Sword-wielding heroes, capable women, battles and pacifism. I am in love!
Run don't walk to watch Battle of Wits, a 2006 Hong Kong movie, if it's playing near you. And if it's not, get the DVD or download it or something.
Mr. Mousie and I just returned from watching it and I am totally, madly in love!
BoW, based on a Japanese manga, is set in the Warring States era in China. When the state of Zhao decides to invade Liang, a small city-state of 4000 inhabitants, its corrupt ruler half-heartedly asks Mohists for help. No Mohist cadre of warriors arrive, but a lone follower of Mozi does appear. His name is Ge Li (Andy Lau) and he, singlehandedly, offers to help protect the city. The vaccilating King temporarily agrees. Ge Li manages to achieve the impossible and mount a defense but the biggest danger might just not be the invading armies but the poisonous internal politics of the ruling class of Liang which do not want to tolerate a selfless and extremely capable man they cannot control.
It is an amazingly epic movie, full of mind-boggling, eye-popping battles, that nontheless is a very grounded character study. And it never forgets the cost of war, ending up as a remarkably anti-war movie. For every battle, there is the grim aftermath. For every flight of arrows, a quiet moment. Ge Li himself is my newest fictional crush, someone who is extremely capable, but who is often tormented by the cost his victories entail, and someone who can be just as tongue-tied by emotion as a kid. He is an idealist in a corrupt world. And did I mention this is the first time I've found Andy Lau dead sexy?
But the other characters are just as worthwhile and interesting. Fan Bing Bing (OMG, how amazing is she!) plays the heroine, a Cavalry General of Liang who ends up falling in love with Ge Li. She is a capable, strong woman who is comfortable pursuing a man, and yet can be incredibly mischievious. Even though there is no kissing, the scenes between Ge Li and her bristle with heat and I shipped them like mad. There is one scene in particular I defy you not to swoon all over. Choi Siwon (yes, that Siwon, of Super Junior) plays the Crown Prince of Liang, an arrogant if capable young man who begins to learn something different under the influence of Ge Li. There is also my personal favorite secondary character, the archer-general of Liang, noble to a fault, and thus tragically unsuited to the place. There is the King himself, a weak cynical monstrocity, but a realistic one etc etc.
So yes, run don't walk!
What a grim, cynical, but realistic ending. It had to end this way, didn't it? With the King of Liang reaping all the rewards and benefits, and Ge Li walking away with nothing, nothing at all.
But what a hollow victory, isn't it? How symbolic that King's earlier attempts to kill Ge Li ended up in killing the Crown Prince (who was awesome, *sob*), thus symbolically killing the future of Liang. (And the postcript does say that five years after that, the citizens revolted and killed the King of Liang and the city got taken over by Zhao anyway...What a monstrous waste. But of course, how could anyone fight for such a King?)
And the archer-general, once the victory is won, a victory he helped win to protect his city, even after the King mutilated him, and was set to execute him, leaves his sword in disgust and walks away.
And Ge Li? He is left holding Yi Yue's drowned body in his arms, and sobbing. Yi Yue, whose tongue got cut out because she was defiantly speaking out for him, and who got punished so horribly for standing up for him. Chinese movies are so cheerful, aren't they? That whole last scene with them sort of killed me, with his desperately looking for her around jail cells but finding her too late, and trying to revive her to no avail, such a grim mirror to the earlier scene when they jumped off a cliff and he saved her (that was such an amazing scene btw! Because they are surrounded and she can't swim and she knows he will never leave her so she jumps, telling him to save her, OMG. And there is piggy-backing too).
I mean, it would have been very nice to have a 'we are so sorry for turning on you like rabid dogs and we were totally wrong and thank you for self-sacrificially saving us again, so here is a bunch of presents and take your girlfriend that we have mutilated and you are free to wander around with our thanks.' But yeah...was not going to happen.
I love that last shot: his taking the orphans made by war to wander around to preach his message of peace (and I love that he knows that universal love might be unrealistic, but it's something he believes in, and he does not want to live in regret). It's as if there is no hope for the present generation, and the best he can do is with the children.
Btw, I really do think that the big reason the court was so terrified of him was because he was an idealist, he wanted nothing, he just genuinely showed up to help, and they couldn't comprehend it, had to see hidden motives (and were too idiotic to just let him go, had to try to kill him and his fictive followers, the best and most capable people in the city).
And you get the sense of claustrophobia from these cities, don't you? Where there is nowhere else to go if you are a peasant (because how will you live) and nowhere to go if you are upperclass because your status is tied to that place.
