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Plenty of esoteric landscapes mixed in amid rolling ethnic music and clanging blades drew inevitable comparisons to international faves Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and Zhang Yimou's rather pallid Hero, yet these analogies flatter new He Ping project Warriors of Heaven and Earth unduly.
While this Chinese wild west caper will indeed be an Oscar entrant soon enough, it features none of the fascination associated with its predecessors, based around an even drearier proposition than Hero's already weak story.
If Sony and their cohorts think Dynastic China will forever remain a veritable fountain of ticket sales and acclaim, they certainly have another thing coming seeing as we were hard pressed to stay focused while trying to untangle a web of events so obviously lifted straight out of 2001 Korean-Chinese classic Musa (aka Warrior) it wasn't even remotely bemusing anymore.
Typically impressive Jiang Wen (Devils at the Doorstep, The Missing Gun) was clearly miscast in an action capacity for which he was ill-prepared being more of a drama-oriented kind of guy. At any rate, he plays cavalier brigand Li Zai, a former military officer now on the run during corrupt Tang administrations. Li's band joins disgruntled Japanese emissary Lai Qi (Kiichi Nakai) in an effort to protect a Buddhist monk traversing Xinjiang to deliver sacred artifacts. Coveting the prized magical talisman, regional warlord An (Wang Xueqi) repeatedly accosts our righteous (and earthly) heroes through a series of bloody encounters until finally dispatched by the power of heavenly good a la those Nazis from Raiders of the Lost Ark. Oh, and A-list star Zhao Wei's part as a general's daughter unwillingly embroiled in proceedings was both minimally productive and ripped directly off Zhang Ziyi's Musa contribution.
A basically boring plot plus plodding pace stand fore and center in this film's roster of difficulties, yet lest we be negligent in mentioning sparse, wow-less action sequences and an overall breeze of pervasive malaise.
Certainly, endorsing vacuous, demo-like beauty as seen in Hero doesn't float our boat, but if all else fails, at least you got something cool to look at. With Warriors of Heaven and Earth even that was sorely missed.
We did enjoy its climactic showdown to some degree, but then it could have been a case of relief at knowing the end was nigh.
There's very little benefit in the mainland repeatedly producing these bloated period pieces, save maybe for a renewed interest in Hong Kong's seasoned cinematic abilities, such as upcoming science fiction-mystery release 2046, directed by Wong Kar Wai and soon to be unleashed as more of a proper ambassador.
Chinese movies haven't had a decent PR icon since Ang Lee's masterpiece made the rounds, and still don't even after Warriors of Heaven and Earth.
Rating: **
Written by: Lee Alon
Date: 6 November 2003
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