I originally saw this in the New York Times the other day, and though "not in THE FORBIDDEN KINGDOM, surely!" But no, it was for THE WARLORDS. Which I haven't heard of. Despite starring Jet and Andy and Takeshi Kaneshiro and being directed by Peter Chan. What, a bloody and tragic historical epic directed by Peter Chan? Has anybody seen this?

http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=08...&show_article=1

Also, what is THE POST MODERN LIFE OF MY AUNT? How big is Chow Yun-Fat's role? And what do I recognize the name of the leading (and award winning) actress from?

This is Ann Hui's last film. Quite wonderful -- and mostly disregarded in the West.

Chow Yun-fat has a fairly major role as am opera-singing con man who the protagonist encounters.

I first encountered Siqin Gaowa in Stanley Kwan's Full Moon in New York. Not sure about you ...

I picked up THE WARLORDS in NYC's Chinatown but it is alas among the great unwatched. I hear it's good--the box, anyway, was good enough to get me to buy it sight unseen. :)

Contrarian critic Armond White has nice things to say about THE FORBIDDEN KINGDOM. Proceed with caution...

While FORBIDDEN KINGDOM has an unfortunate superficial similarity to WARRIORS OF VIRTUE, what I'm picking up from the commercials/trailer is a 80's HK martial arts fantasy vibe, so I think I'll go in pretending that this is some Jackie/Jet 80's fantasy martial arts flick that I missed all this time. And hope for the best.

Oh, and White doesn't know the difference between a staff/pole and a spear or maybe I'm being persnickety.

What peeves me about THE FORBIDDEN KINGDOM is that Jet and Jackie are apparently playing bickering Mr. Miyagis to some kid who looks like a teenaged version of Balki from PERFECT STRANGERS (or whatever the show was that Balki was on). Jet and Jackie get a lot of screen time, supposedly, but ultimately it's the white Western kid who achieves his Luke Skywalker destiny and conguers the ultimate evil. Or something like that.

Still, some early reviews at Rotten Tomatoes are good. One character is clearly modeled on Brigitte Lin's Wolf Girl. Jackie does drunken boxing at some point. If one review is correct, Jet also gets to play the Monkey King, which surprises me, as I would have expected Jackie in that role.

Michael, yes, THAT'S where I remember her from! It was really bugging me.

The Warlords has good intentions, very good art direction and costumes, make up etc. and a decent story but sadly all these ingredients somehow didn't make the film it could have been. Andy and Takeshi's performances are truly awful (and Takeshi looks like a supermodel all the time). Jet's performance was really good though.

I was fortunately in town to see "The Warlords" playing in theatres. In fact, there was absolutely no excuse. I made sure that I saw it on opening day when it reached theatres on December 13th in Hong Kong. I thought it was wonderfully made. Most of the acting did a great job. Takeshi Kaneshiro was probably the only weakest link but Andy Lau and Jet Li did a great performance in their roles. Peter Chan certainly has a way to make them emote on the screen. What he did for Jet Li was absolutely fantastic. He deserved his award win.

FWIW, Jet Li would get my HKFA Best Actor vote too.

Re THE WARLORDS, here's my review:-
http://www.bcmagazine.net/hk.bcmagazine.is...3-warlords.html

And, for good measure, an interview with Peter Chan about THE WARLORDS:-
http://www.bcmagazine.net/hk.bcmagazine.is...6/03-peter.html

(And should you wonder, yes, he's an amazing interviewee -- very articulate, an obvious deep thinker, incredibly knowledgable, etc. yet also very personable.)

And Michael, Ann Hui's come out with another film since THE POST-MODERN LIFE OF MY AUNT: This one called THE WAY WE ARE:-
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/awards...3601&&rid=10906