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Directed by: Sung Su-kim Starring: Ahn Sung-ki, Zhang Ziyi, Ju Jin-mo In similar vein to it's contemporary Bichunmoo, South Korea's Musa the Warrior is set amongst the regional tensions between the Koryo, ancestors of the modern day Korean people, the Yuan, descendants of the Mongols, and the Han from China. Here, we follow three members of a Koryo military team escorting a diplomatic envoy enroute to a meeting with Han leaders: Choi Jung, an inexperienced general, his second in command Jin-lib, a veteran sergeant with a Legolas-like prowess in archery, and Yeo-sol, a slave recently emancipated who’s right at the bottom of the chain of command that we also soon discover to be pretty handy with a spear. Unfortunately, the mission is a disaster and the troops, minus their envoys, soon find themselves wandering in the desert far, far away from home. However, a run in with a company of Yuan troops holding captive a kidnapped Han princess (Crouching Tiger's Zhang Ziyi) sets the team out on a mission to rescue and return her home that will ultimately test the leadership of Choi and the loyalty of his troops, who are already reluctant in agreeing to this diversion from their long journey back home. Musa is an epic on the scale of Braveheart, and is just as violent with bloody, intense battles and fight scenes with limb seperations and decapitations galore, with the “highlight” being a particularly gruesome scene where huge spear thrown by Yeo-sol finds its mark, embedding itself right through the skull of a poor Yuan soldier. However, in between the bloodshed is a number of quieter scenes where we observe the relationships formed between the characters caught up in this journey, showing the difficulty faced by the princess and Yeo-sol who are initially outcasts to the rest of the group, and later their growing acceptance of them as they show off their incredible martial arts skills and empathy for their subjects, respectively. An understated love triangle also develops between the princess, Choi and Yeo-sol, adding a level of tension between the two who are already at odds due to their differences in class. Here, these scenes also confront us with the growing dissidence and in fighting occurring amongst the troops, which puts the viewer in a position to question the various motives of the characters and also revealing flaws inherent in that will later be seen to arise in their handling of some of the more complex situations in the film, giving Musa a deeper, and much more involved experience for the viewer than most other films of the genre. Although starting rather slow with a fairly ordinary battle at the beginning, the film soon does get into its own groove as we settle into the journey, though at 155 minutes it does begin to drag on towards the end. The cinematography is attractive, capturing the desolation of the rocky desert and the sparse woodlands of the area well, though the picture is tinted with a golden-brown hue throughout the course of the film, which frankly does prove monotonous and slightly annoying in the long run. The well-choreographed fights, instilled with a shot of gritty realism in line with the rest of the film are also well shot, while larger battles, which prefer to feature the use of physical gags as opposed to the CG tricks seen in other films, suffer from the use of jerky camera movements in close range that try to denote the feeling of chaos but only work effectively some of the time. And as expected, the production design is exceptional, ranging from authentic looking recreations of weapons, armour and clothing, to an appropriately weathered but still impressive abandoned fortress the troops take refuge in. The cast is generally excellent, with several supporting players making their own mark on the film, though while Zhang Ziyi does seem to channel the younger Jen from Crouching Tiger in her role here, this can be attributed to the similar qualities of both characters. However, the most compelling performance comes from Ahn Sung-ki in the role of Jin-lib, whose veteran archer, with his incredible skills and tactical experience turning out to be the key in keeping the troops together on this perilous journey, also wins over the audience with his charisma and general badassness. In fact, at times his impressive performance tended to remind me of how an older, ancient Korean version of Solid Snake might have worked for some reason. Also look out for Rong-guang Yu, the lead from Iron Monkey, who also adds to the mix as the film’s main villain, a Yuan General who won’t stop at nothing to get the princess back into the hands of his people. Set within an interesting period in Asian history, with excellent action, compelling characters and lots of violence to boot, Musa the Warrior is a fantastic film on par with some of the best period action epics around. 5/5 PROS: Violent, epic action rivaling Braveheart. CONS: Does drag on towards the end. ADDITIONAL INFORMATION: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0275083/ mrkillboy fucked around with this message at 11:18 on May 6, 2004 |
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May 5, 2004 18:24
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| # ? Apr 27, 2024 06:58 |
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