The Warring States

I decided to watch The Warring States because of Korean actress Kim Hee-Sun, who played the role of Pang Fei the Queen of the State of Wei. Besides, I’ve been quite familiar with the Warring States, solely because of Sun Tzu’s Art of War. As I watched this film, turned out that it’s actually referring to the warring states mentioned in the great ancient book.

The main character was Sun Bin (Sun Honglei), who kept me wondering if he was related to Sun Tzu or if Sun Tzu was also known as Sun Bin. Without concrete answer, I just watched the film being confused from time to time which was the State of Wei and the State of Qi. I remember these states mentioned in Sun Tzu’s Art of War. It helped me understand why there was reference to these states in the ancient book. But I felt bad with how these states and at the same time Sun Bin and Pang Juan (Francis Ng) clashed against each other.

The Warring States was an epic (2011) film, in the sense that it had a slice of everything that happened during this time of Chinese History. I definitely hate those betrayals, and there was one I really wanted to kill. Yes, I got carried away.

I was, however, curious as to why there was a female general. Behold, General Tian Xi (Jing Tian). I’m not familiar with ancient Chinese society. Was it really possible? Uhm, was she pegging Mulan? With such beauty, brain, and body (fighting skills), she’s one fiery fox. Very scary, but not in a monstrous way.

The King of Qi (Nakai Kiichi) was one amusing character. I like his generosity. He reminds me of the kind of king Sun Tzu was referring to about Morale and Righteousness. I thought he was too kind but someone you can’t mess with. It’d be nice to have rulers like him.

In a way The Warring States reminded me of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon though I still prefer the awesome fighting scenes of the latter, I can’t help but be affected in a similar way, especially with the ending. Compared to Ang Lee’s film, Chen Jin’s film ending made me cry a river.

Kim Hee Sun as Pang Fei/Queen of Wei

I’ve read that TWS cause a little or some confusion to people. Perhaps it only happens if you’re not familiar with Chinese History. I can’t really track their history but I didn’t have trouble following because I’ve read Sun Tzu’s Art of War although I was just curious where Sun Tzu was in the picture.

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Originally posted on: 15 March 2013
Reposted on: 3 August 2013