Stars: Jiang Wen, Kiichi Nakai, Zhao Wei Wei

Director: He Ping

Summary: Two soldiers, one who has escaped and one who is sent to execute him, join forces to protect some travellers when a Buddhist monk and valuable treasure is threatened by thieves.

He Ping, the director of the cult classic SWORDSMAN IN DOUBLE FLAG TOWN and the better-known RED FIRECRACKER, GREEN FIRECRACKER, enters the big time with WARRIORS OF HEAVEN AND EARTH, an epic battle between two heroic figures fighting for themselves and for their countries. When Li (Jiang Wen) refuses to kill innocent women and children, he becomes a rogue soldier without a land. Master swordsman Lai Xi (Nakai Kiichi) is ordered to assassinate him if wants to get back to to his home in Japan and see his mother before she dies. But first they must join together to help a caravan with precious cargo make its way safely across the desert--with a beautiful woman, Wen Zhu (SHAOLIN SOCCER's Zhao Wei), caught in between them. The gorgeous cinematography is by Zhao Fei, who shot such Asian epics as RAISE THE RED LANTERN as well as such Woody Allen films as SWEET AND LOWDOWN and SMALL TIME CROOKS. The lush look of the film is echoed by A.R. Rahman's marvelous score and outstanding costuming and set design. Ping masterfully recreates seventh-century China as horses and camels lead the protagonists down the famous Silk Road during the time of the Tang Dynasty.

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Anybody hungering for a good old-fashioned Western needs to check out Warriors of Heaven and Earth, which--although it's set in 7th-century China--has all the valor and spectacle of a John Ford picture. It also has a goofy supernatural streak, for the chopsocky crowd. The opening 10 minutes or so offer an alarmingly convoluted plot, but it swiftly settles down. What's going on is that a long-exiled Japanese hit man (Kiichi Nakai), hired to kill a renegade Chinese warrior (Jiang Wen), temporarily teams up with his quarry in order to escort a camel caravan along the Spice Road. Of course, they are menaced by a brutal warlord, and beautiful Zhao Wei (So Close) is mixed in there too. Director He Ping (Red Firecracker, Green Firecracker) captures some magnificent vistas in the Gobi Desert, but more importantly he sketches the codes or honor and behavior essential to any such tale. --Robert Horton

Aspect Ratio:	2.40 Anamorphic Wide Screen
Main Language:	Mandarin
Region:	Region 2
Special Features:	Making Of Featurette, Music Video, Theatrical Trailer
Subtitles:	Arabic, Bulgarian, Croatian, Czech, Danish, English, Finnish, Greek, Hindi, Hungarian, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Slovenian, Spanish, Swedish, Turkish
Year:	2003
Release Date:	December 13, 2004
Runtime:	114 minutes
Certification:
Catalogue Number:	C D T 33028
Keywords:	Action, Heaven, Warriors, Earth, General, Adventure
Genre:	Action/Adventure