An Empress and the Warriors (2008) User Reviews

A Nutshell Review: An Empress and The Warriors

[DICK STEEL · 6/10 · 22 March 2008]

I guess a new Hong Kong trend is emerging. I recall that as a kid, there was the Mr Vampire movie, which spawned a slew of Chinese vampire movies in its wake. Then there was John Woo's A Better Tomorrow, which gave birth to a whole lot of brotherhood-amongst-thieves themed films. And then there was Once Upon A Time in China, which brought about a renaissance in martial arts movies based on historical or beloved fictional folk heroes. These days, we're living in the Warring period era, where we have a fixation with armour, and more armour, thanks to movies like The Myth, Battle of Wits, The Warlords, Curse of the Golden Flower, and more to come with Battle of Red cliff, and Three Kingdoms: Resurrection of the Dragon.

An Empress and The Warriors continue this trend, based on the state of Yan which is under constant warring with the state of Zhao. The titular characters here are Yen Feier (Kelly Chen) who becomes empress after the assassination of her Emperor father, and because of the unhappiness of rival generals over the appointment of Donnie Yen's General Muyong Xuehu as heir to the throne. So he refuses to partake in any more political schemes, and throws his support behind his childhood friend and unrequited love of his life, whose relationship with her is made even more complex as he has to train her to become a warrior, ala Mulan, in montage style.

And no thanks to her scheming cousin Wu Ba (Guo Xiao-Dong) who tries his very best in sowing discord amongst the court / generals, in order to see his ambition of sitting on the throne through. Another assassination attempt on the life of Feier, and we're introduced to the other Warrior from the title, Duan Lan-Quan (Leon Lai), who in actual fact looks like and lives like an Eastern Robin Hood, on a set that looks a complete rip off from Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves. The inevitable romantic tangle between single beautiful princess and good looking doctor begins, and begs the question whether she still remembers her pledge to put country first.

In truth, there are many elements here from the Robin Hood folklore, besides the set, with the bows and arrows, ambush cum assault which was thankfully well done in keeping up the tempo, and a fight sequence atop floating logs that drew inspiration from Robin vs Little John. The romantic angle though was quite unnatural and unfortunately felt very forced, and bogged down the entire movie, with Feier in a dilemma choosing between two potential beaus, and each of them having reason to hold a candle for her. I was half expecting Bryan Adams to come belting out his hit single, but we're treated to a duet by the two leads (who are singers by the way), in what I believe could have a chance to top the mando-pop charts.

Action wise, you've got to leave it to Donnie Yen to deliver the goods. Alas, there's nothing too different here with the war battle sequences, as it again borrows heavily from its peers, in particular, Stanley Tong's The Myth (in fact, too much and too direct a reference), and cut down one too many horses (none were harmed of course). Yen did seem rather stiff under all that heavy metal, and there isn't any single fight sequence that stood out during battles, except perhaps for that token same-screen sharing scene with Leon Lai, or that flight into the forest (yet another nod in the direction of A Touch of Zen).

All that's left of this movie that's worth mentioning, are the beautiful, intricately designed suits of armour, so much so that even Leon Lai has a full suit just to aesthetically please the movie's poster, and the cinematography, credit due to Zhao Xiao-Ding, who also lensed House of Flying Daggers and Curse of the Golden Flower.

An Empress and the Warriors turned out to be a movie that's neither here nor there - a weak romance and a weak war action movie, and its storyline, which at times confounds because of its implausibilities in character motivation and loopholes, all add up to making this an average movie at best.

Good but unremarkable. I wanted it to be better

[dbborroughs · 6/10 · 18 June 2009]

When the Emperor is wounded in battle he turns the running of the army to one of his generals(Donnie Yen), a man of absolute loyalty but uncertain birth. This doesn't sit well with the Emperor's nephew who kills the old man when he gets a chance. What the nephew doesn't know is that, Donnie Yen was also made heir to the throne. The generals and the nephew don't like this and Yen wanting to part of the politics makes the daughter of the emperor Empress. She takes the throne, vowing to go through the military training and lead her army. Of course the nephew doesn't like that idea either and he begins to plot to take control of the kingdom by force.

