A Terra-Cotta Warrior (1989) User Reviews

The Terracota Soldier comes to life!

[OllieSuave-007 · 8/10 · 29 March 2017]

This was an interesting Hong Kong film I saw once when I was a kid, starring Zhang Yimou as am immortal Terracotta soldier, Meng Tianfang, who awakens in the 1930s and meets Lili Chu, the reincarnated woman of his love, Winter. Tianfang had been entombed in the statue of the soldier for hundreds of years before he awakens.

The lovely Gong Li plays two roles, Lili Chu and Winter. There is drama, romance tears, laughter and intriguing costumes choices for the cast of characters. This movie definitely brings the legendary ancient China's Terracotta Soldiers to life - entertaining to watch.

Grade B

Pure fantasy - 2 Gong Li's for the price of one

[sangepengyou · 6/10 · 17 May 2006]

If you've only seen Gong Li's big epics, this movie will come as quite a startling surprise... but that's not necessarily a bad thing. Everyone needs a change of pace from time to time and this film definitely falls into that group.

This is definitely not the Gong Li that most westerners know but there is something about Gong Li's dual turn as a naive, ancient court lady and her haughty 1930s two-bit actress reincarnation that will definitely prompt a double-take. It's almost like two different movies rolled into one: the first an ancient love drama, the second twentieth century silliness with some intriguing costume choices. There are tears and laughter, almost like Gong Li was trying to poke fun at herself.

Watched with the right type of expectations, this fantasy filled movie is reasonably enjoyable purely escapist fare.

A clever fairytale to breathe life into a legendary discovery

[mariannealindsell · 8/10 · 20 May 2023]

Note: there are only a few spoilers. I have written this review with enough left unsaid.

This film is a bit of fun, really.

The discovery of the Terracotta figures was such a shock and a revelation, it practically begged for some amazing backstory (not that the simple truth wasn't already amazing enough).

So this film supposes alchemists in the time of the Emperor Qin develop a substance that allows a person to live forever.

When the emperor's chamberlain falls in love with one of the girls being sent on a mission for the Emperor, both are condemned. The girl, 'Snowy' risks her life to give the chamberlain the alchemists substance. He is then mummified as a terracotta warrior.

The terracotta warrior sleeps and awakens in a new age when a movie is being filmed. Is the movie extra his Snowy? Can there be more than one Snowy?

Overall, I thought the screenplay unique for a number of reasons: 1) It doesn't play out like most cliché time travel yarns; 2) The time spent initially in ancient China was longer than is typical for a time travel movie, and provided a significant pre-story; 3) Although there are a few light hearted anachronism, the film avoids overplaying this aspect; 4) Although some parts of the story were predictable, I genuinely couldn't anticipate a number of the directions the plot took;

I bought the DVD which had an English audio track. However the voice talent sounded so overtly American and didn't really fit tge movie. So I reverted to the Mandarin audio track with English subtitles. This offered much better dramatic effect.