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Date Posted: 12:27:35 09/04/04 Sat
Author: diana(usa)
Subject: 'WARRIORS OF HEAVEN AND EARTH' September 3, 2004 THE NEW YORK TIMES
In reply to: diana(usa) 's message, "MOVIE REVIEW ---Warriors of Heaven and Earth September 3, 2004 NY DAILY NEWS" on 12:20:23 09/04/04 Sat

It's High Noon in the Chinese Desert (Swords Poised)

Jiang Wen, right, plays Lieutenant Li, a renegade soldier in seventh-century China, in He Ping's "Warriors of Heaven and Earth."
By NED MARTEL

Published: September 3, 2004


Horsemanship and a weary swagger are apparently all that are required to tame wild forces on a western frontier, no matter the hemisphere. In the wild, wild west of China, as in the American one, bandits and bullies spill blood needlessly while a sad outcast imposes some peace, making "Warriors of Heaven and Earth" the latest Chinese answer to the American western film genre: martial arts meets Marshal Will Kane.
In "Warriors" a seventh-century Chinese swordsman, Lieutenant Li (Jiang Wen), finds himself far from home, a hired guard for passengers along the Silk Road. Lieutenant Li's odyssey is a form of AWOL and he is being pursued by an imperial henchman, Lai Xi (Nakai Kiichi), a Japanese emissary of the emperor's court. In addition, marauding Turks and assorted other bandits are staking out turf and trolling for riches in the hinterlands, and Lieutenant Li stands between them and some precious cargo.

He Ping, the director of "Red Firecracker, Green Firecracker" (1994), has mixed Chinese and Western genres before, appealing to viewers already prepared to consider hand-to-hand combat as elegant choreography. His panoramic epic should wow any viewer with the natural splendor of white deserts, red mountains and green valleys. (Credit goes to the spectacular cinematographer Zhao Fei, who also worked on "Raise the Red Lantern" and Woody Allen's subtler "Sweet and Lowdown.") When it comes to this film's less fully realized human scale, the characters rely on few words and many ready-to-pounce poses. Talk about intuition: a wet finger held in the wind tells one warrior that the bad guys are 80 miles away.

Not everyone has Lieutenant Li's ability to hear and even identify his stalkers even as they are steps away from the back of his head. As for the dialogue, it verges on laughable, but consider that part of the fun of seeing American and Chinese idioms blend. What might be less fun is all the gore. Anyone expecting the high kicks and chops of "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" will be startled by the blood bath. The staging, particularly the siege of a fort and a standoff in the desert, can be artful and electrifying, as long as the vivisections and decapitations don't offend you.

The precious cargo, protected by Lieutenant Li and Lai Xi, who have reached a temporary truce to assure safe passage, is transported by a serene monk. On his journey from India, that holy man carries on his back some blessed scriptures and, he later admits, a few of the Buddha's actual bones. That provides the travelers with some sacred oomph, and for the viewer, a needed uplift amid all the eviscerations.

The monk's reliquary backpack, with a built-in parasol for desert transit, could be viewed as a lost ark for another religion's divine covenant. That makes Lieutenant Li an Asian Indiana Jones, or at least a similar bliss-follower out of Joseph Campbell's teachings. Lieutenant Li's worthy rivals get done up in fierce vestments and hairdos, including the most imaginative braiding since the heyday of the singer Rick James. Another superfreaky look is sported by a tough in a white jumpsuit, which runs counter to the American western's usual color-coding of heroes and villains.

For his part, Mr. Jiang's evocation of Marshal Kane in "High Noon" affects a humble demeanor and his charisma is equal parts George Clooney and Timothy Spall.

Last week "Hero" led a late-summer charge in American box-office sales, and "Warriors of Heaven and Earth" could prove that Mandarin dialogue is no obstacle to mass enjoyment of Chinese historical dramas. "Warriors" can't boast a known combatant like Jet Li in its lead role, and clearly the "Blazing Saddles" lingo and famous-for-Asia actors are not meant as the main draws. Instead, the marvel of "Warriors" is its cinematic sweep across the diverse Chinese topography ¡ª at times lush around the gorges, then as dry as the Gobi desert. And then there is the slow-to-build, furious-at-the-finish plot, which offers a modern-movie payoff.

The outcast mercenary gets a divine mission along his path, and the film falls into many cross-cultural patterns of enlisting God in war cries. But don't look for soul searching in a martial-arts movie, especially one inspired by the dead-or-alive manhunts of the Old West. The best case for "Warriors," which opens today in New York and Los Angeles, is its cinematic time travels and its peek into the natural wildness of a long-closed countryside.

And as the Chinese government sanctions filmmakers to explore history through film, it is fascinating to see how the nation that once feared Western influence is using American pop templates to repackage its own past.

"Warriors of Heaven and Earth" is rated R (Under 17 requires accompanying parent or adult guardian). It includes relentless graphic violence.

WARRIORS OF HEAVEN AND EARTH

Written (in Mandarin, with English subtitles) and directed by He Ping; director of photography, Zhao Fei; music by A R Rahman; released by Sony Pictures Classics. At the Angelika Film Center, Mercer and Houston Streets, Greenwich Village. Running time: 120 minutes. This film is rated R.

WITH: Jiang Wen (Lieutenant Li), Nakai Kiichi (Lai Xi), Zhao Wei (Wen Zhu) and Wang Xueqi (Master An).

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/09/03/movies/03WAR.html?ex=1125720000&en=fce7dae34da9a173&ei=5083&partner=Rotten%20Tomatoes

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