Title: Warriors of Heaven and Earth
Year: 23 September 2003 (China)
Genre: Action / Adventure / Drama
Country: China / Hong Kong / USA
Language: Mandarin
Runtime: 114 min.
Director: Ping He
Writers: Ping He & Rui Zhang
Cast:
Wen Jiang as Lieutenant Li
Kiichi Nakai as Lai Qi
Xueqi Wang as Master An
Wei Zhao as Wen Zhu
In the tradition of Akira Kurosawa's Seven Samurai, Warriors of Heaven and Earth weaves a thread of battle, comradeship and honor. Set in the ferocious Gobi Desert, the story follows two protagonists, Lieutenant Li (Jaing Wen) and Japanese emissary Lai Xi (Nakai Kiichi) – both first-class warriors and master swordsmen. After decades of service to the Chinese Emperor, Lai Xi longs to return to Japan, but is instead sent to the West to chase wanted criminals. His only passport back to Japan is to capture and execute Lieutenant Li, a renegade soldier wanted for leading a violent mutiny when he refused orders to kill female and child prisoners. Li and Lai Xi battle, but finally agree to delay their final personal fight until the caravan carrying Minzhu and a Buddhist monk is brought to safety. The monk, however, is carrying a sacred and powerful pagoda that attracts the attention of the region’s ruthless overlord, Master An (Wang Xueqi). Lai Xi and Lt. Li, accompanied by Li’s former posse of soldiers, who have forsaken their peaceful new lives to return to his side, must face the cruelty of the desert, the region's barbaric bandits and the brutality of the overlord’s men before they can finally face one another.
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