A romantic action film with a triangle at its center (the empress is rescued by an inventor in the woods who doesn't know who she is, and doesn't let on he's a great fighter. That pair falls in love while Donnie yen looks on longingly), this has some great fight sequences but suffers from a romance thats essentially a Cliff Notes version of emotion. The spectacle is here but the emotion really isn't and what you get out of this film will depend upon what you bring to it. To me for the romance to work you have to be willing to fill in all of the blanks the film leaves unsaid. I couldn't do it and just sort of waived my hand at the thought of much of the plot. Actually this is not a bad film, but its not a particularly remarkable one. Its very much like several recent martial arts films, Three Kingdoms springs first to mind, where the action sequences overwhelm the slender plot. Its one of what seems to be a trend where directors seem to think they can be brief with the plot so long as they are showy with the spectacle (The Promise anyone?). Forgive me I need a plot to drive the action.

Worth a look if you run across it say as a rental, but I would be hard pressed to really justify a 12 buck viewing in theaters. (This is going to be the first film screened as part of this years New York Asian Film festival which strikes me as rather an odd choice since its strangely unremarkable film to be part of a film festival. The film is neither the best nor the worst of its type, its just something thats unremarkable part of the middle of the pack)

Love is in the air

[chuby_chucky · 7/10 · 11 April 2008]

This movie was quite excellent and touched my heart. Fei Yang, the selfless young dame from Chinese royalty leaves her life of splendor just to meet her "prince". That, to me, is interesting and also romantic. Perhaps it was a stupid thing to do. As a Chinese, I certainly know how difficult it is for people in my culture to throw away their wealth just to be with someone that doesn't have anything other than their skills as an artisan. For all the Chinese people that I have met in life, wealth is their number one priority. It is touching to see a story where the characters yearn to live beyond the superficial. The story is actually a tragedy because at the end, Fei Yang must endure her life alone. All people that she loved, including here prince are killed in the war. This one made me cry.

Tries to do too much with too little

[J_Charles · 26 May 2009]

Summary: It wants to be an epic, it wants to be an action movie, it wants to be a love story. It switches gears and does all three in mediocre fashion.

Positives: - great backdrops for some of the scenes - a far cry from the older Chinese movies where sets and scenes were an afterthought - battle scene was better than expected

Negatives: - the 3 part storyline was predictable and not all that exciting - the acting - see my message board post about the unintentionally hilarious climax - fake CGI rain looked really really fake

the scenery gives it a passing grade.

Mulan Meets Moon Warriors With Nice Results!!

[Movie-Misfit · 7/10 · 24 March 2020]

An Empress And The Warriors was one-in-a-thousand offerings of historical films that focused on the Warring States, much like The Myth, Red Cliff, Three Kingdoms and many more. While the film may not be as well scripted as many of its peers, it still pleases on many fronts such as the costume design, cinematography, performances, and of course, the action!

Under the watchful eye of the fantastic Tony Ching Siu Tung, and obviously having Donnie Yen in a lead role, you can be sure that any martial arts action on-screen is going to be worth watching. And there is definitely plenty of it going on! Ching gets straight to the action, with the more dramatic moments filtered in-between, showcasing some amazing wire-fu moments and beautifully choreographed combat. I must also note that the weapon (and set) design is amazing...

There is a real feel of a Robin Hood-esque inspired take throughout the film, and more so on the classic Kevin Costner version, Prince Of Thieves, with Leon Lai playing the Robin type character. It's not a bad thing of course, and lends itself to some of the films action sequences as well as more comedy based elements. Leon is also the last surviving member of the New Moon Warriors clan - ironically, looking extremely like Andy Lau's character from the amazing Moon Warriors film (as well as living in a build much like the latter's beach village), of which Ching Siu Tung was also an action director on.

I like An Empress And The Warriors. Although it has its flaws, the film has some beautiful scenes and some great action which is well worth watching for, although probably nothing you haven't seen before in the grand scheme of things given the amount of war-and-wire-fu films available. The love triangle between Kelly Chen, Yen and Lai passes and allows for some breathing moments between the war and action scenes!

The hot air balloon was something different though (and so is the Irish-inspired music over it), but I can't say I wasn't impressed. Ching Siu Tung has a habit of adding these bizarre moments to his self-directed films, so I wasn't that surprised to be honest...

At the end of the day, An Empress And The Warriors is a martial arts action film, and for that reason alone, it certainly does not disappoint. From the one-on-one fights to the epic finale (perhaps inspired by The Myth), Ching and Yen deliver and make this underrated wu xia war flick, worth the watch.