I also can bet that the manga is inspired by the one incident in the life of Mozi himself that is talked about on that wiki page. I want to get my hands on it now.
Mr. Mousie and I just returned from watching it and I am totally, madly in love!
BoW, based on a Japanese manga, is set in the Warring States era in China. When the state of Zhao decides to invade Liang, a small city-state of 4000 inhabitants, its corrupt ruler half-heartedly asks Mohists for help. No Mohist cadre of warriors arrive, but a lone follower of Mozi does appear. His name is Ge Li (Andy Lau) and he, singlehandedly, offers to help protect the city. The vaccilating King temporarily agrees. Ge Li manages to achieve the impossible and mount a defense but the biggest danger might just not be the invading armies but the poisonous internal politics of the ruling class of Liang which do not want to tolerate a selfless and extremely capable man they cannot control.
It is an amazingly epic movie, full of mind-boggling, eye-popping battles, that nontheless is a very grounded character study. And it never forgets the cost of war, ending up as a remarkably anti-war movie. For every battle, there is the grim aftermath. For every flight of arrows, a quiet moment. Ge Li himself is my newest fictional crush, someone who is extremely capable, but who is often tormented by the cost his victories entail, and someone who can be just as tongue-tied by emotion as a kid. He is an idealist in a corrupt world. And did I mention this is the first time I've found Andy Lau dead sexy?
But the other characters are just as worthwhile and interesting. Fan Bing Bing (OMG, how amazing is she!) plays the heroine, a Cavalry General of Liang who ends up falling in love with Ge Li. She is a capable, strong woman who is comfortable pursuing a man, and yet can be incredibly mischievious. Even though there is no kissing, the scenes between Ge Li and her bristle with heat and I shipped them like mad. There is one scene in particular I defy you not to swoon all over. Choi Siwon (yes, that Siwon, of Super Junior) plays the Crown Prince of Liang, an arrogant if capable young man who begins to learn something different under the influence of Ge Li. There is also my personal favorite secondary character, the archer-general of Liang, noble to a fault, and thus tragically unsuited to the place. There is the King himself, a weak cynical monstrocity, but a realistic one etc etc.
So yes, run don't walk!
What a grim, cynical, but realistic ending. It had to end this way, didn't it? With the King of Liang reaping all the rewards and benefits, and Ge Li walking away with nothing, nothing at all.
But what a hollow victory, isn't it? How symbolic that King's earlier attempts to kill Ge Li ended up in killing the Crown Prince (who was awesome, *sob*), thus symbolically killing the future of Liang. (And the postcript does say that five years after that, the citizens revolted and killed the King of Liang and the city got taken over by Zhao anyway...What a monstrous waste. But of course, how could anyone fight for such a King?)
And the archer-general, once the victory is won, a victory he helped win to protect his city, even after the King mutilated him, and was set to execute him, leaves his sword in disgust and walks away.
And Ge Li? He is left holding Yi Yue's drowned body in his arms, and sobbing. Yi Yue, whose tongue got cut out because she was defiantly speaking out for him, and who got punished so horribly for standing up for him. Chinese movies are so cheerful, aren't they? That whole last scene with them sort of killed me, with his desperately looking for her around jail cells but finding her too late, and trying to revive her to no avail, such a grim mirror to the earlier scene when they jumped off a cliff and he saved her (that was such an amazing scene btw! Because they are surrounded and she can't swim and she knows he will never leave her so she jumps, telling him to save her, OMG. And there is piggy-backing too).
I mean, it would have been very nice to have a 'we are so sorry for turning on you like rabid dogs and we were totally wrong and thank you for self-sacrificially saving us again, so here is a bunch of presents and take your girlfriend that we have mutilated and you are free to wander around with our thanks.' But yeah...was not going to happen.
I love that last shot: his taking the orphans made by war to wander around to preach his message of peace (and I love that he knows that universal love might be unrealistic, but it's something he believes in, and he does not want to live in regret). It's as if there is no hope for the present generation, and the best he can do is with the children.
Btw, I really do think that the big reason the court was so terrified of him was because he was an idealist, he wanted nothing, he just genuinely showed up to help, and they couldn't comprehend it, had to see hidden motives (and were too idiotic to just let him go, had to try to kill him and his fictive followers, the best and most capable people in the city).
And you get the sense of claustrophobia from these cities, don't you? Where there is nowhere else to go if you are a peasant (because how will you live) and nowhere to go if you are upperclass because your status is tied to that place.
I also can bet that the manga is inspired by the one incident in the life of Mozi himself that is talked about on that wiki page. I want to get my hands on it now.
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