There’s nothing like a good western … as “Warriors of Heaven and Earth,” a new Chinese production, proves.
All right, this is not a movie about cowboys and Indians, though it might as well be. “Warriors” is a corker of an adventure movie set in the Gobi Desert in the 7th century, but its super-cool adversaries might have stepped out of “The Magnificent Seven.” Or “Seven Samurai.”
Just for added goofiness, there’s also a slight mystical-sci-fi element. Or at least I think that’s what’s going on.
The first 10 minutes of this movie are so rushed and packed with exposition, I feared I’d been permanently left behind. However, it soon settles down into a simple situation.
A Japanese warrior, Lai (Nakai Kiichi) longs to return to his home, which he hasn’t seen for decades. But he owes one final service to a Chinese king: kill Lieutenant Li (Jiang Wen), a military officer who led a mutiny. Li is now hiring himself out as a protector of wagon trains – er, camel caravans – along the Spice Road.
In fact, Li led the mutiny because he had been ordered to kill women and children. But that doesn’t matter to Lai, who has a job to do, and coolly accepts it.
In a wonderful scene, the two accomplished warriors do battle, only to come to a draw. They agree to hold off on the showdown until after Li has led his caravan (notably a mysterious Buddhist monk with some sacred cargo) to its destination.
Wouldn’t you know it, an evil warlord, Master An (Wang Xueqi), will stop at nothing to derail the caravan. He wants the Buddhist relics, but you also get the feeling he just likes killing people.
This sets up the delicious irony that Lai must help protect Lieutenant Li and his caravan from the ravages of An and his men. This, of course, does not contradict in any way Lai’s plans to kill Li at the end of the trail.
These lead characters are big and skilled and noble, and the supporting roles are played by a scurvy band of characters who wouldn’t have been out of place in a Sam Peckinpah western. The exception is the ethereal Zhao Wei (from “So Close”), who plays the only woman on the trail.
Director He Ping made an interesting film called “Red Firecracker, Green Firecracker” a few years ago. He announces from the very first shot in this movie – a great, vast landscape that wouldn’t look out of place in Utah’s Monument Valley – that he’s going to mix the Old West with the even Older East.
I always enjoy it when we get to see foreign films that are not of the arthouse variety but from the popcorn school. Between this movie and “Hero,” which has turned out to be a multiplex hit, you can kill an awful lot of popcorn in a single afternoon, and never hear a single word of English.
“Warriors of Heaven and Earth” HHH
Eastern western: A corker of an adventure movie set in the Gobi Desert in the seventh century, where a camel caravan guarded by two noble warriors is menaced by an evil warlord. This is a western in Eastern garb, with great characters and landscapes. (In Mandarin, with English subtitles.)
Rated: R rating is for violence.
Now showing: Metro, Seattle.
“Warriors of Heaven and Earth” HHH
Eastern western: A corker of an adventure movie set in the Gobi Desert in the seventh century, where a camel caravan guarded by two noble warriors is menaced by an evil warlord. (In Mandarin, with English subtitles.)
Rated: R rating is for violence.
Now showing: Metro, Seattle.
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