Despite the erroneous title "An Empress and the Warriors", or literally 江山美人 "The Yangtze River, certain Mountain and the Beauty", that suggests a story of an empire of southern locality, it is fairly reasonable for a moderately educated Chinese to perceive this piece as a romance of the northern kingdom of Yan during the Warring States period (c. 400BC - 221BC, equivalent to the Greek city-states). This intuitive impression is supported by evidences such as the use of bronze weapons, terracotta-style armor, the First-Emperor-type warrior-king at the battle front (a popular misconception perhaps inspired by the deeds of Alexander the Great), the sheer mention of Yan and Zhao states (to the Chinese, they are like Athens, Sparta etc.)

However, I manage to identify some intriguing elements that contradict the above conviction. For instance, messages are written in imperial 隸書 lishu script (comparable to Latin alphabet instead of its Greek counterpart) on scrolls made of paper (invented by citizens of the Han Empires c. 200BC - AD200), but not the expected bamboo slip!

Unearthed Yan bronze inscriptions unanimously bear an emblem that depicts a woman relaxing on a chair (偃 yan as in 偃坐 "lay down") throughout its entire statehood (c. 1000BC - 222BC). This is far different from its later imperial transcription 燕 yan "swallow". It would be treacherous for the early Hellenes to call themselves Greek, a name given to them by the Kingdom Romans, or something like Yunani ("the Ionians"), as they were known in Egypt, Mesopotamia, Persia and India. Likewise, Kelly's agreement of Leon's interpretation of her name 燕飛兒 "Yan fly" as "swallow soars" would be a historical impossibility.

Incidentally, the family names of the orphan-turned-general 慕容雪虎 and the genocide-survivor-cum-hermit 段蘭泉 are also reminiscence of some famous characters in 金庸's novels. The 鮮卑 Xianbei tribe 慕容 Murong, first attested after the fall of the Han Empires, would be as strange to the Warring States people as the Visigoths to Plato and Aristotle. Worse still, an intended 大理 Dali noble Mr. 段 Duan self-sustaining in the woods of the northern kingdom would be as incredible as a certain Slav chief Vladimir hanging around at the outskirt of Hellenistic Macedonia (of course, the filmmaker could look up in the book and re-trace the surname otherwise to e.g. hapax legomenon 段干木 or another 鮮卑 Xianbei tribe).

After all, the filmmaker apparently tries his best to avoid the exposure of Chinese characters. Banners are merely decorated by patterns but not calligraphy, the usual practice. The seemingly sole appearance of words put into writing, other than 朔月 "waned moon" on a sword, i.e. 能吃就多吃一點 "whatever edible, please eat more" betrays its non-classical provenance. This can be likened to an arch of "Roman Empire" erected at the forum in a swords and sandals movie in place of one inscribed "IMPERIVM ROMANVM".

Curiously, the notion of "10 kingdoms" is repeated several times. The Warring States are most remember to comprise 7 sovereigns, falling short by 3. An easy fit of the figure can be attained by dating the saga to the 5 Dynasties and 10 Kingdoms period (AD907 - AD960). Unfortunately, there was never any Yan or Zhao state that spanned the period in question. In order to optimize the theoretical framework to explain away as much data as possible, Kelly would have had to pretend to be a princess of the 16 Kingdoms of 5 Ethnic Groups period (AD304 - AD439), when 2 Zhao and 4 Yan lesser-known kingdoms rose and fell.

Lastly, the one-shot ascend of the hot-air balloon is another savageous insult, after the one in Andy Lau's "Moist Attack" (2006), to the ingenuity of the Montgolfier Brothers (c. AD1800), their hard work and countless experiments. A plant fuel-driven stitched rag in the Warring States period would have necessitated an airplane by the Han Empires, since it took only 100 years for the Wright Brothers (c. AD1900) to build on the result of their predecessors.

 

Leave Your Comment Name: HomePage: Title: Comments: Enter what you see in the box: Register NOW to give your ratings How do you find the review? Vote Now! (only for registered members) [1] Interesting [0] Informative [1] I want to try it... Like the review? Add to your Favourite List

Overall Rating  based on Author rating Tried the same thing before? Give your Ratings!

User Comments

Friday, 11 April 2008 - Written by holyarmer stop trying to act like a know-all historian. even if you unfortunately are one, you got to exercise two cents of your basic logic. if your common sense hasn't failed you obviously this movie isn't a lesson on chinese history nor a documentary much like most other box-office films. the film is made for entertainment purposes as its chief objective. Is the pertinacious digging up and humbly reporting of the accurate historical facts necessary?    Your review is a tad too unprofessional notwithstanding you trying to act professional. It is the most disappointing that a movie review of yours failed to discuss other aspects, i.e. entertainment; cast; plot, of the film. To put it euphemistically, we are not attending a history lesson.    Thank you for your kind effort. Reply / Leave A Comment