush with hundreds within a temple, and the governor Wang Zhi's fight with Guan Yu in a snow covered landscape, which is probably the best amongst them all despite losing plenty of backstory that builds up to the fight. Come to think of it, there was a conscious drop of background to how Guan Yu got to each stage which removes plenty of drama, and made it really look like Guan Yu going on a rampage to rid all who stood in his way.

The cinematography also was found to be left very much wanting with one extended fight sequence shot very much in the dark so much so that you can hardly see anything, except knowing that Guan Yu is dispatching a lot of goons repeatedly, and Bian Xi's episode was also quite the let down in a cheat sheet of shots, stylistically quite innovative, but with doors closed and plenty of noise coming from within before revealing the obvious winner, you would have hoped the camera was placed on the other side instead. Perhaps it will be there as a deleted scene in the DVD. And while I mentioned this isn't your usual gigantic Guan Yu, Donnie Yen's fight choreography may have confused him with Chen Zhen which Donnie also played in The Legend of the Fist (directed by Andrew Lau), having Guan execute dexterous moves as seen in that film running around in a circle and dodging arrows which seemed to have been fired from a machine gun. I'm all for reinterpretation, but adopting something so recent from one's own film (perhaps he really liked those moves to repeat them here again), is shortchanging fans and audiences, coming so recent.

Romance of the Three Kingdoms cannot possibly be made into a one off feature film, but it contains a lot of stories and characters that serve as a wealth of resource material to tap upon for translation to the big screen. This probably isn't the best and won't be the last of the lot, and despite its flaws, still managed to turn in some pure entertainment, although with the pedigree of talent involved, one can be forgiven to have expected a lot more.