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Warrior and the Wolf (The) (Blu-ray)
Blu-ray B - United Kingdom - Universal Pictures Review written by and copyright: Jon Meakin (3rd July 2011). |
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The Film
 It’s hard to find truly bad films because even the worst ones are memorable. Maybe it offended you and made you angry; or perhaps you laughed at an actor attempting to rescue a terrible script. You could feel sorry for a director who is clearly trying his best with a good idea, but no budget. The whole production could even have a whiff of insanity, but at least there is something. The Warrior and the Wolf has nothing to offer at all. I cannot find a single element that deserves highlighting! This may seem harsh, but I’m usually very optimistic reviewers. I never give up! At the end of this I couldn’t even feel disappointed. There are no missed opportunities here, because there are no good ideas. The plot is based on a short story called Rasai-Ki by Yasushi Inoue about a reluctant soldier who misses his simple life as a shepherd and falls in love with a tribal widow, despite the warnings they will be cursed to roam as wolves. It seems like it would make for a poetic and emotional romance. I’m sure the short novel is wonderful. The film is not short enough and it certainly isn’t wonderful. I’m impressed I managed to glean that much of the plot after watching it, because it’s nigh on impenetrable. And if you don’t believe me, consider that on several occasions, it throws up a title card updating you on the plot! Clearly someone realised it wasn’t making any sense at all and the viewer would need help to keep up. Whether anyone will have the courage to make so much of an effort is up for debate. It’s pure nonsense while we see the Chinese shepherd (played by Japanese Joe Odagiri) trying to be a soldier and having disagreements with his tough General (Tou Chung-hua). The General is injured and somehow, the shepherd seems to now be leading the troops (military career prospects in ancient China are clearly excellent, if ambitious). They occupy a seemingly deserted village, but he finds Maggie Q (Vietnamese American playing a Chinese widow) hiding in a hole under her hut. At this point there is a great deal of sex. The film is no longer just nonsense, but is now very grubby nonsense. Sex scenes are hard enough to take seriously in the best films, so when I say that The Warrior and The Wolf has the worst love scenes I have ever witnessed, I’m sure you’ll accuse me of exaggeration. Let me explain: the shepherd, who we understand to be a gentle chap who never wanted to be in the army anyway and would rather have stayed at home to play with baby wolves, takes the poor, scared widow out of her hidey hole and shags her violently from behind. It isn’t pretty, it isn’t romantic and she certainly isn’t pleased, so I would assume this to be rape. Undeterred, he repeats the awful process several times, until she falls in love with him. Yeah, I know how that sounds and that’s how it is. Now bear in mind this is the centrepiece of the story; a love to conquer all others and their forbidden romance risks them being turned into wolves for eternity, or something. I’m really struggling with the logic at this point of reaching such a profound conclusion from sweaty violation! I know China is very strict on sex scenes. In fact Maggie Q was a replacement for Tang Wei, who was banned after her performance in Ang Lee’s Lust, Caution (a very erotic film and powerfully so for the right reasons), so maybe they were trying to simplify them, but in any case, a story such as this needs time and depth for the characters to be believable and they just don’t get that. Needless to say, the film plays out without irony or any kind of message. It’s such a mess I find it impossible to comment on the actors (beyond the inventive international casting I already referred to) or the script. Everything is just lost in an indecipherable heap of poorly filmed fight scenes, grubby sex and CGI wolves. I was very surprised to see it was directed by Tian Zhuangzhuang who has a respected reputation. Martin Scorcese called Tian’s The Horse Thief his favourite foreign film of the 1990s. In that case, maybe the mere mention of his name alone will convince world cinema aficionados that I must have misunderstood his new film. If that’s the case, then I wish you the best of luck. You’ll need it.
Video
The photography is fairly murky, but makes good use of contrast. The opening scene in a shadowy hut for example is well done. But while the 2.35:1 1080p/AVC transfer is consistent, it is also rather grainy and lacks definition. A poor example of the Blu-Ray format overall.
Audio
A 5.1 DTS-HD Mandarin audio track that like the video, fails to take advantage of the formats benefit. It has moments of depth, but is generally dull and makes little to no use of surround sound. Only English subtitles are included, but are not selectable.
Extras
You get standard scene selection, the trailer (which is actually better than the film. It makes more sense and is pretty exciting!), a bonus trailer for Farewell and a 25 minute making of, largely interviews (subtitles are included). It is very slight though and listening to everyone’s enthusiasm makes you wonder if they’re talking about a different film.
Overall
A truly dreadful film, any focus or point of which is lost in dire execution, presented on a disc that is merely average.
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