‘The Warring States’ - Film Review (original) (raw)

Movie Review | 'The Warring States'

Brutal Battles and Raging Melodrama

Jing Tian in "The Warring States."
Credit...China Lion Film Distribution

April 22, 2011

A lack of familiarity with the byzantine history of China during the Warring States Period, from the fifth to the third centuries B.C., is a handicap when it comes to following the story of “The Warring States,” which is extremely loosely based on parts of that history. The writer, Shen Jian, and the director, Jing Chen, have made no concessions to the non-Chinese viewer in their compressed, chaotic narrative.

But a lack of knowledge of Mandarin, or of the give and take among Qi, Wei and the five other warring states, can be overcome if you have another qualification: a taste for florid melodrama and the type of period movie generally described as “sweeping.”

The veteran actor Sun Honglei stars as Sun Bin, a historical character — purportedly a descendant of the “Art of War” author Sun Tzu — known as a brilliant military strategist. Those who saw Mr. Sun play the deadpan detective in Zhang Yimou’s “Woman, a Gun and a Noodle Shop” may be thrown off to see him mugging and doing slapstick bits as Sun Bin, who spends a good part of the film feigning lunacy to avoid having to give away the military secrets only he knows.

The television actress Jing Tian, in her feature debut, plays a warrior princess and Sun’s unlikely love interest: given how smashing she looks while slashing and chopping her way through opposing armies, she must have a deep interest in the art of war to fall for that aging, sometimes gibbering tactician.

Other things to look at include a chariot race reminiscent of “Ben-Hur” and, as these Chinese epics require, huge numbers of arrows, soldiers, dead bodies and palace steps.

The Warring States

Opened on Friday in Manhattan.

Directed by Jing Chen; written by Shen Jian; edited by Hyung-ku Kim; produced by Lu Zheng; released by China Lion Film Distribution. At the AMC Empire 25, 234 West 42nd Street, Manhattan. In Man- darin, with English subtitles. Running time: 2 hours 10 minutes. This film is not rated.

WITH: Sun Honglei (Sun Bin), Jing Tian (Tian Xi), Francis Ng (Pang Juan), Kim Hee-Seon (Pang Fei), Kiichi Nakai (King of Qi) and Jiang Wu (Tian Ji).

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