Tau ming chong
Tags: dramatic, revenge, intrigue, murder, violence

Plot synopsis:
The film is set in China in the 1860s, during the Taiping Rebellion. It is based on the assassination of Ma Xinyi in 1870. In the beginning, there is a battle between loyalists and rebels, during which all of the loyalists are killed except Qingyun, the general. Qingyun goes to a village nearby where the inhabitants engage in banditry, being led by two men, Erhu and Wuyang. He offers his assistance in executing a raid against a rebel convoy. However, a loyalist army assaults the village shortly afterward and seizes the spoils for themselves. Around this time, Qingyun begins an affair with Erhu's wife.
Since the villagers are poor and starving, Qingyun convinces them to fight the rebels as an independent loyalist war-band. Erhu and Wuyang are distrustful of Qingyun, so the three of them perform a blood ceremony where, under the pain of death, they promise to care for each other like brothers. The war-band wins a series of victories. Qingyun becomes ambitious and prepares to attack Suzhou and Nanjing. However, the government becomes fearful of Qingyun's growing influence, and decides to deny reinforcements and provisions. As a result, the attack on Suzhou becomes a year-long siege.
Erhu attempts to kill the enemy commander by sneaking into the city in disguise. He is quickly captured, but to his surprise, the enemy commander was already planning on surrendering, and allows Erhu to kill him in exchange for sparing his troops from execution. However, Qingyun refuses to honor the deal and has the prisoners massacred. Erhu considers desertion, but Qingyun convinces him that the attack on Nanjing will liberate millions of innocent lives.
Nanjing is easily taken, and Qingyun, in return for his grand success, is awarded the position of Nanjing's governor. As Qingyun waits for his inauguration, he tries to make friends with other upper-class people. Erhu, however, has been jaded by the war, and does improper things such as handing out bonus pay without permission. Qingyun responds by arranging for Erhu's murder, fearing a loss of reputation with the upper-class. Erhu, as he dies, curses the name of a rival, not realizing that he was betrayed by his own brother.
Wuyang, having discovered Qingyun's betrayal and Qingyun's affair with Erhu's wife, reacts by killing Erhu's wife. On the day of the inauguration, Wuyang jumps out to kill Qingyun, but is unable to defeat him. It is then revealed, through a flash-back, that Qingyun's promotion was fake, and that the government's real desire was to murder Qingyun for gaining too much influence. At this point, a government soldier appears behind Qingyun and shoots him in the back. The government then frames Wuyang for the murder and gets ready to execute him. The film closes with Wuyang observing that "Dying is easy. Living is harder."

Review: It tells the story of three "brothers" played brilliantly by Jet Li (Fearless), Andy Lau (Infernal Affairs) and Takeshi Kaneshiro (House Of Flying Daggers) who make a pact of brotherhood to one another that consists of killing anyone who harms one of the brothers and killing any brother who harms another brother as they lead an army through war after war taking over city after city.It's incredible to watch the thought process of making vital decisions during a battle or within their own army to defy humanity for the "greater good".
The emotions felt by these men translate in any language and leave you emotionally drained after watching the film through to its tragic end.The cinematography is outstanding, the budget is huge, the directing brilliant and the war scenes brutal as can be.
Jet Li plays General Pang Qingyun, a general of the Ching army whose command is slaughtered by the Taiping rebels while Pang's allies the Ho Army watch and do nothing.Injured, delirious and with no one left to command, Pang is nursed back to health by a beautiful woman who turns out to be the wife of Andy Lau's bandit leader Zhao Er-Hu. When the Ho Army raids Lau's village, steals their supplies and kills one of his men, Jet Li convinces Er-Hu and his lieutenant Zhang Wen-Xiang (played by Takeshi Kaneshiro) that if they join the Ching Army they will get the respect, money and guns necessary to protect themselves and their village.
"The Warlords" is a great epic war movie based on historical events:the last decades of the Qing dynasty, in particular the years of the Taiping Rebellion (1850-1864) that cost the lives of 70 000 000 people (that's 10m more than World War II, but who's counting).
But this movie is the proof that cheap stuff that comes form China isn't always bad.Same with the outstanding performance of Jet Li(out of the $40m budget he received $13m payment)who was worth the money.There is a lot of drama in the movie, but also a lot of action.If you like battle scenes like in "Braveheart" this movie will deliver.If you liked "Crouching Tiger, hidden dragon" and "Hero" you will like this one."The Warlords" though is not a fairytale like those two, it is very realistic and if you are expecting to see people flying around,kung fu fighting or something like that, you will be disappointed.There is none of this here.But the movie is good.
