 “Warriors of the Nation” is an action/comedy that serves more as a popcorn action film. As exciting as it was to see actor Wenzho Zhao reprise his role as Wong-Fei Hung once again, unfortunately it’s not the role or story that people have been hoping for.
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TITLE: Warriors of the Nation
FILM RELEASE DATE: 2018
DURATION: 95 Minutes
DVD INFORMATION: Color, 16:9 Widescreen, Mandarin Chinese 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio
COMPANY: Well Go USA Entertainment
RELEASED: February 18, 2020
Directed by Marco Mak
Written by Yuhao Gao, Zhenyi Li, Xinyao Niu, Ning Yang
Starring:
Wenzhuo Zhao as Wong Fei-Hung
Lubing Li
Miya Muqi
Kenya Sawada
Na Wei
At the end of the Chino-Japanese War, a top military officer, Zhang Zhidong, is kidnapped in the middle of the night by a militant organization called the White Lotus Society. When he overhears a sinister plot to overthrow the central government by China s own military officials, Wong Fei Hung knows he must rescue Zhang to protect China and prevent another war from happening. With Vincent Zhao reprising his legendary role, follow the next chapter in Wong Fei Hung s story with spectacular classic martial arts action.
Back in the early ’90s, “Once Upon a Time in China” Tsui Hark films were quite popular and action legend Jet Li was the main protagonist of the first three films. And for the fourth and fifth film, actor Wenzhuo Zhao would eventually be hired as the lead actor to take over the reigns of Jet Li.
The main editor for those films was Marco Mak, who would become a filmmaker and has directed dozens of films including “Naked Soldier”, “Tracing Shadow”, “Colour of Truth” and more!
Many have wanted to see Wenzhuo Zhao reprise his role as Wong Fei-Hung and unfortunately, in 2018, what they got was “Kung Fu League” about the character (and a few other characters) being transported to modern times.
Unfortunately, the movie was not what people were expecting to see, nor was it the kind of film that people wanted to see Wenzhuo Zhao doing, in his popular Wong Fei-Hung role.
But fortunately, Marco Mak and actor Wenzhuo Zhao were able to collaborate for “Warriors of the Nation”.
The film is during a time when China was in turmoil at the end of the Sino-Japanese War and a top military officer named Zhang Zhidong is kidnapped by a militant organization called the White Lotus Society led by their leader (portrayed by Miya Muqi).
As Wong Fei-Hung happens to be in the area and hoping the Chinese government would do something to rescue Zhang Zhidong, to prevent a major war from happening. But Chinese military leaders are using this moment to overthrow the central government.
Can Wong Fei-Hung defeat the White Lotus Society and rescue Zhidong?
VIDEO & AUDIO:
“Warriors of the Nation” is presented in 1080p 16:9 widescreen. The film looks very good in HD. Skintones look natural, picture quality had no signs of any blemishes.
As for the lossless soundtrack, the film is presented in Chinese Mandarin DTS-HD MA 5.1 and dialogue and music come in crystal clear through the front channels, while crowd ambiance can be heard in the surround channels.
SPECIAL FEATURES:
“Warriors of the Nation” only comes with a trailer.
For fans of “Once Upon a Time in China”, many would be happy to hear that Wenzhuo Zhao has returned as Wong Fei-Hung for an action film.
Unfortunately, those wanting something deep and involving with plenty of action, will instead have to watch an action film with comedic elements that were inserted for no reason at all.
The 2018 films featuring Wong-Fei Hung should have been better but not sure if the producers wanted Marco Mak to do action comedy, but with four writers, it appears that each wanted the film to be a bit of everything.
You’ll see scenes of violence and death, but then you see comedy elements that really hurt the pacing of the film.
You have the stereotypical assistants, one who is super skinny and another who is on the chubby side and were probably cast in this film to generate laughs. Especially as the thinner assistants, has the hots towards the female antagonist. Then you have Wong-Fei Hung’s jealous girlfriend who wants Wong-Fei to show more love and appreciation to her.
For the emotional side, you have a member of the White Lotus Society trying to take care of his sick daughter and the film tries to show the bond between father and daughter.
While Wong-Fei Hung plays detective and martial arts hero!
As mentioned, the film tries to do too much that the pacing can get confusing, while the story plots are quite inconsistent with other characters thrown into the mix.
But don’t get me wrong, the film can still be enjoyed by martial arts fans. It’s just that it’s sad to see Wenzhuo Zhao return as Wong-Fei but not given the cool storyline that the character deserves and instead, having been put in the position to play the martial arts fighter and a man who must deal with the love of his life and his assistants.
With that being said, one of the antagonists of the film is actor Sawada Kenya, who is known for his role as Captain Sawada from the original 1994 “Street Fighter” live-action film.
Overall, “Warriors of the Nation” is an action/comedy that serves more as a popcorn action film. As exciting as it was to see actor Wenzho Zhao reprise his role as Wong-Fei Hung once again, unfortunately it’s not the role or story that people have been hoping for.
PURCHASE THIS BLU-RAY ON AMAZON
