The Warrior
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Movie Reviews of The Warrior
Movie Review: Great Movie
Summary: 5 Stars
I Agree with one of the reviews up above about the original korean or China dvd with english subtitles. The subtitles are setup perfectly throughout the movie to where you can read and follow a long and no miss a moment of the action. This is a great movie if you understand the culture that asia was at this particular time.Movie Review: Somewhere between Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and Warriors of Heaven and Earth...
Summary: 4 Stars
If you've read any of my reviews of other recent martial arts films, you know that I enjoyed Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, but generally found myself unimpressed by Warriors of Heaven and Earth. I was downright confused by the plot of Zu Warriors, though it had a few relatively cool moments and special effects.
The Warrior (I think "Musa the Warrior" is an alternate version of the film with different audio tracks?) falls somewhere between the extremes.
The film is shot with a lot of emphasis on sepia tone (earth tones). So, in that regard it's a bit unlike Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, Curse of the Golden Flower, and other movies of what I'd call Asian "art house" cinema.
But, whereas Warriors of Heaven and Earth seemed singularly unimpressive in its fight scenes and a bit depressing in its sepia tone desert scenes, The Warrior seemed to keep things more lively. It had a lot of pretty good, interesting fights (if overly violent / bloody in a few cases). I actually found myself empathizing with the characters, and caring what happened to them. [WARNING: Slight spoiler ahead] The movie was a period martial arts / drama piece about a Korean diplomatic envoy to China that was captured, escaped, and ended up trying to save a princess intended for the Ming emperor, in order to restore relations between China and Korea. It's too bad that all or most of the characters inevitably died off in the course of the movie.
I thought the movie came off quite well, despite not being as colorful or artsy as other movies in the genre. The fight scenes were good, the plot was a bit above marginally interesting (it kept my attention more than Warriors of Heaven and Earth). The grittiness was interesting, though sometimes a bit overwhelming with all the various killing going on in the process of trying to get the princess safely to the Ming emperor...
The titular character was actually rather interesting insofar as he was a bit dark and mysterious. In some ways, the character was extremely feral. It reminded me a lot of Jet Li's performance in Unleashed. Essentially, both were slaves, trained to be extremely fierce fighters, but inevitably found their freedom (though in many respects didn't know what to do with it, once they had it).
If you're expecting Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, Iron Monkey, Fearless or Hero type art direction and costuming, don't. It's quite muted in terms of the color schemes, often opting for sepia; there's not much by the way of colorful artistry. But it also suits the mood of the movie, which is quite grim and gritty.
In all, I rather enjoyed the movie. Certainly more than Warriors of Heaven and Earth or Butterfly Sword, neither of which I cared for; nor would I especially recommend them (unless you've seen EVERYthing else and are bored, or need to cure insomnia).
Curse of the Golden Flower, The Myth, House of Flying Daggers are all pretty good flicks. The Legend of the Black Scorpion is quite good too, though a rather bloody retelling of Macbeth.
So, if you're into really artsy colorful flicks, try the above. If you're into a pretty gritty movie with lots of interesting fight sequences (if a bit bloody), The Warrior is pretty good martial arts fare.
Movie Review: great film with one of the worst DVD covers ever
Summary: 4 Stars
I love this movie. Korea has a great sense of dramatic action. They can be serious with beautiful style in their action sequences. This is a fictional story inspired by a historical setting. If you were moved by LOTR: The Two Towers with the story of warriors leading people away from the enemy to a place of safety where the stand for all you believe in will take place...then this is a good story for you. If you are not familiar with Cowboy/Western flms or Eastern Warrior stories then this may feel unfamiliar or slow.
The cover is angering me because it is very missleading because they want someone passing by the "Martial Arts" DVD section to pick it up. Miss Ziyi is not a warrior in this film. Her being the popular Chinese actress for American audiences associated her with Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, Rush Hour 2 or House Of Flying Daggers expect her to be fighting always. NOPE. So her holding a sword so bravely on a DVD cover is false to her character. (especially with the movie being called The Warrior) She plays a bratty yet beautiful princess who has never stepped out into the real world in her life. Woo-Sung Jung's character does not use a sword. He fights with a spear throughout the film. If anything else he uses against an enemy was a horse whip. The importance of swords I guess comes from a history of cool characters of fantasy or period films using swords. Bad guys or second characters use the axe and that is rare. Everything else would suck I guess. Now the picture of these two actors are from posters & photos used in promotion for the film...but those hands were photoshoped poorly into the cover. Woo-Sung looks like he is leaning over a sink ready to brush his teeth with that thing.
In conclusion, type in Musa for a dvd search of this film and you may be lucky to find on sale the Tai Seng release of this film titled Musa (translates to Warrior). The quality is equal to this release. I was lucky to get the Tai Seng release but then this one came out and for some reason the Tai Seng release is hard to find. I guess its not in print. So if you can't find the tai Seng release then buy this one because the movie is good even though the DVD cover is lame. Its just a lame cover like the domestic release of infernal affairs with some random Chinese woman dressed up like a Bond chick with a gun...whaaat? One day we wont need lame DVD covers for our domestic releases of great films.
Movie Review: Reluctant heroes trying to find a way home...
Summary: 4 Stars
Musa is about a band of koreans on a diplomatic mission in China that goes array. After being exiled into the desert they run into a captured princess. She promises them a boat if they deliver her home, and the koreans reason if they save her they can return to their own home victorious. There are several complex emotions that come into play. The Korean leader is full of self doubt and is also competing for the attention of the princess against a slave. The Koreans are resentful of said princess, blaming all of their woes on her. The princess herself is determined to maintain status and composure, however the deaths of her people and the Koreans began to take its toll. Musa is a grand epic, based on the simple desire to see one's home again. The battle scenes are well shot, and action does not let up. The final battle is especially good, focusing on the sacrifices and the bonds that the Koreans have made with the Hans. Musa means warrior, and the movie does not focus so much on just one, but all of them. When the inevitable happens it is enough to bring tears to even the most hardened eyes.Movie Review: Musa (The Warrior) is Great, but not this DVD edition
Summary: 4 Stars
I just wanted to make buyers aware that this is not the 155-minute long original Korean version as the Description advertises, but the shortened 130-minute edition. I bought this new release assuming I would get the 20+ minutes of cut footage, but was disappointed to find it was the same version that has already been out for several years, only now the subtitles have been butchered (dumbed down) for US consumption. For instance, the older Region 0 DVD contains dialogue along the lines of "My feet are parched like turtle shells," but Sony's new edition merely has "My feet are blistered." Whereas the older version had somehting like "Leave the b_stard here," the new subtitle has "Leave him here." Talk about losing a lot of the original colour!