Film

The Warlords

A stunning historical epic about three unlikely brothers bound by blood oath during China's turbulent civil war. Director Peter Chan's camera captures vast battlefields and intimate betrayals with equal force. It's a film about loyalty tested beyond breaking point, anchored by Jet Li in a rare dramatic role. Gorgeously composed, deliberately paced, and deeply melancholy.

TMDb rating3.4

Should you watch it?

Watch it if you love sweeping historical epics where loyalty, brotherhood and rivalry are tested against a backdrop of war, and you don't mind a story that rewards patience with big, operatic set pieces.

Skip it if you want a tight, fast-moving action film; the battles are spectacular, but the long stretches of character history and political maneuvering can feel slow and talky between them.

What it asks of you: Around two hours of sustained attention, with a deliberate build toward its largest moments and a heavy, melancholy mood that rarely lightens for long.

Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.

If you liked this

Red Cliff2008

John Woo's sweeping naval battle epic set during another Chinese war, with similarly layered political intrigue, stunning action sequences, and the same sense of historical scale and personal consequence.

But Nearly five hours long even in the edited version, and Woo's operatic style can feel overwrought if you want restraint instead of spectacle.

Red Cliff poster

Hero2002

Zhang Yimou's gorgeously composed martial arts film with Jet Li, exploring honor and sacrifice against a backdrop of ancient China. Philosophical and visually stunning in ways that linger.

But The narrative structure is deliberately fragmented, and some find the style prioritizes beauty over emotional clarity in ways that distance rather than move.

Hero poster

Curse of the Golden Flower2006

Zhang Yimou again, this time diving into court intrigue and family betrayal within a palace setting. Rich cinematography and Chow Yun-fat in a role that requires him to project quiet menace.

But Melodramatic at moments, and the plot becomes convoluted enough that you have to lean in to follow who wants what and why.

Curse of the Golden Flower poster

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from The Warlords

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Come and See1985

Both films refuse the mythology of noble war. They watch men harden into something unrecognizable, and they mourn what gets lost in the process. The cost of loyalty is paid in humanity.

Elem Klimov's devastating Soviet film about a boy's initiation into the brutality of World War II. Like The Warlords, it strips away the romance of war and watches a young man's soul calcify under witnessing. Unflinching and necessary.

But This is not entertainment; it's an endurance test designed to break your composure. Graphic violence and atrocity shown without mercy because showing mercy would betray what happened.

Come and See poster
More like this (8)

The Assassin2015

Hou Hsiao-hsien's meditative martial arts film set in Tang Dynasty China. Long takes, minimal dialogue, and action that arrives like strikes of lightning. Hypnotic and completely different from Western action grammar.

But Patient pacing that some experience as slow; minimal plot and maximum mood means you have to surrender to its rhythm or the night stalls.

The Assassin poster

Once Upon a Time in China1991

Jet Li at his peak as folk hero Wong Fei-hung, directed by Tsui Hark with action choreography that rewrote the rulebook. Fun, propulsive, and makes martial arts feel like dance.

But The tone is lighter and more playful than The Warlords; if you want seriousness and weight, this bounces when you need it to land.

Once Upon a Time in China poster

The Last Emperor1987

Bernardo Bertolucci's epic of China's final Qing emperor, moving between palace grandeur and political collapse. A masterclass in scale, performance, and how power corrupts from inside out.

But Paced deliberately for reflection rather than momentum, and at 163 minutes it demands patience and investment most nights.

The Last Emperor poster

A Better Tomorrow1986

John Woo and Chow Yun-fat's breakthrough about honor among gangsters and the bonds between men who've sworn loyalty. The DNA of The Warlords is visible here, just in a modern setting with guns instead of swords.

But The melodrama is pronounced and the action is kinetic in ways that some find dated; it's a film that needs you to meet its emotional register halfway.

A Better Tomorrow poster

Seven Samurai1954

Kurosawa's foundational epic about warriors banding together, with themes of loyalty, sacrifice, and the cost of violence that echo through The Warlords directly. A perfect film that has earned its reputation.

But Over three and a half hours in black and white, and the pacing—while justified—requires an evening you're willing to fully surrender.

Seven Samurai poster

The Grandmaster2013

Wong Kar-wai's visually rapturous film about martial arts master Ip Man. Fractured narrative about legacy and aging, shot with the director's signature color and melancholy; the fights are near-balletic.

But Deliberately opaque about plot; Wong prioritizes mood and image over clarity, and the final act can feel like it's dissolving into abstraction.

The Grandmaster poster

Amarcord1973

Both examine how collective oaths—political, military, social—corrupt and bind individuals. Where The Warlords is tragedy, Amarcord is satire, but both are about the mask that loyalty requires you to wear.

Fellini's dreamy, episodic memory-film about a small Italian town under Mussolini. Seems like it has nothing to do with military epic, but it's about how ideology shapes daily life and binds men into false brotherhood. Gorgeous, bittersweet, formally inventive.

But No conventional plot; it's impressionistic and relies on you enjoying Fellini's baroque visual style and his disdain for narrative convenience. Can feel deliberately obscure.

Amarcord poster

The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford2007

Both are elegies for male friendship destroyed from within by fear, ambition, and the weight of shared history. The violence isn't the story; the betrayal is.

Andrew Dominik's psychological western about obsession, betrayal, and the dissolution of brotherhood between two men. Shot with the same painterly cinematography as The Warlords, and equally interested in how reputation and legend poison genuine connection.

But Deliberately slow and interior; this is a film about men's psychology, not action. If you're waiting for gunfights as catharsis, they arrive quietly and mean nothing.

The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford poster

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