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Musa:
The Warrior |
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review | awards | availability | |
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Joo Jin-Moo and Zhang Ziyi in Musa: The Warrior. |
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Year: |
2001 |
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Director: |
Kim
Sung-Su |
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Producer: |
Cho Min-Hwan, Zhang Xia |
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Cast: |
Jung Woo-Sung, Zhang Ziyi,
Yu Rong-Guang, Joo
Jin-Mo, Ahn Sung-Gi |
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The
Skinny: |
Reminiscent of both Akira Kurosawa's Seven Samurai and
Steven Spielberg's Saving Private Ryan, this costly
Korean production delivers the goods in its epic tale of nine
ill-fated Koryo warriors. And, Musa: The Warrior possesses
one of the single best beheadings ever put on celluloid. |
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Review by
Calvin
McMillin: |
Musa: The Warrior paints
a vivid portrait of war's terrible beauty. One has only so
long to admire the sweeping, panoramic landscapes of the film
before they become bathed in the blood of its hapless characters.
The setting is China, 1375. After ousting the Mongols, the
Ming now face a rapidly deteriorating relationship with the
Korean nation. When a diplomatic envoy from Korea arrives
in China, the Ming troops arrest the innocent visitors as
spies, exiling them to a remote desert. As fate would have
it, the Koryo warriors escape their captors, but soon learn
that freedom is not without its problems. Having failed in
their mission, the Koreans find themselves at a crossroads.
To return home to Korea as failures would be a shame none
of them could bear, yet to stay in China would be a move that
would effectively sign their own death warrants.
However, fortune smiles upon the
disaffected heroes in the form of a captured Ming princess,
the stunningly attractive Buyong (Zhang Ziyi). The Koryo troops
realize that freeing the lovely maiden from the Mongols would
not only reconcile them in the eyes of the Ming, but it could
be their only ticket home. So the small band of soldiers embark
on a daring raid to save the haughty princess and return her
safely to Nanjing. However, the Koryo warriors are being trailed
by the Mongols, with their powerful leader (Yu Rong-Guang)
at the helm. Arrows fly, swords clash, and heads roll as the
Mongol forces do battle with the Koreans. The Koryo warriors
final, fateful stand against the Mongols is the thrilling
highlight of a sometimes beautiful, oftentimes brutal epic
war film.
Musa is an enrapturing
movie from start to last. Fans of high-wire fantasy martial
arts will be disappointed, since this Korean epic limits itself
strictly to the more realistic, gravity-bound variety of fighting
(the battles owe more to American war films than wuxia). Musa
can also be praised for its attention to character development,
as each warrior in the film goes from anonymous "arrow-fodder"
to a much more defined character, each with a developing storyline.
Zhang Ziyi is gorgeous as the 14th century princess in a performance
that transcends the mere "flower vase" role most
actresses get stuck with. In many ways, the film - between
the guts and the gore - is a rumination on class warfare.
The continuing debate, verbal and nonverbal, between Princess
Buyong and the spear-wielding ex-slave Yeosol (Jung Woo-Sung),
explores the issue of the common man's role within the grossly
unfair class system. Musa: The Warrior is a spectacle
with a message, an action movie with a heart. In short, it's
a great film. (Calvin McMillin, 2002) |
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Awards: |
2001 Asia-Pacific Film Festival
• Best Editing
(Hyun Kim)
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Availability: |
DVD (Korea)
Region 3 NTSC
CJ Entertainment
2-Disc Set
16x9 Anamorphic Widescreen
Korean Language Track
Removable Korean and English Subtitles
"Making Of" Featurette, Director/Producer Documentary,
Behind the Scenes Footage
Deleted Scenes, Music Tracks, Trailers |
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image courtesy
of CJ Entertainment
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| LoveHKFilm.com
Copyright ©2002-2017 Ross Chen
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