General
Qi Jiguang wrote the book on war and then he wrote the book on drilling armies—they
were called The Ji Xiao Xin Shu and Record of Military Training. He was just
the man to whip the Ming army into shape and expel the Japanese pirates. Those
supposed ruffians and ronin have some high-ranking samurai secretly calling the
shots, but they adhere to Sun Tzu’s The
Art of War, which is so Sixth Century BC. Nobody knows better than Qi the
failings of the Ming court, yet the revered General always answers the call to
service in Gordon Chan’s rip-roaring God
of War (trailer
here),
opening this Friday in New York.
Yes,
this will be another film in which the innocent Chinese were minding their own business
until the belligerent Japanese launched an imperialist military campaign. At
least in this case, some of the Japanese have misgivings regarding the ronin’s
rampant pillaging—at least the ones with breeding. Of course, they are not
there officially, but thanks to their tactical advice, the pirates have
completely bedeviled Gen. Yu Dayou.
Even
though Qi’s appointment amounts to a rebuke and a de facto demotion, the two
generals earn each other’s respect on the battlefield. Unfortunately, neither
of them is good at politics, but Qi is just too good to sideline for long.
Crafty old Yamagawa hoped to divide Qi’s forces, by launching three
simultaneous attacks, including one on Qi’s home town garrison. However, he did
not count on Madame Qi-Wang, an accomplished martial artist in her own right,
who will be literally holding down the fort in her husband’s absence.
God of War has several large-scale,
blood-and-thunder battle sequences, but it is still surprisingly nimble on its
feet. Chan segues quite smoothly from the big, explosive sieges to
down-and-dirty hand-to-hand combat scenes. He gets a big assist from Vincent
Zhao, who was the perfect choice to anchor the film as Qi. He has always had
the martial arts chops, but he is about as big as a movie star can get and
still be described as “under-appreciated” for him screen presence. Yet, his solid,
dependable Joe persona quite suits Qi, who was known more for his ability to
bring out greatness in his troops rather than his own super-human feats.
Nevertheless,
Zhao still lays down some spectacular beatdowns on the ronin pirates. He also
forges some pleasing chemistry with Regina Wan Qian, as the elegant but lethal
Madame Qi-Wang. When Wan gets the chance to show off her action chops, she
makes the most of it. She was terrific in The Laundryman and Paradise in Service,
but this is the kind of role that should take her to the next level of stardom.
As an added bonus, second-billed Master Sammo Hung has a small supporting part
as the bull-like Gen. Yu, but he still puts an indelible stamp on the film.