Overall: Think Jingle Ma's 'Mulan' meets Sammo Hung's 'Moon Warriors' and you'll enjoy what's on offer here!

A good movie – doesn't quite manage to be more.

[freydis-e · 7/10 · 17 December 2015]

Spoilers are all in the last-but-one paragraph.

By Siu-Tung Ching, the director of the wonderful Chinese Ghost Story series, this one falls a long way short of CGS2 (an all-time great) but is well-made and a highly entertaining watch. It fails to be more through being too short to properly deal with the themes it raises, and by following too closely in the footsteps of Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, whereas it actually had more to say.

Everything is good, especially the direction which never allows the pace to flag despite the disparate story elements. Donnie Chen is wisely restricted to what he does best – fighting. Kelly Chen is fine in her role, convincingly stern and authoritative when needed, softer when the chance arises. And the support cast, led by the excellently understated Leon Lai, do fine. Cinematography is great, the story largely makes sense (despite oddities like the balloon flight, blown by the wind but ending up where it started) and the script, in translation, was snappy and effective.

Some people didn't like this because it's a mix of action and romance, with some more thoughtful scenes thrown in. It seems some are only satisfied by non-stop fighting, others by non-stop goo. This has no goo as such, just a few gentler scenes that allowed the affection of the two characters to be well-shown without it, scenes which didn't interrupt the main theme of a woman in a man's world, dealing with a challenging and improbable destiny.

Spoilers follow. I liked that everything was sensible and realistic, no magic, running up bamboo stems or flying from roof to roof in this one. An example. On inheriting from her father (a king, not an emperor!) Feier is expected not only to rule, indeed not only to lead troops into battle (as Tamara of Georgia and many other historical female rulers have done). For some reason she must also become a great warrior. In so many martial arts films, a few days' training turns some zero into an invincible fighter. In this one she trains hard and becomes competent, but nothing more. I didn't like so much that themes were not followed through on. Examples. The romantic relationship is conveniently removed in what looks like a rather less sentimental homage to CTHD. And the results of Feier's act of mercy in battle are never shown. She is prepared to use violence when needed, both leading her troops and with her own hand against her personal enemy, but warrior-turned-doctor Lan Quan has taught her to seek other ways of resolving problems and the results of that lesson are never shown. At the end of the film she is thoroughly accepted by her own people, but the relationships with the other warring kingdoms are forgotten about.

If you enjoyed either CTHD or CGS2, do not miss this one. You should enjoy it anyway – as long as you don't only like non-stop fighting or non-stop goo.

Stupid excuse to make an epic film

[incubrus · 4/10 · 19 March 2008]

Basically this movie has a plot typical a romance epic genre. But I don't care much about the story. My only reason watching this flick is because Donnie Yen. The direction seriously damaged by lack of exploration by the filmmaker. This is not movie quality direction rather much like a TV series quality. Very disappointing. The pace is inconsistent, the romantic scenes very immature and lame, there no intensity on the battle scenes at all. The characterization on the bad guys very cheaply done. It's like they are yelling at the audience, "I'm the bad guy, look at my evil expressions, very bad ain't it". Overall this flick is very disappointing. 4/10

Feels more like a TV series

[JLW · 6/10 · 2 June 2008]

This is one of those movies that you can tell is trying to be good but ends up being mediocre. There is a love story that is way out of place during a war between the Yan and the Zhao, a love triangle between Donnie Yen, and an ambitious Nephew who will seem to do anything to take over the throne. All of these stories could be well off on their own, but the director doesn't explore either to a satisfaction. Martial arts fans will see a duel between Leon Lai and Donnie Yen, but it feels like it was just placed there just for the sake of having them fight each other.

There is good stuff here, but it is rushed and clichéd to the point where it feels like you are buying one of those TV drama DVD sets.

Not even close to expectations, truly bad editing and text lines...Really wasted disappointing movie, if not, one of the worst movies I ever watched.

[liquid_li-1 · 4/10 · 10 April 2008]

Costume design is top-notch, but that is also it!!! Even thought they used great casts in it; like Donnie Yen, Leon Lai and Kelly Chen.

The feeling of awfulness came when I watched this movie right from the start.

