An Empress And The Warriors (2008) - Movie
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Movie Plot |
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In ancient China, rival kingdoms grapple for ultimate reign. On a battlefield, a dying king commands his daughter, Princess Fei-Er (Kelly Chen) to take the helm and defend their kingdom with help from general Xue-Hu (Donnie Yen). Fei-Er's cousin, Wu Ba (Guo Xiao-Dong) also has his eyes on the throne and sends out assassins to kill the princess. A mysterious man named Duan Lan-Quan (Leon Lai) manages to save Fei-Er from the grisly fate and they fall in love. Fei-Er must choose between following her dreams to elope with Duan and submitting to her duty to defend her kingdom.
User's Review and Ratings |
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What is everyone talking about...?
3 of 4 people found this review helpful
What I loved most: The contrast between war and love
What I really hated: The abrupt ending
I don't understand why everyone thought it sucked... and how the actors and actress were terrible. I don't speak mandarin but I thought she did a very good job and was a very good empress, only thing that bothered me was that i couldn't read the subtitles in time. I thought over all it was a very touching and worth while movie.
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CO's Review |
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Have you ever seen a hot air balloon carrying a sampan? Well, in this movie, you will!
Firstly, do not be fooled by the cover art - this isn't your run-of-the-mill war epic. It isn't an expanded TVB kung-fu drama either. If anything, the clumsily titled "An Empress And The Warriors" is an MTV music video soap with Leon Lai and Kelly Chen playing mismatched lovebirds - and poor ones at that!
You'd say: at least Donnie Yen kept his shirt on, sparing us the muscleman theatrics that tortured us for more than an hour in "Flash Point". However, as war epics go, you wouldn't be spared the bionic, one-man-kill-all Oriental heroism that oozes out of Donnie's terracotta-type costume. Kelly Chen, on the other hand, is still pouting like a Chinese version of Emmanuelle Beart, despite having had so many opportunities since the "Infernal Affairs" movies to improve her acting skills. It is peculiar to see the songstress shout at men like Maximus in "Gladiator", only to manja up to Leon Lai in the next scene like a giggly schoolgirl. Together, they could hardly convince anybody that they are in Ancient China, let alone that they're in love.
That being said, let's not be too hasty to cast the first stone on this empress and her poor band of lost warriors. We can give consolation points for the costume setting, can't we? Although the body armour in the movie couldn't protect against mosquitoes, never mind arrows, they are sure nice to look at. This lends some credibility to the movie. Sadly, all that money still went to waste when you consider that the movie is largely forgettable due to its disengaging flow. The slow-mo action sequences may have been cool 20 years ago but we have learned to ask for more than action-wire assisted stunts through the years.
Oh, the story? Princess Fei-er inherits the throne from her warlord dad in a short-lived attempt by General Mu-yong to keep this one other evil general, her cousin, out of power in the Yan hierarchy. Guess what she does with her monarchy when handsome medicine man Lan-guan comes into her life?
By the way, I lied - Donnie couldn't resist taking his shirt off after all.
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