In "The Warlords," another rendition of the classic Chinese tale of loyalty and betrayal of three brothers, we see evidence of something many may not realize: when not hampered by his horrible accent, Jet Li can act, in fact, for this role he received an Asian Film Award nomination for Best Actor.
In addition to Li, we see moving performances by Andy Lau, a winner of numerous Asian film awards, and Takeshi Kaneshiro, both who Americans may know from "The House of Flying Daggers." If you are looking for a "Jet Li movie" you may likely find yourself bored.
During the second half of the 19th century, and the late Qing/Ching/Manchu dynasty, some 50 million soldiers, bandits, and civilians died in the endless conflict.Watching "Warlords," screened for the first time in North America Saturday night in the Castro Theater, part of the San Francisco International Film Festival, at times one might have thought that most of those casualties are shown - often in close-ups - in the film.Beginning with a view reminiscent of the Normandy invasion sequence of "Saving Private Ryan," the film by Peter Chan and Wai Man Yip depicts combat vividly and intensely.
And then, you also notice that Famous Jet Li - who is NOT flying through the air in this film - has been replaced by an honest and talented actor who brings to life a complex, conflicted, tragic character.With shifting alliances, goals, and always at the edge of extinction, Pang and his two "blood brothers," Takeshi Kaneshiro's soulful Jiang Wuyang and Andy Lau's towering Zhao Erhu (perhaps Lau's best-ever performance), struggle from small-time wars all the way to the taking of Nanking on behalf of the fast-fading central (so to speak) government in Beijing.
The same history-based story has been told, in more modest terms, in Zhang Che's 1973 "The Blood Brothers." A historical war film, a brutal but not gratuitously violent drama, "Warlords" impresses, even stuns, but in the end fails to provide catharsis or even an attempt to make sense of the senseless - something Zhang Yimou came close to in "Hero" (also with Jet Li, playing a similar historic character)..
It may be a bit on the heavy side, but by the time you realize that, the movie has already sucked you in completely.An excellent acting team led by Jet Li makes sure that everything else is just frosting around the cake of well developed characters.
Peter Chan learned from the mistakes of Zhang Yimou with HERO (2002), HOUSE OF FLYING DAGGERS, and that lame piece of crap CURSE OF THE GOLDEN FLOWER (2006), he learned that big production and art direction doesn't mean the audience won't expect a good story and direction to go with a film, he also learned that Andrew Lau's triad-gangster-cop INFERNAL AFFAIRS formula can get old if you keep heading toward a beaten path...
there were even moments where I thought I was watching a tribute to John Woo's A BETTER TOMORROW or THE KILLER -- WARLORDS (2007) is Peter Chan's best film to date, and while there is plenty of sentimentality in the key scenes, the context and the flow of the story actually lifted it from what could have been melodrama, to quite compelling performances.Whatever calculations and formulas Peter Chan used on his previous films that I didn't like, the math worked for WARLORDS (2007)...
and what results is some of the best performances I've seen from Jet Li that doesn't start and end with just fight scenes...What I'm amazed with is how a Chinese period film is also one of the better anti-war movies I've seen in a long while..
Which is thanks to the stellar cast (performances), which include Andy Lau, Jet Lee and Takeshi Kaneshiro.Unfortunately the first time I watched the movie, I did see the dubbed (english) version of it (with Greek subtitles).
Part martial arts movie, part historical epic, director Peter Chan's film 'The Warlords' recreates the Taiping rebellion in China.
as someone here has mentioned already, "war is hell" indeed, but to engage the viewer , the director and screenwriter must explore the causes of war not just simply "use" the human emotions to develop sympathy for such tales especially the ones based on actual history as this one claims as well.i would add at this point that the recent Chinese made "battle of wits" is way superior to this one when it comes to a very similar plot but with better told and untold analysis of "cause and effect" issues.
(This comment was deleted by IMDb based on an abuse report filed by another user) Tau Ming Chong is adapted from a previous Hong Kong film Ci Ma, based on a real historical event.Rather then to tell the story and spoil the interests of reader, I'd like to express some thoughts after watching this film.It is a film intends to tell a story happened between manhood under the historical background of Qing Dynasty, and it is like what Director stated, this film is about the fraternal relation and emotions.General Ma, Xinyi/Pang, Qingyun (Jet Li) is a person who gived in the power, while Yang Er-hu (Andy Lau) has deepest beliefs and passions in fraternity among three and Jiang, Wuyang (Takeshi Kaneshiro) never meant to be a leader and was cheated and stood the wrong side.