The pace of the movie is really really annoying to watch, surely in the first 10 minutes of the movie I felt it. This movie is SO B GRADE.

Yep, u can feel that this movie was made with a high intensive schedule and again with a Hong Kong movie feeling. Due to the fact the movie is putted together like it is crammed into a microwave. Fast and sleazy in 99 minutes!!! I hate the director or editor really now after I watched this movie. There is nothing that captures my interest , fight scenes nor even got the attitude to be memorable in my head. I don't even think I would watch this one ever again.

The story: itself, oh man, very unappealing to watch it without thinking "BOOOoring!!!" Even thou the movie has got some "magic" or romantic time, but that is quickly wasted by the fight scenes and lousy text lines with no-nonsense-combating-filling-up-the-movie-fight-sequences. (yep ,feels like chewing gum after a long time in your mouth, u want to spit it out because it starts to nerving u)

The music: no memorable lines or even attractive interesting soundtracks, very fast to forget about. The editing and also some non-aunthentic computer made scenes makes this movie stinks so hard so that the music would not live up the whole picture anymore. I think that the music is only there because it has to fill up some gap.

The characters: OK, I would watch how the cast did in this movie, but that would be also it! There is very little to satisfy when u watched it...

The dialogs's: Truly hilarious, some not-logical sentences that comes with emotions are really put in a wrong way, even the timing for some sentences is not used correctly to get an emphasized feeling!!! Not even good to watch this movie I must say, only disappointed, annoyed and sleepy...

Only one nomination is granted and that's for the costume design, but they over do it in the film like its kind of 'Lord of The Rings'and '300' which they almost hard copy it with no originality. So don't bother, go watch another director and/or movie!

Good Film with something for everyone

[les6969 · 6/10 · 19 January 2010]

This is not a great martial arts movie, it is a good story, well acted and directed with something for everyone. It is like a cross between 'House of Flying Daggers' and the Chinese warrior epics you may have seen. All the lead characters are believable, there is a good and evil story, a love story, a friendship story and an unrequited love story, oh and plenty of action. The fights are well choreographed, especially the larger battles with some scenes that look truly realistic, I don't know how they did some of them with no deaths ( makes the chariot scenes in Ben Hur look like Childs play ) I did get a bit bored with some of the lovely dovey stuff, but by the end of the film I knew I would watch this again. The end fight is worth waiting for, not just for the action but for the emotion shown by the actors.

blah

[nizsu · 4/10 · 11 May 2008]

I watched this film becuz the trailer is quite good "love in war" D". The acting is OK OK. The storyline is too simple. Everything happened easily like in cartoon and fairy tale. If war is easily stopped by such naive words of a princess or anyone else, there were not World War 1 and 2. And up until today, there's still wars happening in parts of the world. A princess fell in love with a guy in days when hearing he said some nice words like " War only bring pain". the meaning of this film is announced by him too. Its like he was shouting at us "The meaning of this film is "war only bring pain". Everyone got it?" . I don't get it.

The battle scenes has no intensity at all. I feel like there are just a few group of ppl fighting each other. Why there are several cut-off scenes. It seems that the director didn't know how to direct the scenes properly, so he decided to jump from scenes to scenes. Give it 4/10 for the gud trailer and the ending.

overall a good film!

[ajpudlo-1 · 8/10 · 7 April 2008]

WELL WORTH THE WATCH!

Some may point out its flaws with reality, but that is not what the movie is about. It is an intense, well choreographed fantasy about feuding nations, betrayal, and the love story caught in the middle that almost all war movies have. The action scenes along with the amazing design details in the armor and weapons are what really makes the film. You will definitely not go wrong in watching this movie.

The major critique that I have is that the love story seemed a bit weak and disconnected from the rest of the plot. They did attempt to incorporate it within the background of the characters, but it just moved too quick to really convince me.

The Empress and the Warriors

[Tweekums · 7/10 · 3 November 2014]

In ancient China the kingdom of Yan is at near constant war with its neighbours. In the latest battle the king is wounded and names Murong Xuehu, a man of lowly origins as his successor; the king's nephew, Wu Ba, can't take this and murders the wounded king in an attempt to usurp the throne. Things don't go as planned and the king's daughter; Yen Feier, finds herself being named Empress! Before she can be crowned she must undergo vigorous training as a warrior during which time her treacherous cousin makes another attempt on the crown; this time trying to make Feier disappear; the assassins he sends are thwarted by a hermit doctor, Duan Lanquan, who heals the injured Feier. They grow close but she returns to her country and leads them to victory over a neighbouring kingdom that was attempting to invade. She then abdicates and returns to the doctor… although their peace will be sort lived as she must ultimately return and defeat her treacherous cousin to save her kingdom from constant warfare.

