The Warlords (Magnolia Pictures) from director Peter Ho-Sun Chan makes its area premier on Friday, April 30, 2010 at the Lagoon Cinema in Minneapolis.
Set in the midst of war and political upheaval during the Taiping Rebellion in 1860s China, The Warlords (warlordsmovie.com) stars Jet Li as General Pang, who barely survives a brutal massacre of his fellow soldiers by playing dead, and joins a band of bandits led by Zhao Er-Hu (Andy Lau) and Wu Yang (Takeshi Kaneshiro).
After fighting back attackers from an helpless village, the three men take an oath to become “blood brothers,” pledging loyalty to one another until death, but things quickly turn sour and the three men become embroiled in a web of political deceit, and a love triangle between Pang, Er Hu and a beautiful courtesan (Wu Jing-Lei).
Jet Li was born in Beijing, and began studying the art of Wushu (the general Chinese term for martial arts) and was enrolled in the Beijing Amateur Sports School at the age of 8. After three years of extensive training, Li won his first national championship for the Beijing Wushu Team.
As part of a world tour in 1974, he had the honor of performing a two-man fight for President Nixon on the White House lawn. For the next five years, he remained the All-Around National Wushu Champion of China.
Shortly after retiring from the sport at the age of 17, he was offered many starring roles and subsequently began his film career with director Chang Hsin Yen for Shaolin Temple. Upon its release, Li was propelled into instant movie stardom and the film was an enormous success that spawned two sequels. This led to Li completing 25 successful Asian films before coming to America.
Since his first English language film appearance as the villain in Lethal Weapon 4 opposite Mel Gibson, Li went on to star in the highly acclaimed Romeo Must Die and Kiss of the Dragon. His recent film credits include: The One, Hero, Cradle 2 the Grave, Unleashed, Fearless, War and The Mummy- Tomb Of The Dragon Emperor.
Andy Lau has starred in over 100 films and is one of Asia’s most popular stars. Born in Hong Kong in 1961, upon graduating from high school, he entered the TVB acting academy, where he studied acting and martial arts. After working in television for almost a decade, Lau made his big screen debut in the critically acclaimed Boat People in 1982.
Since then, Lau has continued to be one of the most prolific and bankable actors in Asia. He has worked with the best directors including Johnnie To, Andrew Lau, Feng Xiaogang and Jiang Yimou.
Takeshi Kaneshiro was born in Taipei in 1973 to a Japanese father and Taiwanese mother. He started his career in the early 1990s, appearing in a series of Taiwanese comedies and releasing several music albums. He rose to stardom in 1994 and 1995 playing leading roles in Wong Kar-wai’s international hits: Chungking Express and Fallen Angels.
Kaneshiro’s other film credits include: House of Flying Daggers, Perhaps Love, Confessions of Pain and John Woo’s Red Cliff.
Xu Jinglei is not only one of China’s most popular current actresses, but she has had success behind the camera as a director. In 1997, she made her cinema debut in Spicy Love Soup.
Xu turned her hand to directing with My Father and I, and went on to make Letter from an Unknown Woman and Dreams May Come in 2006. Her film credits as an actress include: Confession of Pain and The Shinjuku Incident, with Jackie Chan.
Peter Ho-Sun Chan is a seasoned international director and was a co-founder of United Filmmakers Organization during the early 1990s, which produced a solid track record of box office and critical hits in Hong Kong.
Chan produced The Eye, its sequel The Eye 2, the Hong Kong production Golden Chicken as well as its sequel Golden Chicken 2. In 2002, Chan served as the Executive Producer on the omnibus horror film Three and also directed its Hong Kong segment – Going Home.
In 2004, Chan co-produced the omnibus sequel Three…Extremes and served as the Executive Producer and Producer for its Hong Kong segment – Dumplings. In 2005, Chan served as the Executive Producer on the Eye…Infinity. In 2005, Chan directed and produced Perhaps Love, his first musical and a major breakthrough in his career.
Since The Warlords, which he both directed and produced, his recent credits as a producer include: Bodyguards And Assassins and Missing.
The film was produce through The Media Asia, China Film Group and Morgan & Chan Productions and is distributed as a Magnet Release in North America. www.magpictures.com
