God of War (2017)

God of War: Directed by Gordon Chan. With Wenzhuo Zhao, Sammo Kam-Bo Hung, Regina Wan, Keisuke Koide. During the 16th century, Japanese pirates proliferate along the Chinese coastline. In 1557, the pirates take over Cengang in Zhejiang. After months of futile advances, Commander Yu (Sammo Hung) finally defeats them under the leadership of newly promoted General Qi (Vincent Zhao). The Pirates, however, manage to escape.

“I watched this on Netflix, and their discription of the film was something along the lines of u0026quot;a maverick leader and a clever young general take on the Japanese pirates amid bureaucratic intrigue in Ming Dynasty Chinau0026quot;.nIn reality, the film is more u0026quot;a clever young general takes on Japanese piratesu0026quot; with bureaucratic intrigue in Ming Dynasty China as a mere backdrop. The film does alllude to bureaucratic politics in the first half of the film, but it is left to the wayside into the second half with no mention of it at the conclusion of the story. Weu0026#39;re sort of left hanging about the characters who appeared in the first half that were involved in the politics of the Ming Dynasty.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eThe second half of the film focuses on two battles – and thatu0026#39;s fine. However with a fairly crowded cast, some of the charactersu0026#39; death are left me feeling unempathetic. Had the film focused on developing these certain characters more in the first half of the film, it wouldu0026#39;ve been more impactful. We simply didnu0026#39;t get time to grow attached to the characters that die.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003ePersonally, I think the movie wouldu0026#39;ve been better if it just focused on the general chasing the pirates and with very light sprinkles of his maverick leader trying to get him the funds for his army. Then the first half of the film could focus on the general training his troops, and the second half can be the battles.nThe movie also gets bogged down with comedic scenes between the General and his wife. I found it touching and funny, but it did make me stop and wonder when the battles were going to happen, this film is around the 2hr mark.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eHowever, these scenes were all to humanise the General and his wife, who plays an integral part in one of the battles later on in the film. She ticks the standard u0026quot;badass waifuu0026quot; that we all wish had our backs, and the actress does a pretty good job of convincing me that sheu0026#39;s exhaustedly and desperately hacking away at Japanese soldiers.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eNow it would be jarring to see a 5ft6 petite woman carving her way through katanna wielding troops, but the film does it in a way that she manages to get the jump on them in the heat of battle, rather than going toe to toe with countless men. And of course, a few people have to bail her out in battle – sheu0026#39;s not a Mary Sue (which is to be expected because Asian cinema knows how to write strong yet not overpowered female characters) So point in favour to the creative minds behind that.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eNext up, I appreciate how the film takes the time to develop the Japanese characters, from the wise leader, to the young and honourable samurai, and the dishonourable ronins.nThe film makes a clear distinction that the ronin are the ones doing the messy work, and are barbaric in their behaviour much to the disgust of their samurai leaders. The samurai arenu0026#39;t the cliche evil Japanese characters we see so much in Chinese film, which is a nice change of pace for once. u0026quot;Ip Manu0026quot; was a bit too heavy handed on the anti-Japanese sentiment.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eFinally we have the action. Itu0026#39;s good, no shaky cam and well choreographed scenes make it worth the wait. Itu0026#39;s no u0026quot;Red Cliffu0026quot;, but it is more than adequate and not as fantastical as other similar epics such as u0026quot;The Curse of the Golden Floweru0026quot; – which is a good thing.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eOverall, I enjoyed the film and the battle scenes definitely made up for the wait.”