| Credited cast: | |||
| Donnie Yen | ... | ||
| Wen Jiang | ... | ||
| Li Sun | ... |
Qi Lan
(as Betty Sun)
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Bing Shao | ... |
General Zhang Liao
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| Bo-Chieh Wang | ... |
Emperor Liu Xie
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Yong Dong | ... |
Xuyou
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| Andy On | ... |
General Kong Xiu
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Yuan Nie | ... |
Han Fu
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Xuebing Wang | ... |
Wang Zhi
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Zonghan Li | ... |
General Qin Qi
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Ailei Yu | ... |
General Bian Xi
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Alex Fong | ... | |
| Rest of cast listed alphabetically: | |||
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Yang Biao |
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| Siu-Ho Chin | ... |
Yan Liang
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Xiang Gao |
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This historical martial arts film adapted from the story of Guan Yu crossing five passes and slaying six generals in Luo Guanzhong's historical novel Romance of the Three Kingdoms. In AD 200 during the late Eastern Han Dynasty, Cao Cao eliminates his political opponents Dong Cheng and others, before turning his attention towards rival warlords Liu Bei and Yuan Shao. To avoid fighting a war on two fronts, Cao Cao decides to attack Liu Bei first. Liu Bei flees north to join Yuan Shao, while his family is captured by the enemy. Liu Bei's sworn brother Guan Yu (Donnie Yen), surrenders to Cao Cao to uphold his oath of brotherhood and preserve his honor. Cao Cao knows he's a great warrior & hopes that Guan Yu will continue serving him. Meanwhile, Guan Yu is secretly in love with his sworn brother's concubine Qilan, but is afraid to express his feelings to her. Qilan reproaches Guan Yu for serving Cao Cao. By then, Guan Yu has also received news of Liu Bei's whereabouts, so he prepares to ... Written by BronzeKeilani26
Donnie Yen is really good at Martial Arts, but you already knew that. Some don't think he's a very good actor though. But the role he has on hand here, is really serving him good. He plays a loner and that suits him very well. The action scenes are phenomenal as expected and the story is good enough (while you could argue there is too much kitsch in it, I think it's the right amount).
It's not a masterpiece, but I think it's a good movie overall, with great story points and turns that while you might expect them, they still come down crashing on you. What's also true, the movie does not loose much on a second viewing. I even liked it better the second time around, because I knew where it was heading and could see small touches in between the settings.