NekoHomey Purely Joyful Movie!

LouHomey From my favorite movies..

Konterr Brilliant and touching

Kaelan Mccaffrey Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

dcarsonhagy "The Lost Bladesman" is a step above most martial arts movies, and I think it has a lot to do with the fact this is more character driven than than others who are CGI and "sword-fu" driven. I liked the characterization of another reviewer who stated "I liked that people weren't constantly flying around."The story is based on Guan Yu, a legendary Chinese warrior who fought for honor but finally realized he would always be fighting, whereas he wanted to retire and return to his farming. As fate would have it, he was secretly in love with a concubine of another leader but was afraid to ever tell her how he actually felt.Donnie Yen played the role of Guan Yu, and he was simply amazing. He is a very accomplished actor and I have never seen anything he has been involved in that I did not like. That being said it was Wen Jiang who played General Cao Cao who really caught my attention. This man actually demonstrated some well-rounded acting chops, which is very unusual for this genre of film. Most characters are simply caricatures who either come across as buffoons or should be wearing "kill me next" signs. Jiang's portrayal I think is remarkable.The movie is rated "R" and really should have been PG-13. There is a lot of bloodless violence, no nudity, and a little salty language. However, please heed my warning this is NOT your typical "kung fu" movie. So, if you're expecting tons of wire-fu, extremely bloody battles, and caricatures instead of actual characters, you need to look further.

wileyhk2001-44-943943 One of the many Chinese great films that is severely underrated.The movie starts by a narrative by Cao Cao, stating that the Chinese character of "Righteousness", 義(yi), is composed of a (羊)"sheep" and the word "myself" (我). It implies that according to the ancient Chinese wisdom, there is only a thin line between being righteous and being sacrificed. But in one of the most chaotic era in China, such "righteous" man can not end well. The movie poetically pull off a metaphor that in a world ruled by wolves, sheeps (the righteous man) can only be sacrificed in the benefit of other wolves, which in the movie, are Lord Liu Bei, Lord Cao Cao and Lord Suan Quan.Jiang Wen is really a great actor. His in-depth acting of Cao Cao puts this legendary warlord to live. It is only in the second time watching the film again that I understand Cao Cao's reasons of trying to save Guan YuChang. "I want to see heavens everywhere", Cao Cao to the monk.He understands that in chaotic times what people need most is a hero, a benevolent hero like Guan YuChang that places traditional Chinese values on top of everything. Values that are forgotten. Values that need to be re-established once China is to be unified again.In the movie, these values that Guan YuChang holds sacred are in fact useless and sometimes expendable. Despite his great fighting skills, he is totally defendless against all the manipulative jugglery by all those manipulative people. Guan YuChang in many writings has been depicted as the most "loyal, righteous, brave and dangerous" (忠義勇武) person throughout the Chinese history. But what surprises me is that the movie creates a whole new perspective re-evaluating what a tragic wanderer he really is. He is too loyal to his Master Liu Bei that he loses the woman he loves; too righteous and altruist that he ends up very vulnerable and being hunted; too brave that he is taken advantage of; too dangerous that even the Lord Cao Cao's deputy disobeyed Cao's order and try to kill him. Donnie Yen's acting of Guan YuChang really delivers a sense of helplessness. He is captured by his enemy Cao Cao, despised by the woman he loves and misunderstood by the foolish mass. But there is no even a slightest falter about abandoning the his moral values. He could have chosen a easy way-out by simply giving in. But compromising to the adversities he faces would equal to surrendering all the values he has been taught to believe. A true hero won't do that. Ironically, despite all the Cao's endeavor to save Guan, Guan met his end in the most tragic way and Cao Cao couldn't even lived long enough to see a unified China, nor their sons, nor their grandsons. But heroes and their stories always pass on. So in some way I think Cao Cao did save Guan YuChang. He saved his reputation and reasons for people to worship him as a hero.

howareyouzhang The movie has spent a lot of money like the Water World, which can be one of the worst movie even made. the story was not even true, which will mislead people who do not know Chinese history. there are some good actors who I like very much, but they did not perform in this movie.only one good thing about this movie that is not watching it.the characters in this movie have been twisted. The movie became the biggest laugh stock in China. And the movie makes (they have a lot of influence in China) try to bribe Chinese authority to arrest people who gave bad reviews. Only way I can do this is because I am in UK. To be fair, this is supposed to be one of the greatest movie, they just did not have the ability to make it right.

