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The Warlords

Original title: Tau ming chong
  • 2007
  • R
  • 2h 6m
IMDb RATING
7.0/10
28K
YOUR RATING
Jet Li, Takeshi Kaneshiro, and Andy Lau in The Warlords (2007)
Set in the midst of war and political upheaval during the Taiping Rebellion of the 1860s, General Pang barely survives a brutal massacre of his fellow soldiers by playing dead, then joins a band of bandits led by Er Hu and Wu Yang. After fighting back attackers from an helpless village, the three men take an oath to become "blood brothers," pledging loyalty to one another until death, but things quickly turn sour and the three men become embroiled in a web of political deceit, and a love triangle between Pang, Er Hu and a beautiful courtesan.
Play trailer2:08
2 Videos
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Martial ArtsWuxiaActionAdventureDramaHistoryRomanceWar

China, 1860s: Having his army slaughtered, General Qingyun joins 2 bandit leaders in raids on rebels and in blood oath. They form a Qing loyal army with eyes on rebel held Suzhou and Nanjing... Read allChina, 1860s: Having his army slaughtered, General Qingyun joins 2 bandit leaders in raids on rebels and in blood oath. They form a Qing loyal army with eyes on rebel held Suzhou and Nanjing.China, 1860s: Having his army slaughtered, General Qingyun joins 2 bandit leaders in raids on rebels and in blood oath. They form a Qing loyal army with eyes on rebel held Suzhou and Nanjing.

  • Directors
    • Peter Ho-Sun Chan
    • Wai-Man Yip
  • Writers
    • Tin-Nam Chun
    • Junli Guo
    • Jiping He
  • Stars
    • Jet Li
    • Andy Lau
    • Takeshi Kaneshiro
  • See production info at IMDbPro
  • IMDb RATING
    7.0/10
    28K
    YOUR RATING
    • Directors
      • Peter Ho-Sun Chan
      • Wai-Man Yip
    • Writers
      • Tin-Nam Chun
      • Junli Guo
      • Jiping He
    • Stars
      • Jet Li
      • Andy Lau
      • Takeshi Kaneshiro
    • 76User reviews
    • 105Critic reviews
    • 70Metascore
  • See production info at IMDbPro
    • Awards
      • 18 wins & 28 nominations total

    Videos2

    Warlords
    Trailer 2:08
    Warlords
    Teaser - The Warlords
    Trailer 1:23
    Teaser - The Warlords
    Teaser - The Warlords
    Trailer 1:23
    Teaser - The Warlords

    Photos196

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    Top cast59

    Edit
    Jet Li
    Jet Li
    • General Pang Qingyun
    • (as Lianjie Li)
    Andy Lau
    Andy Lau
    • Zhao Erhu
    • (as Dehua Liu)
    Takeshi Kaneshiro
    Takeshi Kaneshiro
    • Jiang Wuyang
    • (as Wu Jincheng)
    Jinglei Xu
    Jinglei Xu
    • Liansheng
    Xiaodong Guo
    Xiaodong Guo
    • Huang Wenjin
    Jacky Heung
    Jacky Heung
    • Shi Jinbiao
    Zongwan Wei
    Zongwan Wei
    • Lord Chen
    Pao-Ming Ku
    Pao-Ming Ku
    • Lord Jiang
    Kuirong Wang
    Kuirong Wang
    • Lord Di
    Bo Zhou
    • Lu Dashan
    Zhaoqi Shi
    Zhaoqi Shi
    • He Kui
    Xichao Wang
    • Gouzi
    • (as Yachao Wang)
    Xiao Yun Wang
    • Fu
    Peng Guo
    • Shun
    Ailei Yu
    • Wang Xiaoshou
    Aaron C. Shang
    • Duan Feng
    • (as Aaron Shang)
    Jian Sun
    Jian Sun
    • Wu
    Hai Tao
    • Gong Jiang
    • Directors
      • Peter Ho-Sun Chan
      • Wai-Man Yip
    • Writers
      • Tin-Nam Chun
      • Junli Guo
      • Jiping He
    • All cast & crew
    • Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

    User reviews76

    7.028.4K
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    Featured reviews

    8suntonova

    In Chinese, Jet Li can act.

