The last time Roy Chow attempted to launch a big-budget movie franchise was the failed young Wong Fei-Hung prequel Rise Of The Legend <黃飛鴻之英雄有夢> played by Eddie Peng back in 2014.
Well, he’s back again with another big-budget attempt on a movie franchise and instead of reviving a popular character, he took on Koei’s famous hack-and-slash Dynasty Warriors video game series. The game, which made its debut in 1997 has since spawned a current total of eight sequels up to Dynasty Warriors 9 in 2018.
The big-screen adaptation, which reportedly cost over HK$300 million to produce, is no doubt a massive undertaking for Roy Chow. And frankly, Chow’s prior filmography didn’t exactly inspire a lot of confidence (i.e., his past movies such as the aforementioned Rise Of The Legend <黃飛鴻之英雄有夢> and others like Murderer <殺人犯> (2009) and last year’s Knockout <我们永不言弃> were all half-baked piece of works). His penchant for utilising exposition-heavy storytelling method still rears its ugly head in Dynasty Warriors <真·三國無雙>, as evidently seen in a protracted flashback where Carina Lau (Ka-Ling)’s Lady of the Sword Castle tell the story about how Cao Cao (Wang Kai) first attempted to assassinate the evil Han official Dong Zhuo (Lam Suet).
As for the whole story — credited to Xiao Wen, Christine To and Rui Li) — itself, Chow tries to have them both ways by combining the extravagant nature of Dynasty Warriors video game and John Woo’s Red Cliff <赤壁>-like elaborate storytelling approach. The latter, just like the game and the movie itself was based on Luo Guanzhong’s famous historical novel Romance of the Three Kingdoms. Except for the Dynasty Warriors game, the otherwise oft-told story takes a more fantastical route that greatly dramatised the whole historical event.
The result is rather uneven, with some of the scenes tend to overstay their welcome while others such as the particular romantic moment, where Lü Bu (Louis Koo) first met Diaochan (NaZha) somehow awkwardly misplaced. The scene itself may have been brief but Chow’s hasty decision of introducing NaZha’s Diaochan makes me feel as if he’s added the character at the last minute for the sake of fan service. NaZha may look the part to play Diaochan but it’s a pity that she is unfairly relegated to a thankless role.
Speaking of Lü Bu, Koo’s antagonist turn suffers from a disappointingly stiff performance while the rest of the actors display a mixed bag of acting. Han Geng fares the worst as Guan Yu, whose lanky and weirdly slimmer appearance hardly convinced me that he looks suitable to play the famous general. Justin Cheung, who reportedly gain 27 kg to play Zhang Fei, is largely (no pun intended) reduced to an underwritten character.
Tony Yang Yo-Ning (credited as Yo Yang) made quite an impression as Liu Bei and the same can be said with Wang Kai as Cao Cao. Kudos to Roy Chow for making a perfect casting decision — at least in terms of appearance — where Lam Suet plays Dong Zhuo. Finally, Carina Lau shows up in a cameo appearance as Lady of the Sword Castle merely served to provide heavy exposition.
Technically speaking, the CG in Dynasty Warriors <真·三國無雙> isn’t exactly among the best ones out there. While some of them look spotty, Dion Lam-choreographed major CG-heavy battles — particularly the opening battle scene against the Yellow Turban Rebellion led by Zhang Jiao (Philip Keung, in a cameo appearance) and the final four-way fight scene between the three blood brothers (Liu Bei, Guan Yu and Zhang Fei) against Lü Bu — are worth mentioning here.
Yusuke Hanato’s energetic score, which blends soaring orchestra and a catchy guitar-rock combo complement the movie well. Both Liu Jingping’s majestic production design and Bobo Ng Po-Ling and William Chang’s detailed costume design deserve equal mention as well. Kenny Tse’s (credited as Tse Chung-To) sweeping cinematography, where part of the movie’s locations was shot in New Zealand looks incredible.
Dynasty Warriors <真·三國無雙> is currently streaming on several Chinese video platforms including Youku and Tencent Video on top of its cinema releases in Hong Kong and China.
[Update] Dynasty Warriors <真·三國無雙> is also currently streaming on Netflix.
ScreenHK 