The three men predominantly involved are Zhang Wen-Xiang (Kaneshiro); Zhao Er-Hu (Lau) and Pang Qingyun, who is played by Jet Li. The film thrusts us into the the forefront of Qing Dynasty China, with a nasty; sweaty; bloody battle coming to an end in which Jet Li's character General stumbles away as the sole survivor of his forces following the dishonourable act of pretending to have been killed so as to avoid further fighting.
While there isn't much in the way of suspense nor peril during most of the battle scenes; in the sense you don't have the immediate feeling that anyone is in danger; or might get hurt or injured.The film creaks and thuds into its final third, with the character of Lian taking the reins and driving the actions of these men as their antagonism changes from push to shove.
Loosely based on three real warlords, who raised an army to fight against this rebellion and in the process restored the rule of the Qing Dynasty.Jet Li, Andy Lau and Takeshi Kaneshiro play the leads here as the three warlords, who come from different walks of life, but who through the atrocities of war are brought together and end up swearing a blood oath of brotherhood, to stick together and end the war on their terms.
1861: Ching general Pang Qingyun (Jet Li), the only survivor of a bloody battle against the Taiping rebels, falls in with a village of bandits, swearing a blood oath with Zhao Erhu (Andy Lau) and Jiang Wuyang (Takeshi Kaneshiro).
Meanwhile, rival general Ho (boo, hiss!) waits on the sidelines to steal Pang's glory.For anyone with a strong interest in China's history, The Warlords will likely prove to be riveting stuff, director Peter Ho-Sun Chan bringing to life a particularly tumultuous period in the country's history with excellent production design, a strong cast (Li is particularly impressive), and brilliantly handled battle scenes that effectively drive home the brutality of combat.
Andy Lau and Takeshi Kaneshiro also were incredible, each had their opportunity to show their talent and definitely delivered.Jinglei Xu had a very powerful scene at the beginning of the movie and a few other portions where she masterfully used her face to tell a story without dialogue.
While it is not an all-time classic it finally blends the right amount of serious info, historical accuracy, quality acting and plot lines in with some worthwhile action scenes.The Warlords starts off with a battle more bloody, graphic and realistic than any Kingdom of Heaven, Alexander, Gladiator, even the LOTR films.
In fact anything since Braveheart, Jet Li is the only survivor of the carnage, and he looks a lot worse for wear.We find his name is Pang, and he comes across a kindly stranger and tells his story, he was a member of the army built to put down the rebel forces, only at the time most needed the "parent" army called the Ho army, sold them out and decided not to fight, leaving them to be slaughtered.As a result a disillusioned Pang has deserted the army once and for all.After he recovers Pang is in town looking for food when a rebel named Wu-Yang tries to steal his army issued boots, after Pang (of course) rolls him, the guy says "tag along with me and I'll introduce you to my boss, he'll love ya." In subtitles at least.Once Pang meets the boss named Er-Hu, he is told "We don't need you thanks, but stay the night, party with us and you can leave in the morning." But over that one night two things happen: Pang finds out that Er-Hu's missus Lian actually shares an intimate past with him, and the rebels are attacked by the Ho army.After the attack Pang urges Er-Hu to join the army for protection, food and safety, as rebels and thieves are the lowest form of life to the public, and their deaths would be welcomed by society.
This leads to the centrepiece of the film, a major battle that develops and unfolds in dramatic and effective fashion, while also showing the bond building between the three "brothers".Once Pang delivers the good news to his superiors, he is given greater responsibility, and his true aspirations become more clear.Over time Pang gets harder, Wu-Yang grows up and realises that War is heck, and Er-Hu rethinks the sheer scope of the situation, and all the while Lian is caught in the middle.What ensues is a running 5 year battle between the Pang lead forces and the Ho army, with minimal assistance from Pang's leaders.
The Ho's actively resist their advances, while the leaders, wary of Pang's growing power and influence, plan his downfall for fear that he may soon turn on them.So in true Major League fashion, Pand decides "Let's just win the whole f*ckin' thing!" This is a historical drama that you can watch without fear that you might learn something (though you might), it is entertaining, has great fight scenes, solid acting and moves along at a pace that allows you to remain interested without just treading water between fight scenes.Jet Li proves that he is a commanding presence, and although I didn't remember the names the guys who play Wu-Yang and Er-Hu are both good too.
