The Hong Kong Film Awards took place over the weekend and The Warlords took the top 3 categories: Best Picture, Best Director (Peter Chan) and Best Actor (Jet Li). This Peter Chan directed flick takes place in the mid-1860s. Jet Li, Andy Lau and Takeshi Kaneshiro fight to stop the Taiping Rebellion, but Xu Jinglei, a hottie, comes along and divides them.

There’s been a spate of these movies lately. You’ve got The Forbidden Kingdom, Three Kingdoms: Resurrection of the Dragon and a few others. A lot more epics filmed in China now, due to greater financing partnerships between Chinese and international production partners. Meaning there’s more money for filming now. No longer do you operate on a shoestring budget like in old HK movies. Actors aren’t subjected to performing life-threatening stunts (see Jackie Chan). However, the biggest byproduct of these partnerships will be greater global visibility and stature for Asian films and actors.

Anyway, expect lots of action, fighting, swords and such from this movie. Think Rob Roy. I’ll have to watch this, but no word on a US release. Guess I’ll have to the buy the dvd from Asia.

Pics courtesy of moviesandcritics