Tóu Mínɡ Zhuànɡ–The Warlords ~ Chinese Movies&TV

The Warlords–Tóu Mínɡ Zhuànɡ

The Warlords(Chinese:投名状，Pinyin：Tóu Mínɡ Zhuànɡ), previously known as The Blood Brothers, is a 2007 epic war film directed by Peter Chan and starring Jet Li, Andy Lau, Takeshi Kaneshiro and Xu Jinglei. The film was released on December 13, 2007 simultaneously in most of Asia, except Japan.

Director: Peter Chan

The film is set in the 1860s, during the Taiping Rebellion in the late Qing Dynasty in China. The story, based on the assassination of Ma Xinyi in 1870, tells of three sworn blood brothers who eventually turn against one another due to the harsh realities of war and political intrigue.

Andy Lau(L), Jet Li(M), Takeshi Kaneshiro(R) 

When asked why he chose to move away from his familiar turf of romance films, Director Peter Chan said that The Warlords is actually not a martial arts film at its heart, though it contains elements of the martial arts. He added that he had made a wish to make a film depicting men’s affections after watching John Woo‘s 1986 film A Better Tomorrow over twenty years ago, and has now finally gotten the chance. His goal is thus to “lead [his] audience to reclaim [the same kind of passion]” as in A Better Tomorrow, which he said is lacking in recent films.

John Woo’s “A Better Tomorrow”

The Warlords won 8 awards including Best Film, Best director, Best Actor(Jet Li) etc in the 27th Hong Kong Film Awards.