The epic scale of the film is evident, in some amazing scenes as you can see thousands of extras as warriors fill the screen.To me The Warlords is just as good as Saving Private Ryan or any other big Hollywood war epics, because it captures the same raw passion of the period of time as well as the amazing fighting styles then.
(to the point where I kicked my partner's leg because i just couldn't take it anymore!) (it was played twice but with Chinese additional music to cover it up!), and there were also some scenes copied from 300 (fight and cheer on soldiers!) I felt cheated because I really thought Jet Li + Takeshi was gonna be awesome, but instead the film literally looked like it was directed by an amateur callow director, I think they just agreed to act because they were given big bucks!
The film tells the story of three blood brothers, Pang Qing-Yun (Jet Li), Zhao Er-Hu (Andy Lau) and Jiang Wu-Yang (Takeshi Kaneshiro), who end up forming an army for the Imperial Chinese government.
Pro. This movie is fantastic.Watch this movie as soon as possible.Jet Li brings everything you could hope for to this film.Scenes from this movie will stay with you if you enjoy martial arts, sword fighting, war movies, good acting, action, bravery or any of the above.
But what Peter Chan did, and I thought succeeded, was to fuse really hard core battle action sequences with character driven drama, and having the stellar leads of Andy Lau, Jet Li and Takeshi Kaneshiro play something quite unlike their usual on screen personae, well, except maybe Kaneshiro.
In the hands of a lesser director, perhaps a key brutal scene will mean to show the obvious full frontal, but in showing you something else instead, with focus on individual reactions and the reactions of compatriots at one point in time, I thought it achieved a more powerful effect, with the audience I'm with tonight completed dumbfounded and silent throughout the scene.A remake of sorts of Shaw Brothers' Ci Ma some 35 years ago (directed by Chang Cheh and starring David Chiang, Ti Lung and Chen Kuan Tai in the lead roles), Peter Chan has brought to us a worthy Chinese epic movie with lavish production values, and one deserving of being called a magnificent effort.
The Lord of War. Director Peter Chan's latest blockbuster was a highly anticipated production during the Christmas season, where it is the only Chinese production that seems to stands out from the other Hollywood blockbusters at the same period.For the price of one ticket, you will not only get to see three well known actors (Jet Li, Andy Lau and Takeshi Kaneshiro), but also a war drama between the country and brotherhood, which has exceed most people's expectation.Set during the Taiping Rebellion during the 1860's to 1870's in China, we were introduced to General Pang Qing Yun (Li) as the only survivor in a war with the enemies.
It is amazing that a director who makes romantic dramas could churn out a great war epic with swordfighting elements, and at the same time, brings out the emotion of the humans.The battle scene which appears shortly after the the start of the movie marks the success of the movie, where we see people sacrificing themselves for the bonds of brotherhood, and towards a better life.
In some way, the battle scene resembles the climax of Edward Zwick's The Last Samurai (2003).At the same time, the relationship between Pang, Zhao, Jiang and Lian shows the desire and the dark side of the human nature and emotions, which is also similar to Zwick's The Legends of the Fall (1994), where father and sons fall out over a woman they loved.Commenting on the performance of the leading cast, Jet Li gets a major makeover in the film, followed by Andy Lau and Takeshi Kaneshiro.
In fact, after a small-scaled (only a few thousand men involved) but "FULL-ON" (Infantry + Archers + Musketeers + Artillery + Cavalry + Jet Li) battle set-piece in the first half of the movie-- which actually left some members of the audience physically shaking-- it became very obvious that the movie/ director (much like "Lust Caution") has very little interest in depicting the actual events of the war.Only the opening titles will tell you that this war, specifically the Taiping rebellion of 1850s-60s, resulted in the loss of 70 million lives-- so people thinking to satisfy their blood-lust with this movie should be forewarned that after all the characters and premises have been introduced, the remaining years of fighting are only "depicted" through various montages and cinematic/ plot devices.
An epic and tragic story of three blood (sworn) brothers, Warlords is indeed worth watching.This movie opens up with a realistic war scene and the classic "brotherhood" moments which is a strong theme in most of Chinese's literature and cinema throughout the ages.You would see a good war scenes almost every time.