Word: warlordsã
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...relationship between the three ‘blood-brothers’ in “The Warlords?? is a bromance of epic proportions. General Pang (Jet Li), Wu Yang (Takeshi Kaneshiro), and Er Hu (Andy Lau) travel together, share each other’s space, fight over women, and defend one another like characters in a typical Judd Apatow film. Their bromance is complicated, however, by the fact that they are three of the most powerful warlords in late-Qing dynasty China, and their brotherly spats result in starvation, massacre, and wholesale destruction of entire cities rather than...
...Warlords?? begins with a violent battle in which General Pang is the only survivor. In shock, he wanders around China and is restored to health by the lovely Lian Sheng (Xu Jinglei), after which he meets Er Hu and Wu Yang, two skilled leaders of a ragtag army that pillages and steals to survive. Impressed by each other’s fighting skills and ideals, the three men make a pact to become blood-brothers—it seems like the start of a beautiful friendship...
...leads the brothers and their armies to victory after victory against rebels in the kingdom; but with increased ambition comes increased corruption. He is often in conflict with the purer morals of his brothers, and his determination to become a powerful government official turns “The Warlords?? from a war-movie bromance into a devastating moral tragedy centered around the complete destruction of a friendship...
...movie is the most engaging when it explores the emotional complexities of the warlords?? relationship and the challenging decisions they must make. The epic battle scenes and elaborate fight choreography rival those of “The Lord of the Rings” Trilogy, but to some extent they serve as a distraction from the dynamics of the characters, who are amazingly acted by Li, Kaneshiro, and Lau. Every facial expression, gesture, and spoken line of the three men, particularly Li, is so firmly embedded in character that the presence of the actor is virtually invisible. They work...
...which might be less traumatic, when what really needs to be reasserted explicitly is the heinousness of Empire. Consider, for example, the comparatively muted response of liberals to the devastation of Afghanistan. Though there, in the words of the heroic Malalai Joya, American support for “fundamentalist warlords?? [makes] a mockery of democracy,” fewer troop casualties and lower overall costs allow Democrats to turn a blind...