Dynasty Warriors

 Saturday night, movie night and this time Noshi and me selected Dynasty Warriors on Netflix.

This 2021 Hong Kong production is based on the game franchise by Koei Tecmo of the same name, and a game I really enjoyed as I kind a like musou games.

The sotry starts with the "Three Brothers" coming to the aid of Dong Zhuo as he and his troops of the Han Dynasty are about to be overwhelmed by the Yellow Turban rebels.  Victorious, they return again to their lives, but Dong Zhuo places a coup, ousting the child emperor and taking the throne as Chancellor.

This leads to the collapse of the Han Dynasty, but by it's last threats a cavalry general, Cao Cao, vows to make it his mission to assassinate Dong Zhuo.  He nearly succeeds, but fleeing from the scene, he is forced to form an alliance to defeat the army.  He bands together 18 warlords, all bringing their forces, and the Three Brothers join his cause.

Of course, the enemy isn`t silent either, and gains followers like the mighty Lu Bu to do his bidding.  All out war errupts, and while the capital is freed and Dong Zhuo retreats, the lands are still in turmoil.  The seperate warlords consolidate their posisitions as we learn from a meeting between Liu Bei and Cao Cao a few years after the battle, and the time of the Three Kingdoms is about to start!

 

 

But of course, this leads to the question, can Hong Kong do better jobs adapting video games then Hollywood?  Well, I feel for this particular movie, no.  While you have game favorites like Lu Bu, Cao Cao or Zhang Fei well represented in special effects and attacks, the movie felt to spung out and long winded for me.  Which is an odd thing to say for a 2 hour ride full of action sequences to be honest.

So yeah, it was fun for the over the top combat sequences and effects, but it definitly wasn`t the best thing coming out of asian cinema we saw this year...