Warriors of Heaven and Earth

As usual in Hollywood, for a full fifteen minutes, Chinese US co productions were all the rage – Crouching Tiger, Hero – not to mention other co pros like The Last Samurai.

Warriors of Heaven and Earth attempted to surf this wave, but found that it had peaked and instead ended up doing diddly squat in the US at the box office, with Columbia – the studio that picked it up – wondering where all the fans went.

There are any number of reasons for this, but perhaps the most obvious one is the very Chinese way the narrative and cutting works. The opening is dominated by lengthy exposition, setting the scene and the characters, but generating as much confusion as clarity.

The story is about two men – Wen Jiang as a Japanese lieutenant, anxious to get home to his mother country, but sent on one last job by the Chinese emperor. That job happens to be sorting out a bandit (Kiichi Nakai) who makes a living escorting caravans and protecting them from other brigands as they make their way across the silk road.

Nakai’s latest job involves a Buddhist monk and a collection of Buddhist literature, not to mention some artefacts that seem to have cosmic zapping powers coming from the eternal Master himself.

It  so happens that Wen Jiang decides to help out Nakai in his job, protecting the goods from a roving band of bandits, and holding off on his own mission until the monk and his camels are safe.

This is a kind of semi realist tale, set in China’s golden times, and as a result, it’s relatively restrained in its action scenes. While the characters are extraordinarily good at what they do, it’s a bit more like an action western where the gunplay is given an almost convincing impression of hyper reality. Accordingly it lacks the kind of Crouching Tiger/Hero visuals, where doing a tree walk or two is all part of the game.

That’s not to say action is absent, but it’s not so over the top, with the main baddie and his team of relentless bandits providing the counterpoint (the baddie is very fond of playing his instrument at moments when death looks imminent).

Somehow Chinese star Zhao Wei is also dragged into the action, but she is largely superfluous (apart from providing some expository narration) as the story by writer director Ping He (Red Firecracker, Green Firecracker) concentrates on the ambivalent relationship between the two men, and the various fates of an assorted bunch of ‘good’ bandits who join together to help the monk (including Old Diehard, who stays true to his name at the end).

Apart from some action in caves, there’s a desert crossing involving thirst and despair, and a final show down with oil and swords and arrows and so on. There’s also generous use made of the stunning visuals available if you’re filming in the west of China.

The result will be of passable interest to lovers of Chinese period action pics, but it’s unsurprising that the film didn’t please western audiences that much. There’s a certain jaggedness to the editing and the plot development which relies on eastern rather than western conventions, and some will be surprised that by the time we get to the end, the Japanese officer goes home to mother and Japan in a predictably sacrificial way.

The special effects are okay, without being spectacular, while the cosmic energy exuded by the Buddhist artefacts only turns up a couple of times, and then doesn’t do much in either CGI or story terms (after all, if you unveil a universal power of goodness, it means the story should wrap up pretty quickly).

 The DVD has a few extras – a fair average making of and the trailer – but it’s the music video (of the song which emerges over the end titles) which suggests just how Chinese this show is in terms of taste, with Jolin Tsai delivering a sentimental flurry that would make Mariah Carey quiver.

You should be able to pick up this show cheaply in the remainder bin of your local rental store at the moment if you’re an Asian cinema completist, but others will likely settle for a rental. My partner fell asleep, suggesting that this is not one for the mature female demographic, but others will likely take this as some kind of positive recommendation, and they'd sort of be right.

 

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