The Warriors Gate

The most recent film we found scrolling randomly through Netflix, is this French - Chinese action movie from 2016.

The traditional story of a kid having to find his bravery, it is an enjoyable little film with nice action scenes and some good jokes (like the dumb henchmen executioner of the evil overlord).

Jack Bronson is a teenager who spends his free time playing warrior video games and working at a Chinese curios and antiques shop. His mother is trying to sell the house they live in before it goes into foreclosure. When Jack goes to a biking park, Travis, a neighbourhood bully and his friends chase after him and he hides inside his bosses shop and helps out. A family heirloom, The Warriors Gate, from Mr Cheng’s cousin in Beijing arrives at the shop and he gives it to Jack as a gift.

Jack goes to sleep with the thing in his room and wakes up with a sword at his neck. A warrior, Zhao  tells him that the ‘Black Knight’ has to look after the most precious thing in the kingdom; the Princess. Jack gets to know Princess Su Lin and she stays with him overnight. The next morning, barbarians from the game realm come to kill the Princess but she fights them off, destroying the house in the process. The barbarians take the Princess back into the other realm through the Warriors Gate but when Jack goes in after her he arrives somewhere else. The Warrior who sent the Princess to stay with Jack is there and there is an army of barbarians trying to kill them. The Wizard stops time and the army is frozen. The Wizard tells Jack that Zhao was one of six children raised from both to protect the Emperor and that the only person who could defeat them was Arun the Cruel, King of the barbarians. Arun poisoned the warriors and killed the Emperor and the only people left alive were Su Lin and Zhao. The wizard searched through his seeing stone to find the greatest Warrior to protect the Princess and found The Black Knight; Jack's in game avatar; a ferocious and clever Warrior. Jack and Zhao find out that Arun the Cruel will marry the Princess, become Emperor and then have her killed; so their mission is to save her.

While on their way through the "Unknown Kingdom" Jack tries the get Zhao to dance and have fun. In the forest, Jack gets held captive by beautiful Witch triplets that intend to eat him but Zhao saves him. At night Zhao starts to teach Jack how to fight. They get to a lake and Zhao says the trek around it will take days because he cannot swim. Jack agrees to teach him if Zhao continues teaching him how to fight like a Warrior.

When they arrive at Arun's kingdom they get captured; their way of getting into the kingdom and past all the guards and knights. They get free by working together to kill the guard when he gives them their food. Jack saves Su Lin but just as they're about to kiss Zhao barges in and interrupts them. On their way out they get recaptured and put back in their cell, Jack tells Zhao that he’s too young to die, having never even kissed a girl. Zhao reveals that neither has he. A butterfly appears and Zhao has a conversation with it.Jack asks if the butterfly understood him and Zhao replies that he hopes so.
During the wedding when Arun the Cruel lifts up her veil and goes to kiss Su Lin he sees that her face is of that of an insectoid monster with a long tongue and huge eyes. The Wizard uses his magic to distract everyone and frees Jack and Zhao just before hanging. The Wizard pours magic powder on Jacks shoes and tells him to jump. Jack saves the princess and all the barbarians try to kill them. The wizard gives Jack bags of magic powder to throw at them. One of the bags makes one of the barbarians a huge monster, however; too large for Jack and a formidable foe for Zhao. Eventually, Jack and Su Lin catapult themselves faraway and Zhao and the Wizard get away as well.

Jack wakes up in a forest alone and after a search finds Sun Lin tied up. Arun's guards attack Jack but he fights them off. Arun and Jack fight until Jack kills Arun and saves the Princess.
Su Lin is crowned Empress and sometime afterwards they kiss and she tells Jack that she never thought he was worthless; not even when they first met. The Empress's guards see her lipstick on Jacks face and try to kill him for touching her; but he gets home through the Warriors Gate; smashing it to pieces and rendering it useless to get back.

When he goes to school the next day Jack finally defeats his bully, Travis. At home, Jack tries to put the Warriors Gate back together but fails so he creates a video game called ‘The Warriors Gate’ and sells it for $25,000 so that he and his mom get to keep their house. Days later Jack is at the mall for some ice-cream and bumps into Su Lin. She had the Wizard make her another box/gate and made a new law that everyone gets holidays; even the Empress. Back in Empress's Kingdom, we see Zhao teaching all the knights to dance. Su Lin also dances a modern dance while standing on the balcony of her Forbidden City- like palace.

While perhaps not the most epic of movies, me and Noshi did like this innocent little adventure film.  It's that sort of movie you can anjoy especially if you are from the 80s - 90s generation, or an "young adult audience" making it a goodlazy sunday afternoon flick.  Or like us, a relaxing film in the evening after a hard day's work.

Will it be fondly remembered?  Probably not, but that doesn't mean it wasn't good while we watched it, and it might even provide some inspiration to the wargamer or roleplayer wanting to go oriental...