    In "The Warlords," another rendition of the classic Chinese tale of loyalty and betrayal of three brothers, we see evidence of something many may not realize: when not hampered by his horrible accent, Jet Li can act, in fact, for this role he received an Asian Film Award nomination for Best Actor. He may not be a Deniro or a Denzel, but he's at least got that certain intensity that makes Clint Eastwood. We do not, however, get to see what American audiences know Li for, his martial arts prowess. As winner of the Hong Kong Film Awards both for best film and best director, Peter Chan ("The Eye," 1 through infinity it seems), we see here an exemplary piece of cinema which demonstrates the high quality of movies coming from China today. The cinematography is well done, costumes are excellent, epic battle sequences are choreographed beautifully and the characters and complex character relationships are well developed, sincere and sympathetic. In addition to Li, we see moving performances by Andy Lau, a winner of numerous Asian film awards, and Takeshi Kaneshiro, both who Americans may know from "The House of Flying Daggers." If you are looking for a "Jet Li movie" you may likely find yourself bored. Despite the war background of this movie it is, at heart, a drama, and a very good one at that.

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    9jxharding

    An intricate epic on the complicated relationship between 3 'brothers'

    This is not Crouching Tiger. It's as good as Hero,House of Flying daggers. You wont be amazed by the CGI special effects. You will be stunned by the intense constant evolution of the story line and relationships between 3 men who have much to learn from each other.

    I don't wanna spoil further. I want to say that i am really disappointed in the west for turning a blind eye to eastern movies in general. This movie is an epic. It deserves 20 000 votes. I cannot believe some of the movies that reach Nr 1 at the Box Office when only a relative few informed bothering with movies like this.

    This is some timeless movie making.
    8Llakor

    A Warrior Willing to Kill for Peace

    Looking at the list of writers involved in this project, it is a fraking miracle that this film is as good as it is. While it is no The Banquet, it is a solid historical epic which features the most layered and complex performance of Jet Li's career.

    Loosely based on the Shaw Brothers' 1973 film The Blood Brothers as well as the life and death of General Ma Xinyi, this is a tragedy in the Greek or Shakespearean sense. Jet Li plays General Pang Qingyun, a general of the Ching army whose command is slaughtered by the Taiping rebels while Pang's allies the Ho Army watch and do nothing.

    Injured, delirious and with no one left to command, Pang is nursed back to health by a beautiful woman who turns out to be the wife of Andy Lau's bandit leader Zhao Er-Hu. When the Ho Army raids Lau's village, steals their supplies and kills one of his men, Jet Li convinces Er-Hu and his lieutenant Zhang Wen-Xiang (played by Takeshi Kaneshiro) that if they join the Ching Army they will get the respect, money and guns necessary to protect themselves and their village. Pang, Er-Hu and Zhang swear a blood oath to stand together with death as the penalty for oath-breakers.

    This starts Pang on his quest to save his country from itself, building an army from the unwanted, the poor, the brigands. In the process, Pang must fight Imperial politics as much as the enemy Taiping rebels. Each step along the way, Pang has to barter away a little piece of his soul to achieve victory, with Zhang reacting with hero-worshipping approval, while Er-Hu becomes increasingly disgusted.

    The down side to working with a star of Jet Li's caliber is that in every role he is Jet Li, bringing with it his quiet heroism and idealism. This film turns that drawback into an advantage by casting Jet Li as a man who does increasingly villainous things for the purest of motives. Like a Chinese Robespierre, Pang is trying to build a free, united China on a pyramid of corpses.

    The film that The Warlords reminds me of the most is John Ford's The Searchers.

    Like The Searchers, The Warlords starts with a massacre. Both films feature characters who leave their homes on an obsessive quest that seems impossible and takes them years to complete.

    John Ford uses John Wayne's iconic, heroic status and subverts it, as the obsessive quest slowly destroys Wayne from within. Jet Li's character in The Warlords follows the same arc, beginning his quest with idealistic purity and finishing just inches from total madness. Both men succeed in their quests, Jet Li's Pang in saving his country, Wayne's Ethan Edwards in rescuing his niece, but in both cases their quest is ultimately futile, because what they saved was the reality and what they wanted to save was an ideal. Both men end their films framed in a doorway that they can no longer cross, because their journeys have turned them into men of war who have no place in the world of peace on the other side of the doorway.
    7athena24

    Well done

    First of all, I think it's the first movie I've enjoyed in about half a year, so decided to comment. I read the good reviews on this one, and agree with most of them. Everything in this movie is superbly done.

    There's little story in this movie and it's more of a background for the characters' portrayal and the battles, both of which amazingly done. The characters' portrayal is very successful due to the great acting. The battles and the fight choreography deserves a solid 9. Both artistic, like the martial arts beauty, and brutal, like real war is.

    This movie doesn't have unnecessary emotion, or unnecessary gestures from main characters. That's where this movie succeeds. That's where 'Azumi' or 'Braveheart' succeeded. And that's where 'Troy' and 'Gladiator' failed to deliver. They all have great cinematography, brilliant fight choreography and superb acting staff - but that's only the technical side. 'Warlords' succeeded to deliver in all the aspects. Simple and little story with no over-dramatizing and no inconsistencies.

