During the Chinese Taiping Rebellion in the 1860s in the late Qing Dynasty, General Qing-Yun (Jet Li) is the only survivor of his slaughtered troops. In his aimless wanderings after, Qing-Yun encounters a woman who nurses him back to health. Qing-Yun is then welcomed into a group of bandits by Wu-Wang (Takeshi Kaneshiro) only to find the woman who had helped him is wife to other bandit leader Er-Hu (Andy Lau). The three men form a blood pact to always look out for one another, and Qing-Yun convinces the bandit leaders to join the Qing Army in an attempt to give them their financial independence. Qing-Yun assumes the leadership role and what follows is two hours of epic battles, confusing Chinese politics, love-triangles, and a test of fraternity, not to mention eight wins at the Hong Kong Film Awards including director, picture, and actor.

...more after the jump.

Jet Li delivers on both an emotional and physical level as leader Qing. Despite "retiring" from doing martial arts films, Li has never looked sharper with a fist or a weapon. Li also delivers a nuanced and layered performance normally reserved for more dramatic roles. The determination marred by his duty versus his instinct really shine through here. Andy Lau seems to pop up in movie after movie and always impresses with what he does. (Both he and Li were nominated for Hong Kong Film Awards for Best Actor...Li won) Lau's Er-Hu is the bruttish bandit leader who reluctantly cedes to Li's Qing, only to try and overtake Qing whenever he doesn't agree (I'm looking at you Suzhou Massacre).

And rounding out the three blood brothers is Takeshi Kaneshiro as Wen-Xiang. Kaneshiro can be seen in the new John Woo movie Red Cliff, and he may very well be a great actor; however, in this he simply looks like a tortured and confused man. Every reaction shot comes with a furrowed brow and anguished face, but this could be attributed to an underwritten part as much as it is to an actor's skill.

The script, for the most part, is good, although, the love triangle between Er-Hu, his wife, and Qing could have been done away with completely. There's enough tension in the situations without having to constantly be going back to the romantic strife. Sure, the missus ultimately ends up being a catalyst, but who's to say what really happened.

The film claims to be based on real events, but the post-script on the black screen somewhat undoes the narrative that unfolds on the screen. It was like the, "this very well could have happened, but we're not really sure at all beyond the battles and such." Even without this at the end, during my viewing I found the film to be strangely uninvolving. It was an enjoyable watch, but it didn't affect you.

Warlords is a solid entry into the epic Asian cinema catalogue. It's less elegant than Crouching Tiger, not as well made as Hero, and has less action than Fearless. The performances are strong, and the battle scenes are good, but there's a certain something missing from the mix.

--Greg MacLennan