This might not be the best Chinese action/romance but it passes ninety minutes rather nicely. As anybody who has seen a few films of this type will expect everything looks great; be it the impressively choreographed fight scenes, the lush landscapes or the impressive woodland home of Duan Lanquan. Kelly Chen makes a fine female lead in the role of Yen Feier in both the action and the more comic and romantic scenes between her and Duan Lanquan. The other leads are fine too. The story is fairly simple; the good characters are unambiguously good and the 'bad guy', Wu Ba, is treacherous from start to his inevitable demise; this isn't a problem though; not every film requires twists and shocking reveals! Overall an enjoyably way to pass an hour and a half.

Neither fish nor flesh

[kosmasp · 4/10 · 24 March 2009]

Or in other words, neither action movie, nor romantic comedy/drama! And don't get fooled by Donnie Yens name in the cast list. Yes he has his action scenes, but don't watch this movie, expecting him to be the lead role. He shares that with another actor. Of course the main spot/role is reserved for a woman.

Everything revolves around her (the Empress) and the movie starts off pretty good ... until it breaks up after the first act of the movie. The nice pace from the beginning is gone and we are treated to a sort of short-movie-in-the-movie. The sudden change doesn't feel right and it doesn't fit into the rest of the movie too. It's indecisiveness which genre it belongs to and a few other flaws really brings the movie down.

What did Ching Siu Tung think of??

[lion_paw73 · 6/10 · 15 July 2008]

Ching Siu Tung failed miserably with An Empress And The Warriors, some good shots and one almost nice action scene doesn't make a good film and i usually love to see a CST directed movie but he failed with Dororo too so Ching Siu Tung, please get back to directing martial arts movies instead!! And Donnie Yen, please act in movies like SPL, Flashpoint, Iron Monkey,Dragon Tiger Gate and Legend Of The Wolf instead of war movies (cause then you can show off your great martial arts), they are mostly boring but if one think of making a war movie at least make it with a exiting plot and action filled, not just lame love that no one cares for in the end. Ching Siu Tung did a good job on Curse of the Golden Flower but that was not a action film more a drama with a few action scenes, so see that instead of this garbage.

Crouching Empress, Hidden Doctor

[loogenhausen · 6/10 · 15 September 2012]

An epic tragedy of Shakespearean proportions, the movie is ultimately bogged down by simplistic dialogue and an unfortunate side of cheese.

Kelly Chen is the princess of a kingdom under fire by a rival warring state. Her dad, the Emperor, is a battle-hardened field general who is mortally wounded after insisting on leading his troops in one last attack on their enemies. D'oh. Chen comes into power on the throne after the dead Emp's fave general (Donnie Yen) withdraws his right to rule and backs the chick. You don't have to be a genius to see what comes next. The other generals do not like this and refuse to support her. War within and without is brewing and the good guys are outnumbered.

So Chen toughs it out and knuckles up, right? Nope.

After a very short commitment to train as a warrior and lead her troops confidently (the people love her, despite the lack of confidence shown by the warmongers) she gets her ass kicked by a marauding party from the enemy state and ends up in an expatriate doctor's (Leon Lai) treehouse of healing. Love blossoms, right on cue. The doctor turns out to be the last of a cadre of badass swordsmen who disbanded long ago after being betrayed or the like. Donnie Yen is dismayed by all this, naturally. The rebelling generals strike and all kinds of tragic shenanigans ensue.

If this all sounds very Zhang Yimou to you, then you're in the same boat as me. Apparently director Siu-tung Chin is a big fan of House of Flying Daggers and Curse of the Golden Flower. There's nothing wrong with that, of course. That's pretty good taste. However, the cheesy love music and simplistic script doesn't help matters one bit. It's a shame because the fights and battle scenes are quite the sight to behold. It's exciting stuff only made better by the presence of the superb Donnie Yen.

