Das Königreich der Yan

I watched this movies because of Donnie Yen and Kelly Chen. I wasn't disappointed, they both did a good job. Donnie serious as ever, and Kelly's expressions were overcoming at times. The song while Kelly and Leon were flying in the balloon were good too. What impressed me most was the scene where Kelly were fighting back her tears while crying for Donnie towards the end of the movie. Bravo! I also felt for the character played by Donnie. He loves the princess but couldn't show his feelings probably waiting for the right time. It never came and then it's gone, how sad for him. It was very touching too when he went to warn Kelly of the danger and instead told Leon to take her far away. Which means that he may never see her again. A great love story along the line of "the myth".

I guess a new Hong Kong trend is emerging. I recall that as a kid, there was the Mr Vampire movie, which spawned a slew of Chinese vampire movies in its wake. Then there was John Woo's A Better Tomorrow, which gave birth to a whole lot of brotherhood-amongst-thieves themed films. And then there was Once Upon A Time in China, which brought about a renaissance in martial arts movies based on historical or beloved fictional folk heroes. These days, we're living in the Warring period era, where we have a fixation with armour, and more armour, thanks to movies like The Myth, Battle of Wits, The Warlords, Curse of the Golden Flower, and more to come with Battle of Red cliff, and Three Kingdoms: Resurrection of the Dragon.

An Empress and The Warriors continue this trend, based on the state of Yan which is under constant warring with the state of Zhao. The titular characters here are Yen Feier (Kelly Chen) who becomes empress after the assassination of her Emperor father, and because of the unhappiness of rival generals over the appointment of Donnie Yen's General Muyong Xuehu as heir to the throne. So he refuses to partake in any more political schemes, and throws his support behind his childhood friend and unrequited love of his life, whose relationship with her is made even more complex as he has to train her to become a warrior, ala Mulan, in montage style.

And no thanks to her scheming cousin Wu Ba (Guo Xiao-Dong) who tries his very best in sowing discord amongst the court / generals, in order to see his ambition of sitting on the throne through. Another assassination attempt on the life of Feier, and we're introduced to the other Warrior from the title, Duan Lan-Quan (Leon Lai), who in actual fact looks like and lives like an Eastern Robin Hood, on a set that looks a complete rip off from Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves. The inevitable romantic tangle between single beautiful princess and good looking doctor begins, and begs the question whether she still remembers her pledge to put country first.

In truth, there are many elements here from the Robin Hood folklore, besides the set, with the bows and arrows, ambush cum assault which was thankfully well done in keeping up the tempo, and a fight sequence atop floating logs that drew inspiration from Robin vs Little John. The romantic angle though was quite unnatural and unfortunately felt very forced, and bogged down the entire movie, with Feier in a dilemma choosing between two potential beaus, and each of them having reason to hold a candle for her. I was half expecting Bryan Adams to come belting out his hit single, but we're treated to a duet by the two leads (who are singers by the way), in what I believe could have a chance to top the mando-pop charts.

Action wise, you've got to leave it to Donnie Yen to deliver the goods. Alas, there's nothing too different here with the war battle sequences, as it again borrows heavily from its peers, in particular, Stanley Tong's The Myth (in fact, too much and too direct a reference), and cut down one too many horses (none were harmed of course). Yen did seem rather stiff under all that heavy metal, and there isn't any single fight sequence that stood out during battles, except perhaps for that token same-screen sharing scene with Leon Lai, or that flight into the forest (yet another nod in the direction of A Touch of Zen).

All that's left of this movie that's worth mentioning, are the beautiful, intricately designed suits of armour, so much so that even Leon Lai has a full suit just to aesthetically please the movie's poster, and the cinematography, credit due to Zhao Xiao-Ding, who also lensed House of Flying Daggers and Curse of the Golden Flower.

An Empress and the Warriors turned out to be a movie that's neither here nor there - a weak romance and a weak war action movie, and its storyline, which at times confounds because of its implausibilities in character motivation and loopholes, all add up to making this an average movie at best.

WELL WORTH THE WATCH!

Some may point out its flaws with reality, but that is not what the movie is about. It is an intense, well choreographed fantasy about feuding nations, betrayal, and the love story caught in the middle that almost all war movies have. The action scenes along with the amazing design details in the armor and weapons are what really makes the film. You will definitely not go wrong in watching this movie.

The major critique that I have is that the love story seemed a bit weak and disconnected from the rest of the plot. They did attempt to incorporate it within the background of the characters, but it just moved too quick to really convince me.

Costume design is top-notch, but that is also it!!! Even thought they used great casts in it; like Donnie Yen, Leon Lai and Kelly Chen.

The feeling of awfulness came when I watched this movie right from the start.

The pace of the movie is really really annoying to watch, surely in the first 10 minutes of the movie I felt it. This movie is SO B GRADE.

Yep, u can feel that this movie was made with a high intensive schedule and again with a Hong Kong movie feeling. Due to the fact the movie is putted together like it is crammed into a microwave. Fast and sleazy in 99 minutes!!! I hate the director or editor really now after I watched this movie. There is nothing that captures my interest , fight scenes nor even got the attitude to be memorable in my head. I don't even think I would watch this one ever again.

The story: itself, oh man, very unappealing to watch it without thinking "BOOOoring!!!" Even thou the movie has got some "magic" or romantic time, but that is quickly wasted by the fight scenes and lousy text lines with no-nonsense-combating-filling-up-the-movie-fight-sequences. (yep ,feels like chewing gum after a long time in your mouth, u want to spit it out because it starts to nerving u)

The music: no memorable lines or even attractive interesting soundtracks, very fast to forget about. The editing and also some non-aunthentic computer made scenes makes this movie stinks so hard so that the music would not live up the whole picture anymore. I think that the music is only there because it has to fill up some gap.

The characters: OK, I would watch how the cast did in this movie, but that would be also it! There is very little to satisfy when u watched it...

The dialogs's: Truly hilarious, some not-logical sentences that comes with emotions are really put in a wrong way, even the timing for some sentences is not used correctly to get an emphasized feeling!!! Not even good to watch this movie I must say, only disappointed, annoyed and sleepy...

Only one nomination is granted and that's for the costume design, but they over do it in the film like its kind of 'Lord of The Rings'and '300' which they almost hard copy it with no originality. So don't bother, go watch another director and/or movie!

This is one of those movies that you can tell is trying to be good but ends up being mediocre. There is a love story that is way out of place during a war between the Yan and the Zhao, a love triangle between Donnie Yen, and an ambitious Nephew who will seem to do anything to take over the throne. All of these stories could be well off on their own, but the director doesn't explore either to a satisfaction. Martial arts fans will see a duel between Leon Lai and Donnie Yen, but it feels like it was just placed there just for the sake of having them fight each other.

There is good stuff here, but it is rushed and clichéd to the point where it feels like you are buying one of those TV drama DVD sets.