the audience applauded

From my favorite movies..

This is a must-see and one of the best documentaries - and films - of this year.

There's no way I can possibly love it entirely but I just think its ridiculously bad, but enjoyable at the same time.

Set in China in the 1860s, during the Taiping Rebellion. Loosely based on three real warlords, who raised an army to fight against this rebellion and in the process restored the rule of the Qing Dynasty.Jet Li, Andy Lau and Takeshi Kaneshiro play the leads here as the three warlords, who come from different walks of life, but who through the atrocities of war are brought together and end up swearing a blood oath of brotherhood, to stick together and end the war on their terms. The movie very heavily rests on their shoulders and they do not disappoint. The best scenes in this film are those where all three of them face one another, either in unison or in conflict.Unfortunately the script is somewhat lacking. These three actors could handle heavier stuff, but the dialogue they're given, especially in these situations they're set in, don't quite reach the level of greatness they perhaps could.The film also looks oddly drab. I guess they wanted to go for a more realistic style, compared to more usual outlandish Chinese historical films, but it still comes off as planned because now everyone is dressed universally in black, which looks outlandish as well, just in a very different way.To the film's credit, I say that the group battle scenes are really good looking. Some of the best I've seen in years. Although, on the flip side, the individual battles are jerky messes. Especially considering that you had Jet Li as the main character!Still, it is definitely a film worth checking out if you're into Chinese period war films.

This was one of the best movies I have ever seen, by far the best performance I have seen from Jet Li. He and this film were well worthy of their Hong Kong Film Award victories and nominations. The acting and emotion were strong throughout the movie and you could feel the pain and anguish of the characters in those moments.The script at times (or perhaps the direction) didn't seem to fit with jumping ahead in some situations, but that didn't hurt the grand feel of the film too much. Andy Lau and Takeshi Kaneshiro also were incredible, each had their opportunity to show their talent and definitely delivered.Jinglei Xu had a very powerful scene at the beginning of the movie and a few other portions where she masterfully used her face to tell a story without dialogue. All the acting was top notch and the story was definitely gripping. If you want to see Jet Li at his best you should definitely give this film a watch.

Set in the nineteenth century when civil war plagues China one man Pang Qingyun, survives an overwhelming rout after a supposedly allied army stands by and does nothing. After the battle he is taken to a bandit village which is soon attacked by the very army that stood by earlier. He persuades the village leader, Zhao Er-Hu, and his brother to join an army and fight for the people. At first things go well for them and they are successful; they also stand for justice; then they decide that the city of Suzhou must be taken before going on to take Nanking. They think it will take three years but it is five years before Suzhou falls and when it does they are low on food and a rival army is already heading towards Nanking. Pang orders the execution of four thousand captured soldiers even though Ur-Hu promised that they would be spared if the city surrendered. They continue and take Nanking but their friendship is over and Pang is given the governorship of the city by the Empress. The problem is other lords want him to get rid of Er-Hu first.I hadn't heard of this film before seeing it advertised on television; I decided to watch it as I assumed it would be similar to other Chinese films I'd seen such as 'Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon' or 'Hero'; I was wrong about that as the action here was far more realistic; no running up walls or flying across the roof tops here. The battle scenes were still very dramatic though and there was a degree of stylised choreography in the fighting which added to the excitement. I thought actors Jet Li, Andy Lau and Takeshi Kaneshiro did good jobs although not speaking Mandarin I can't comment on their accents! While I wouldn't call this a must see film it wasn't bad and is worth watching on television.

I know some of the actors in this movie speak English. I hate watching movies with sub titles. I will not be caught reading a subtitle when the scene charges and I miss seeing someone's expression, or some piece of action, all because I had to read the sub title.OK, I admit I'm not the fastest reader in the world, but any way you want to cut it, I hate sub titles.So, when I put the audio on English, I was surprised to hear some guys voice in place of Jet Li's voice. I have never had any problems with his acting and I was looking forward to this movie, however hearing someone else's voice coming out of Jet Li is just disturbing. I know he has an Asian accent, however I have never been one to fault an actor just because he has an accent. And, IMHO, an actor from another country SHOULD have an accent.The movie itself is pretty good. Fairly epic. The story was pretty good, and over all the budget was great. No problems suspending disbelief here. It was even a little gory (cool).Worth the $15 I payed for it. It's just too bad Jet Li didn't provide the voice for his character. I have seen a few movies where Jackie Chan did his own dubbing, and they were much better in that respect.However, even with my one beef, this is still a good movie and I enjoyed watching it.