This came very close to being a great films if it weren't for the pat philosophy on war and peace - separating everything into black and white. The love triangle is interesting in parts but Kelly Chen comes off as either cooing or coarse, with no in-between mode. The main thing that saves it from being another average-o-rama is Donnie Yen, the patron saint of physical destruction. Yen and his giant sword are a sight to behold in the finale and he continues to cement his place as an immortal tough guy. Too bad it was kinda sorta wasted in this kinda sorta disappointing movie. Don't let that stop you from watching it, though. It's still worth a look and very entertaining in parts.

Maybe you'll get a kick out of the hokey slow motion shots of Kelly Chen and Leon Lai falling in love set to all kinds of sappy music.

Or not.

lMC

HK Neo Reviews: An Empress and the Warriors

[webmaster-3017 · 5/10 · 23 June 2008]

Tagline: A dismal effort from the action director of Hero…

Review by Neo: It is probably normal that DVD or movie posters nowadays rhyme more with the word misleading than a true reflection. Looking at the poster of Ching Siu Tung's latest war epic, An Empress and the Warriors, there are three warriors in armors, namely the as usual Donnie Yen, the ever stoic Leon Lai and the elegantly beautiful Kelly Chen. One must start wondering if it is the believability factor of having Kelly Chen as a warrior empress is a prominent fraud. While it is probably a fraud in terms of making the paying audience to sit through a woman with obvious modern looks in ancient warrior, the real fraud is seeing Leon Lai in armor. Since when did Leon put on that armor, when he wore peasant clothing throughout the flick. Moving on from the marketing fraud theory, the question moves to whether or not this flick serves up enough meat and wine to satisfy the current reviewer. The answer is a quick no and if you must ask for his bluntly honest opinion, Neo wants to fire the casting agency and probably have the screenwriter set on fire as well.

The winner of the first issue or problem is the casting of Kelly Chen. Everyone knows Kelly is one with limited acting range and while she is elegantly pretty enough to engage Neo's attention, her acting at important moments are largely laughable. The manner she screams for glory, anger or help are almost to the point of hitting and stretching the laughing buttons of every normal human being. In fact at this moment, Neo just cannot take his mind away from the moment she screams in pain near the end of the film. Frankly, Chen fails to emote with the audience and her acting is plain crap. While Kelly may be able to play a dead-serious high ranking cop in Johnnie To's Breaking News, she is certainly no warrior with a warm heart.

Another reason to sack the casting director is why the hell you would bother to cast three actors with almost equal stoic acting is really beyond Neo. When the best thing to come out of the flicks lies in Leon Lai's somewhat interesting performance, the audience probably knows what they have truly got themselves into. While one wouldn't say the flick is a complete waste of time as it is probably still better than dozens of other HK cinema apprentices. It goes without saying that people expect more with war epics or even movies with ancient costumes to boost.

Without being a total critic, Neo is craving for some pros to talk about, but in a switch of conscious, he decided to proceed with the cons. The battle sequences are beyond un-witness-able and one would have through that after the years of action directing and directing epics battle, Ching would know much better. When a movie does not relate or attempt to connect with the audience, it will usually not win the side of the audience. Adding to this mess is the acting skills of Donnie Yen. While Yen have been appearing in almost every HK action-er in the past decade and probably is just as hard working as the more famous Andy Lau, Yen must admit that he will probably never win a Best Actor Award. Whenever a slightly more challenging scene comes along, Yen's face will overacts and the result is the audience laughing on the outside, rather than emoting in silence on the inside. However, this is really no fault to Yen, as he really tries, but rather the burden of lad falls on director Ching for usually such close up shots on Yen and Chen's limited acting face.

As mentioned before, Leon Lai is the best out of the pack as of the three; he is most human and perhaps the most pure. Lai is stoic, but he neither overacts nor underplays his character as an all-knowing doctor/ inventor. It is the scenes with Lai and Chen that allows the film to smoothly run to the heist finish line. The view of the tree tops, the lake sequences and the hot air balloon are all good moments of cinematography in picturing the beauty of China. A good performance from Lai and certainly one that is comfortable with his range and self.

