An Empress and the Warriors

The Gist

An emperor of a dynasty is assassinated by his own men because Donnie Yen gets to be the successor. To save his own ass from a pile of traitorous mess, Yen cunningly hands over the duty to Kelly Chen. She would be a better puppet to Yen in case the in-house traitor does anything funny. One day, Chen gets lost in the forest and she meets an herbalist that looks like Leon Lai with long hair. Major romance and minor action ensue.

What Do I Think?

This reviewer is biased. He doesn’t really like Kelly Chen because he thinks she is too weak looking, probably she isn’t strong enough to carry an ‘empress’ role. Thank the lucky stars because the empress is supposed to be weak in this movie.

Now is your chance to shine, Chen. Cecilia Cheung’s yesterday’s news. Take the opportunity to be a leading lady for all leading lady roles. Let them China actresses not step in too much, with bad overdubbing.

Kelly Chen, at most times, does really remind of Bridgette Lin Chin-Hsia, in the looks department only. She really needs to wear braces before she gets too old. Her uneven teeth really spoil her beautiful face. Her acting skills probably echoes her acting strength, she is not really capable of handling such big challenges. She goes for it with her best shot. She does ok, the only problem is she lacks the x-factor that Cecilia Cheung would have or Maggie Cheung would have, or even Charlene Choi would possess.

Most of you would disagree with me, that she is a good actress and all. The tears she cries most of the time ain’t acting, I tell you. They’re real. She’s crying coz she’s thinking “shit, this movie role is too damn difficult for me. I have got to fire my manager.”

Enough about her. Donnie Yen is kind of wasted here. With heavy armor on most of the time, he has trouble showcasing his martial arts skills, which he specializes in street brawling. You can’t street brawl in heavy armor! It’s always him against a thousand bad guys. Acting-wise, he doesn’t really advance to the next level. Or he doesn’t want to? Anyway, his role could have been played by any actor. Even Louis Koo would fit in nicely. Haven’t seen Koo in an epic drama for a long, long time now.

Leon Lai, gentle-looking as ever, serves to be the best actor here. His onscreen presence is always welcomed in my books so he does it again here. His chemistry with Chen? Fantastically, it works.

The whole story centers too much on Chen and Lai’s romance. The key of enjoying this movie for me was my expectation. I wanted to see Yen in action. I didn’t see what I wanted to see. I got bored.

Good news for the female demographics. They would probably love the movie.

I do have some good comments for the movie, really. The costumes are well designed and they look pretty real and probably are authentically weighed too. The sets are amazing as well, especially Lai’s unbelievable self-made home that looks like it came straight from Einstein’s lab. And that hot-air balloon…. I, er… don’t know what to say.

This ‘da pian’ (blockbuster, not feces) kick starts the Hong Kong/China epic costume dramas for the summer releases. Next, we have Three Kingdoms: The Resurrection of The Dragon. Then we have another Kingdom movie, that’s called Forbidden Kingdom. Let’s hope both kingdoms turn out pretty darn good.

Rating: 5/10

Last updated: 2009-08-12 01:11:20 by joekhor