The Warlords/Tou Ming Zhuang (C-)

Despite the fact that this movie is very well made, and that Jet Li gives an Oscar worthy performance, The Warlords is ultimately unrealistically despairing.
Released to critical acclaim in China in 2007, it took three years for Warlords to get a US release. The story tells of famous-in-China General Pang Qingyun, who went from suicidal warrior to powerful general after allying with poverty-stricken bandits Zhao Er-hu and Jiang Wuyang. Told by Er-hu (Chinese acting/singing star Andy Lau who played the villain in House of Flying Daggers), the plot is not a happy one—the three allies (aka the Warlords) are faced with horrible choices, and soon the more cautious Wuyang (Takeshi Kaneshiro, the star of House of Flying Daggers) begins to clash with the radical Quingyun. The script, based on historical events, is written by a team of eight writers and directed by Peter Chan Ho-Sun (Waiting), who was a producer as well. Ho-Sun does a good job artistically—the movie is well crafted and in-depth—even though one can tell it is foreign by the cultural and budget differences from a major US film. The movie can be confusing and rarely pans back to show a larger location (either due to the small, $40 million budget or because such shots aren’t a prerequisite in China), but it has much more detail and a much more open and in depth view than most American films.
The acting is great all round, but best by far is Jet Li. As the conflicted anti-hero Quingyun, who is both a mass murderer and a defender of peace, he puts in vast amounts of depth without breaking his noble manner. Li has never gotten an Oscar nomination, but he certainly deserves one here—most actors would have gone the simple route as a scowling villain, but he makes viewers care about the character quite a lot.
Half-way through the film, I was hoping it could be one of the greatest this year. Sadly by the time the credits role I was thinking otherwise. Despite showing several sides in the conflict between Quingyun and Wuyang, and the fact that the film is not pounding one over the head with a message, it still gives the distinct message of a hopeless, futile life. Wuyang’s tactics seem ineffective, but the movie shows Quingyun as unsuccessful too. As for Er-Hu, he decides to adhere to the code he made with his brother and friend—but this is not getting him anywhere good either. As the final scene tells us that life is hard, I thought that however evil the world is, the film is unrealistically dark and, at the core, false. Yes, bad stuff does happen—but battling for the right thing usually works. I know at a time where people like to oversimplify war and violence it is easy to just badmouth the world’s fate—but this is wrong. There is hope, and it is worth fighting for.
The Warlords is well-made, but at heart it carries a message of despair. One that is worth disagreeing with.