All in all, An Empress and the Warriors is a far cry of some of Ching's best works (Chinese Ghost Story days and one of Neo's all time favorite – Swordsman 2). If one say that Ching have lost form, that is almost untrue to ponder upon as it won't take long for people to point you towards the direction of the great action sequences of Warlords and even the fun fighting in the Japanese flick ,Dororo. So what exactly went wrong, the question is simple, just blame it all on Steven Seagal (he last directed Belly of the Beast in 2003), but seriously Ching is probably a better action director than a director. So in the mean time, forget the days of Swordsman 2 and think about sometime that is just borderline average HK Cinema and what you get is a laughable Kelly Chen trying to be a warrior, Donnie Yen trying to emote and director Ching forgetting he is not shooting a Seagal production. Then again, at least Leon Lai manages to impress… (Neo 2008)

I rate it 5.5/10

• www.thehkneo.com

Thin storyline cliché directing poor acting

[hubertng · 1/10 · 14 June 2008]

There are so many bad things to talk about this show i don't even know where to start.

The script is just so bad and there are so many western movie rip off. Come on, jousting in china?? War chariots with blades?

I count - Gladiator, A knight's tale ( the training on the river + jousting), Predator ( They must have borrowed the same traps from Arnold).

1. Gladiator rip off. - Snuffing of the emperor (when I saw this, I thought it was a coincidence) and the reasons.. ambitious, no talent, good for nothing .. Joaquin Phoenix, anyone? - war chariots with cutting blades on the wheels.. did Egypt share this technology with china? I never knew that exist in Chinese history. - use of shield to cause chariots to overturn the chariots - when did Chinese soldiers start to fight like Legions?? - The most annoying part - Russell Crowe used a sword to direct his gladiators to "single column" to one side and point his sword to another side commanding "single column" in the Colosseum - Donnie Yen did exactly the same thing except in some commands in Chinese I didn't catch because I was cringing with all my senses shut.

2. The Characters are bad - Princess - Poor country loyalty vs Love. It seems she just want to ditch her country as soon as she has the chance

• No sense of duty. She could shut her love (scene where she feed the horse and telling Donnie she knew he was helping her) to flirting with Leon lai without care in the jungle. Its like watching 2 characters in play.. no duty vs love emotion conflict at all. She just switch it on and off.

• Leon Lai character - MacGyver in China? Hot air balloon? Not to mention another western movie rip off of Predator. Its so laughable about the traps and how the hooded men just walk into his traps when the jungle are so huge. They can jump straight into his log at just the right angle to be taken out...

ALSO LEON LAI never even don that Armour in the show so why did the studio promote him wearing beside Donnie and Kelly in all the posters?

3. The chasing scene - this is probably the most laughable part - The assassin could have blow the dart easily at the princess from the cliff judging from the way the blow the dart when chasing the princess on the horse - but they must execute a difficulty level of 10 dive to forewarn her and do a synchronize swim performance before chasing. They must be inspired by the fact that Olympics is coming to China. - OK, the princess managed to jump on the horse and ran from the bunch of assassins who bounce up and down without gravity (unlike the smooth wire lightness floating you see in crouching tiger). They stop to blow the dart.. while Kelly continues to ride.. They miss and continue the chase but hold on.. While they stop and Kelly ride, the didn't lose an inch, they are still on her tail seemingly.. You need a lot of suspending your disbelief to finish the show.

If Yen kingdom had such magical and great assassins/warriors why cant they just enlist their help to defeat the enemy in the first place?

The war scenes are bad.. I serious thought I was watching HBO's Rome. In the last scene where Donnie Yuen was fighting the soldiers.. Why did the horsemen in with flags riding round and round the hundreds of soldiers with only Donnie Yuen in the center? Some clockwise and some counterclockwise? Just to kick up sand?

The characterization of the bad guy is also wrong. He was not warmongering.. he was just going for the throne. YOu would have thought the Princess declared peace with the enemy that you expect the bad guy to attack the enemy again just to contrast war and peace.. but all he did was to hunt the princess down.

This is the second show after Speed 2 that I cannot bare myself to finish the DVD.

The title is not appropriate at all. It should be a princess tale or something but not jiang shan mei ren. The princess character was not tout to be a beauty, just a princess. No mention of her beauty in the show except she is too feminine.

I do not recommend this to anyone at all. Please save your money for Red Cliff later this year.

Jiang Shan Mei Ren is a folkore about a pretty girl that a Ming emperor fell in love. Not about a princess.

