MovieChat Forums > Tian di ying xiong (2003) Discussion > Easily one of the best movies out of Chi...

Easily one of the best movies out of China in recent years

posted 19 years ago by hardtruth
8 replies | jump to latest

I just saw this movie last night and it blew me away. I am pretty well versed in HK action flicks, and Asian movies in general. IE I've seen Hero, House of a Thousand Daggers, Crouching Tiger, Once Upon a Time in China, most of the Wong Fei Hung movies etc.

I know a lot of people are going to compare this to Hero, but I think it is more comperable to the lord of the rings.

Hero was a kind of Rashomon/Art house movie that was beautiful but not remotely similar to Warriors of Heaven and Earth.

The reason it reminded me of The Lord of the Rings is the similarities below:
A group of very different people join together to protect a powerful artifact from evil.

They are besieged on all sides by a more powerful force and this forces the group to rely on each other and a comradery forms.

They are both epic movies about friendship, sacrifice, and duty.

Anyway, one of the things I loved about this movie is that unlike many of the films that have been coming out of China recently, this one wasn't a flying wire, oriental mythology movie where people can fly and fighters have power beyond human means. That isn't to say that Hero and Crouching Tiger were bad movies, but it is refreshing to see a 'period' piece that has some authenticity. In particular, there have not been many movies that take place in this setting. I loved the peculiar mix of Chinese, Tang, Indian, Turkish, and Middle Eastern cultures that give this movie a unique look and flavor.

While it is not an 'art' movie, there are some scenes which bring a tear to your eye, like the scene where the old man (Old Diehard) puts his sword in the ground as he's dying and water shoots forth in a huge geyser. After watching all of the fighting and suffering because they couldn't find the river, that scene taking place in the middle of a battle, was wholly unexpected and absolutely impacting. My jaw dropped as much as the characters on the screen.

I just can't imagine how such a fantastic movie could get zero press, and nobody is talking about it. I rented it from netflix and the only reason I even knew to rent it is that it was recommended by their automatic system. I am going to champion this movie by exposing all of my friends and their friends to it until people realize what a winner it is.

[–] mikeangelo 19 years ago

bad loser, thats what it is.
Big budget with simple story and script.
Overally boring.
One of the films trying to be better than Crouching tiger..
with no essence just a set of spectacular pictures.
What a waste.

[–] andrewhollingsworth 19 years ago

I knew nothing of this movie before I watched last night.

I wish people would stop comparing every single Asian film to CTHD. The film is not trying to be CTHD or better it. It is trying to be something different from the wire-fu extravaganzas that are coming out of China.

Warriors of Heaven and Earth certainly isn't a waste. I was pleasantly surprised. Certainly one of the better Asian films to be released in recent years. It's not perfect but I found it to be entertaining and would recommend it to anyone who appreciates simple adventure yarns. Why should stories be complex to be good? The best stories are often simple ones.

[–] DayDream_Angel 19 years ago

I was not pleasantly suprised. It was extremely tedius and the acting was average at best. The final straw was when they were in the cave and the monk showed them what they were transporting. The CGI was atrocious and the plot just got a lot worse from that point on. Hero is in my opinion the better movie. Although not a great film, at least it had its moments.

[–] 19 years ago

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[–] rince1wind 19 years ago

I agree completely with kodack10's review. I have an academic background in Chinese fiction and film, and while I enjoyed Crouching Tiger and the others (and especially Iron Monkey), this movie was both really fun and cognizant of both popular Chinese classic fiction (think Shui hu zhuan or "All Men are Brothers," or "The Water Margin") and the historical fiction/martial arts genres of film. I loved it, down to the surreal magical-religious moments, spartanly provided for better effect.

[–] LincolnEcho 19 years ago

I got the DVD when it originally came out back in December (I think). I too think that this movie is way under-rated and the bad reviews that it gets are generally from people who think the greatest of CTHD and HERO. Quite frankly, CTHD should be called CTHP (Hidden Plot). And HERO, while visually stunning, it's just another murder/twist/revenge flick.

WOHAE was more like a Western. You had a group of main characters who were trying to protect an "artifact" on a wagon train from the In-gins, or in this case, the Turks. Question. Were those really Turks or some other central Asian tribe?

I haven't watched WOHAE since December, as I just watched HOFD this morning, and I need to get into the mood to watch these Asian martial arts flicks. Musa was good too. Very similar to WOHAE.

[–] dont_b_so_BBC 18 years ago

The foreigners were "Tu-Que", a central asian race identified and named by the ancient Chinese as such. Although the closest English translation is Turk, the "Tu-Que" is just one of the possible ancestor races of present day Turkish races in Turkey or Turkmenistan.

It's like the way the "Xiong-Nu" race recorded in Chinese history is most conveniently translated into English as the "Huns", although they are just one of the possible ancestor races of the Huns that later threatened Europe.

The film-makers had a good historical basis for choosing the "Tu-Que" to represent the "desert marauders", but took a bit of artistic licence with the dress and language of the "Tu-Que"-- since no one can be sure exactly how any "Tu-Que" tribe/nation at the time would dress and talk.

[–] 18 years ago

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