The Warlords- Review II

I, too, watched "The Warlords" and found it confusing but very entertaining. The subtitles were horrible and I think I missed many key points and ideas because of them.


The setting is sometime after the Taiping rebellion during the Qing Dynasty and the film is based on the story about the assassination of general Ma Xinyi who restored stability to the dynasty. In the film, he is called General Pang(Jet Li) who is the only survivor of his army, he ends up joining this group of outlaws(Andy Lau[font=Verdana, Arial, sans-serif] and Takeshi Kaneshito[/font]) who steal food to feed their people. He convinces them to join the army so they can gain respect and be more than mere thugs. Before they leave to join the army, The "brothers" swear an oath to put their bond of friendship and respect above everything else but Pang has already slept with one of the outlaws wife. Pang and the outlaws manage to take Nanjing back and move up in ranks very fast.
Throughout the entire film, to me,it seemed that Pang was driven only by a selfish desire to have another man's wife. He pretended to want nothing but peace and unity for the country but in the end, when he lets his brother be killed by government officials, you tend to think that Pang's mission was to simply get rid of his brother so he could marry his wife. This is where the film got confusing. I was left wondering if Pang was a selfish man or if he was a man who wanted nothing but peace for his country, even at the expense of his brothers' lives.


The film is not too bloody so teachers can use it to show what battles looked like during that era. Also, it shows how a man can move up in rank and if he does well enough, the emperor lets his family and his people go tax-free for a number of years. There was a bit about Chinese Opera which I found fascinating. The wardrobe was great and you get to see parts of the Forbidden City. I dont know that there are any more concepts I would teach using the film, just the ones mentioned...perhaps maybe the concept of brotherhood and what it means, the corruption of the Qing government and its officials, the division within the ranks of the army, the rebellions that destroyed the dynasty.
edited by ccastaneda on 5/20/2012