Visuals are good, story is terrible

[mmushrm · 3/10 · 28 November 2010]

I was horribly disappointed by this movie. The opening sequence was good. Even the initial plot line of a power struggle and intrigue with the royal family. Then a love story gets introduced and the entire movie changes into an absolute mess. Mind you, I am not against love stories intersected into the plot line but this turned to movie into a melodramatic mess. (taking a ride in just invented (by her lover in the bush) hot air balloon, giving up the throne, the slaughter of everyone close to her etc etc). Basically when this movie ended I basically threw away the DVD. The only redeeming quality of this movie is some of the visuals but its not worth the pain of watching the movie, especially the aggrav of the ending.

What a beautiful and romantic movie!

[chenyiaero · 10/10 · 16 March 2008]

Someone will point out the plot has some flaws, yet it doesn't matter for me to enjoy one of the most exciting two hours in my life! The movie is full of bold imagination, amazing depiction of ancient wars and the great actions of superhero. Donnie Yen in the last scene is just the Mars and there have never been a character in the cinematic history as heroic as him! You will be touched to cry when Leon Lai and Kelly Chen ride the fire balloon to watch such a splendid landscape of beautiful China! The scene that Leon Lai is going to fly with his fire balloon and Kelly Chen hurried to catch up with him, with the accompany of the Orphean strains of the theme song, will become one of the most romantic scenes in Chinese cinematic history! Believe me, take your beloved to watch this movie at weekend and you will love each other more!

Its The Martial Art Version Of Everything You Hate About Disney

[damianphelps · 1/10 · 23 December 2020]

I was so disappointed watching this. I always enjoy Donnie Yen, until now.

This is horrible, they should have called it whatever the Chinese word for cliché is.

Its paint by numbers nosh that you could easily avoid, so have a nice blood transfusion instead you will get more out of it!!

Great movie and very touching.

[Adam15900 · 10/10 · 20 March 2008]

I watched this movies because of Donnie Yen and Kelly Chen. I wasn't disappointed, they both did a good job. Donnie serious as ever, and Kelly's expressions were overcoming at times. The song while Kelly and Leon were flying in the balloon were good too. What impressed me most was the scene where Kelly were fighting back her tears while crying for Donnie towards the end of the movie. Bravo! I also felt for the character played by Donnie. He loves the princess but couldn't show his feelings probably waiting for the right time. It never came and then it's gone, how sad for him. It was very touching too when he went to warn Kelly of the danger and instead told Leon to take her far away. Which means that he may never see her again. A great love story along the line of "the myth".

much better than any many US boring movies

[lunarman-1 · 10/10 · 31 May 2008]

i gave this movie 2 thumbs up. definitely an excellent movie, not considered romantic, but rather heroic, loyalty and teaches golden values in life. Donnie Yen is an excellent martial artist. i always have respect for him. it's always a pleasure to see him playing as a good man in movies. he deserves recognition in the States. i got tired of watching Jet Li & Jackie Chan all the time. no offense, but they are very very fun to watch, too. Kelly Chen is adorable, a quiet but strong character. and of course, it's good to see Leon Lai. no matter what other negative commentators, this movie is waaaay better than those of US' crappy scary movies such as: chainsaw, haloween, chucky, etc that has no points but repeating the same thing over and over again.

It may have been produced in HK but much was filmed in the main part of China

[bark-21 · 9/10 · 5 May 2008]

The Mandarin was better spoken than in the past even for those that have heavy Cantonese accents. Nothing like the rushed HK movies that one view wrote about. Must have been watching the cartoon version. More like Hero and more likable ending (spoiler) although all the Empress lovers die in the end it was still memorable. I am tired of one thing in these movies is the hero's constantly dying. Other than that I really enjoyed this movie. The Legend of the Black Scorpion has the same type ending but this one you feel for the Heroen almost all the way through the movie.

Being somewhat optimistic in life affords me the feeling that this is how things should be.

As for a slow story plot. What the heck are they talking about. Story line is consistent and in order. Gives you enough information about the past so you can understand the present.

What a goofball trying to rate this as something other than a good effort. Thanks, more in line of Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon except the cliché of flying warriors. Realistic for the most part. I am not to much into the Armies facing each other on the field and everyone going at it but it gives you a base to understand the ending.

The last part though is that this is yet another movie that tries to tie the unity of China as one country, one people. Eh, it still felt good though.