God of War

It is a great movie, accurately telling the history between Japan and China in Ming dynasty. I especially love the 1-1 fight scene of General Qi and Commander Kumasawa and the languages were spoken in both Mandarin and Japanese. It also showed the characters of Chinese and Japanese. If you know nothing about the history, you might get bored, but you will enjoy this movie very much if you know a little bit of the story.

God Of War is a pretty solid period war/action movie from director Gordon Chan(who directed some of my favorite movies, Fist Of Legend and Beast Cops). This is probably the best acting performance to date from leading man Wenzhuo aka Vincent Zhao. He is brilliant in the fight scenes and there is quite a bit of battle action to go around in this picture. The choreographed action looks great and is very fluent, but complex. The film also looks very sharp and has good character development and pacing. Sammo Hung appears only briefly, but has a memorable cameo and good chemistry with leading man Wenzhuo Zhao. The legendary Yasuaki Kurata gives a powerful performance as Japanese general and gives a lot of empathy and insight to the Japanese side of this historical conflict. This film has elements of Red Cliff and Warlords, but most reminds me of Korean movie The Admiral Roaring Tides. All above are quality productions and highly recommended and I am very impressed by this excellent film.

Wow, this was one hell of a ride! If you like martial arts and warfare, you NEED to watch this movie! The epic sword fighting scenes in particular, especially the final fight, are a must watch! None of that flying nonsense you get in Hero or Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon either, this is (very) fast, gritty, and realistic sword fighting! And you get LOTS of it! There are also several intense and mesmerising scenes of warfare, and there's lots of bloody violence, so you better be ready for that. There is some great cinematography as well. It doesn't have the same kind of high caliber dramatic story or acting as movies like Red Cliff (although these are still good), and there isn't as much fancy strategy as in some other good warfare movies (but it still has a fair amount of it), but the action is top tier! Personally I found this to be one of the most satisfying movies I've watched all year, after having watched tons and tons of mediocre or disappointing movies both from The West and The East this year (including many I had high hopes for...). So if you like warfare and warfare strategy, martial arts, and especially sword fighting, or all of the above, then definitely watch this as soon as you can!

My preference is for period pieces over modern day settings (especialy not the Hong Kong cop thrillers). I watched this a day after rewatching the "Seven Samuri" and was inrtigued by the number of blunderblusses available given there were only three in 7 Samuri (set some decades later). Also I learned this must have taken place in the pre-isolationist period of Japan as they were trying to take over coastal China through pirate cloaking. I enjoyed the many subplots: ronin trying to be samuri, peasants trying to be soldiers but especially the singlemindedness of General Qi's wife.

The film's cinematography (composition, colour, camera movement) was reminiscent of Kagemusha, the Shadow Warrior. The Japanese and Chinese were given a balance of presentation and at times I was not sure who to root for. Intrigues at the Chinese court placed the story line at another level. The Japanese general kept to the lie that he was no more than a pirate. An honourable undertaking in capturing this little known period (to Westerners at least) with elegance, elan and enthralling story telling.

A good plot, more engaging than normal for the genre, did not have flights, dances in the air during the fights, but good fights, with all the charm and lightness of the Orientals ... A little long, which makes it a little tedious, because the plot is good, but it's not that impressive... Among the antagonists I highlight the character and the performance of the Pirate Samurai, great ending...