DICK STEEL TFor starters, Donnie Yen as Guan Yu certainly raised a few eyebrows, although you realize the filmmakers may have wanted to break conventions. I can live with that, having Guan Yu more of Donnie's physical stature, although traded off with being a little bit more nimble. While Yen's portrayal of Guan's fighting prowess is excellent par none, with the actor also taking up action choreography responsibilities, his dramatic range is undoubtedly hampered, nary breaking into a smile (which is a good thing after that very smiley performance in All's Wel, Ends Well 2011). Thankfully this got compensated by the presence of Jiang Wen as Cao Cao, adding much needed gravitas to a role that Jiang excelled in making Cao both a hero and a villain, who on the outside does and makes everything fine and dandy for Guan Yu, but harbouring deep evil beneath the facade that we see behind closed doors amongst his most loyal of generals.And given that the set action sequences are spaced far apart, it is Jiang Wen who prevented the film from sagging in its middle act, as we see Cao Cao's dogged pursuit to build camaraderie with Guan Yu, and wonders just what it takes to have men of quality joining his ambition to rule all of China. Meanwhile we have a romantic interlude that deals with Guan Yu's infatuation with Qi Lan (Sun Li) the woman he loves but cannot woo because she is betrothed to Liu Bei. While this was inserted to show how Guan Yu is a man who sacrifices personal happiness for others, what with his saving of her skin a number of times and with his escorting her back to Liu Bei's camp, this was perhaps the weakest link in the story given Yen's unconvincing performance, and Sun Li's role being nothing more than decorative and a pretty face to build on the temptation factor.But the second half picked up from where the first scene left off, with large action pieces to thrill audiences with Guan Yu in full battle, despite not having his famed Green Dragon Crescent Blade with him, nor the story of the Red Hare steed incorporated, which would be a nice touch to build on established mythos. Yen shows why he still has it in him as a top notch action star and choreographer with a variety of fighting styles and mano a mano battles against opponents hell bent on slaying his Guan Yu to gain instant recognizing and fame. The characters Guan Yu come up against are adapted from the infamous Five Passes Crossing, which happened because of Cao Cao's instruction to go against his own word, or that of his subordinates' defiance of orders (which is why Jiang Wen is best here as an astute politician presented with a dilemma with trying to please one man at the risk of losing loyalties of the others), and becomes almost like a computer game with the clearing of one boss level after another.There's Kong Xiu (Andy On) refusal of safe passage resulting in a fight within a constricted passageway getting in the way of weapons in full swing (sort of reminiscing Yen's swordplay in Tsui Hark's Seven Swords), Han Fu's betrayal and his poisoned dart episode, Bian Xi's ambush with hundreds within a temple, and the governor Wang Zhi's fight with Guan Yu in a snow covered landscape, which is probably the best amongst them all despite losing plenty of backstory that builds up to the fight. Come to think of it, there was a conscious drop of background to how Guan Yu got to each stage which removes plenty of drama, and made it really look like Guan Yu going on a rampage to rid all who stood in his way. The cinematography also was found to be left very much wanting with one extended fight sequence shot very much in the dark so much so that you can hardly see anything, except knowing that Guan Yu is dispatching a lot of goons repeatedly, and Bian Xi's episode was also quite the let down in a cheat sheet of shots, stylistically quite innovative, but with doors closed and plenty of noise coming from within before revealing the obvious winner, you would have hoped the camera was placed on the other side instead. Perhaps it will be there as a deleted scene in the DVD. And while I mentioned this isn't your usual gigantic Guan Yu, Donnie Yen's fight choreography may have confused him with Chen Zhen which Donnie also played in The Legend of the Fist (directed by Andrew Lau), having Guan execute dexterous moves as seen in that film running around in a circle and dodging arrows which seemed to have been fired from a machine gun. I'm all for reinterpretation, but adopting something so recent from one's own film (perhaps he really liked those moves to repeat them here again), is shortchanging fans and audiences, coming so recent.Romance of the Three Kingdoms cannot possibly be made into a one off feature film, but it contains a lot of stories and characters that serve as a wealth of resource material to tap upon for translation to the big screen. This probably isn't the best and won't be the last of the lot, and despite its flaws, still managed to turn in some pure entertainment, although with the pedigree of talent involved, one can be forgiven to have expected a lot more.