    If one's wondering why I gave only 7, it's because, beside of Er-hu, I didn't find one likable character.
    7janos451

    Jet Li's War and No Peace

    From the Warring States Period going all the way back to the 5th century BC, wars have wracked China seemingly without pause. During the second half of the 19th century, and the late Qing/Ching/Manchu dynasty, some 50 million soldiers, bandits, and civilians died in the endless conflict.

    Watching "Warlords," screened for the first time in North America Saturday night in the Castro Theater, part of the San Francisco International Film Festival, at times one might have thought that most of those casualties are shown - often in close-ups - in the film.

    Beginning with a view reminiscent of the Normandy invasion sequence of "Saving Private Ryan," the film by Peter Chan and Wai Man Yip depicts combat vividly and intensely. Chung Man Yee's production design peaks at times in virtually unprecedented battle-field spectacles.

    There is no resolution, no peace, and only a quasi-relevant love story (featuring Jinglei Xu), but "Warlords" goes well beyond just fightin' and killin' and dyin'. Right from the beginning, as Jet Li's General Pang picks himself up from under the bodies of his dead soldiers, you notice two things: Jet Li's complete lack of vanity and the ability of this martial-arts star to act convincingly and well.

    The Manchu style of the head shaved in front and the hair gathered in a ponytail in the back looks hideous when it's all messed up, especially with blood. Jet Li not only appears half dead in his first appearance, but he is taking a bad-hair day to its absolute worst. And then, you also notice that Famous Jet Li - who is NOT flying through the air in this film - has been replaced by an honest and talented actor who brings to life a complex, conflicted, tragic character.

    With shifting alliances, goals, and always at the edge of extinction, Pang and his two "blood brothers," Takeshi Kaneshiro's soulful Jiang Wuyang and Andy Lau's towering Zhao Erhu (perhaps Lau's best-ever performance), struggle from small-time wars all the way to the taking of Nanking on behalf of the fast-fading central (so to speak) government in Beijing. The same history-based story has been told, in more modest terms, in Zhang Che's 1973 "The Blood Brothers." A historical war film, a brutal but not gratuitously violent drama, "Warlords" impresses, even stuns, but in the end fails to provide catharsis or even an attempt to make sense of the senseless - something Zhang Yimou came close to in "Hero" (also with Jet Li, playing a similar historic character).

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    Related interests

    Bruce Lee in Enter the Dragon (1973)
    Martial Arts
    Maggie Cheung in Hero (2002)
    Wuxia
    Bruce Willis in Die Hard (1988)
    Action
    Still frame
    Adventure
    Mahershala Ali and Alex R. Hibbert in Moonlight (2016)
    Drama
    Liam Neeson in Schindler's List (1993)
    History
    Ingrid Bergman and Humphrey Bogart in Casablanca (1942)
    Romance
    Band of Brothers (2001)
    War

    Storyline

    Edit

    Did you know

    Edit
    • Trivia
      The main battle sequence had a detailed script treatment of over 20 pages and a maximum of 8 cameras rolling simultaneously.
    • Goofs
      During battles, the horses fall down without being hit. Clearly they were tripped by wire.
    • Quotes

      General Pang Qingyun: Remember my face, so you can seek vengeance in the next life.

    • Alternate versions
      The UK version is cut by 16 secs to remove shots of cruel horsefalls.
    • Connections
      Featured in Films of Fury: The Kung Fu Movie Movie (2011)

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    FAQ22

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    • What are the differences between the British releases and the uncut versions?
    • What are the differences between the International Export Version and the Original HongKong Version?

    Details

    Edit
    • Release date
      • December 12, 2007 (China)
    • Countries of origin
      • Hong Kong
      • China
    • Official sites
      • Official site (China)
      • Official site (Japan)
    • Language
      • Mandarin
    • Also known as
      • Đầu Danh Trạng
    • Filming locations
      • Beijing, China
    • Production companies
      • Media Asia Films
      • Morgan & Chan Films
      • China Film Group Corporation (CFGC)
    • See more company credits at IMDbPro

    Box office

    Edit
    • Budget
      • $40,000,000 (estimated)
    • Gross US & Canada
      • $129,078
    • Opening weekend US & Canada
      • $10,073
      • Apr 4, 2010
    • Gross worldwide
      • $42,883,181
    See detailed box office info on IMDbPro

    Tech specs

    Edit
    • Runtime
      • 2h 6m(126 min)
    • Color
      • Color
    • Sound mix
      • Dolby Digital
    • Aspect ratio
      • 2.35 : 1

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