Musa - The Warrior

Average customer rating:

Beautiful
Absolutely Incredible!!!
Glorified Spiritual Madness
Fire the Reviewer!
Not about Two Women fighting not a cat fight!!!!!!!

Duelist (Standard Edition) DVD

Manufacturer: Enter One
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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Shadowless Sword
Sword in the Moon
Death Trance
The Tiger Blade
Shinobi Heart Under Blade

ASIN: B000GBT3OW

Product Description

Two Korean women fighting - Cat fight.

Customer Reviews:

Beautiful.......2007-03-23

This was a beautiful movie. I think a lot of people who dislike this film miss a lot of points as many things are left unsaid. Kang Dong-Won plays beautifully in this movie and Ha Ji won is perfect in this film as well(I loved the faces she made, they were adorable!). In no way are their gender reversals perverted nor do they overpower the film. These are two opposite characters with one definite similarity and that is they solve things through action. Detective Nam Sun (Ha Ji won) solves her problems through fighting and Sad eyes seemed to be brought up simply as a killing machine. Their fighting scenes with each other--especially one in particular-have a lot of emotion to them like a couple arguing. They are also on opposite sides of the law which creates another problem.

I enjoyed the plot line and felt the movie held a complete story. Although, it seemed there were a few times when the movie raced over certain details leaving you to fill in the blanks yourself. Great movie. Great soundtrack. Great actors.

Absolutely Incredible!!!.......2007-03-05

I loved the beautifully intricate story line! This movie is not a disappointment, it has great fight scenes and beautiful art scenes. Worth the buy!!!

Glorified Spiritual Madness.......2007-02-14

Dear Amazon Customer,

This is a perverted story about a modernist Asian woe-man who pursues a lost effeminate Asian man in order to engage in disturbing and continual sword fighting (as they are both sword fighters) with him in a love sub-plot having the theme of love through pain or love/hate relationship. That is, the two leads experience a sort of euphoria and escape by playing with death together.

However this is not love. One false slip of their sword and their partner is dead and burning in hell for eternity. If I hold a knife to your neck and say I love you would you believe me? Used as a metaphor for arguing, who is silly enough to think that arguing is the product or a producer of love? Either as a story or as metaphor this love story is impossible on a surface level.

But it gets worse.

Plot Summary: She is a good guy detective and he is a bad guy assassin. His boss is a mobster lord who is creating counterfeit money and distributing it to the city and his assassin is her only lead to catch him. As she chases the assassin, a lust develops for him from 1) the chase 2) his apparent mystery and 3) his acceptance of her masculine (quote: crazy b***h) persona; and this is the heart of the story. After engaging each other a few times, all three points above develops an unspoken bond between them and eventually the woman breaks down, screams at him, and according to his effeminate character, he follows her lead in changing to be one of the good guys. That is, after he leaves the disrespectful screaming encounter with her, he goes off to meditate and then meets up with her again to tell her and the cops how to take down the big bad boss he works for. And because he already killed so many people, the cops then go and kill him too.

That sums up the whole story. However, it begins and ends with suggesting the idea that both the man and woman are really demons in human flesh who have a love/hate (i.e. contradictive) relationship possibly from times past. That is, two demonic spirits are continually fighting each other as man and woman human beings, possibly via reincarnation or whatever.

This idea of them being demons (which would be reason enough not to watch this movie) is hinted at by the introduction, her strange behavior in the movie, their apparently superhuman fighting abilities, a conversation between the male and female leads when she is undercover and the his apparent resurrection at the end of the film. That is, the man comes back after apparently being killed and she, once again, takes the lead in engaging him in a sword fight.

There is a perverted reversal of the male/female role in this demonic movie. He is effeminate, both externally and internally. Externally, he has long hair, a fair complexion, a slender body, and a girlish and beautiful face. Internally, he is a lost and purposeless soul. He cannot lead because he has no direction both morally and in common affairs. He merely follows orders and kills people (good guys) and apparently he has no qualms about it, no sense of moral indignation, until he meets the woman. His character is like a lost little boy with a sword who is essentially receptive and leads only within the context of first being lead.

The female is essentially masculine with a small hint of feminine. She engages men and situations as if she were a man and usually takes the lead in matters (i.e. like a feminist), walks like a man, speaks loudly and rudely in her mannerisms (except when she goes undercover as a concubine and does not hesitate to physically fight men on her own. She needs no protection, no love and in all ways is repulsive as a woman.

To counteract having adopted her role as an iconic idol of feminist culture as well as to sell the story as a love story, her character does indeed revert to being feminine within the love story, albeit in a strained sense and only after she has already forced a context between them in which her feminine role is obviously a fake. That is, she is submissive and feminine only after and if she can first be aggressive and controls the relationship. She pursues him as a man pursues a woman, forces him to confront her and then after fighting him like a man for some time she then, by shifting her focus to the mystery she creates and holds about him, uses that as a catalyst to respect and admire him and suddenly she becomes feminine midway through the interaction. In other words: she respects the mystery she holds of him rather than submitting to his male role.

We see this in the first fight scene between them in which half way through he leaps into the air and before the full moon and his shadow covers her face which has morphed from one of aggression to one of awe, intrigue and respect. We see this continual dynamic going on even until the last closing fight (dance?) scene in which she submits to his lead like a woman in tango.

Among her various problems, first is the problem that she is a wicked feminist and self-confessedly very unhappy woman which is also demonstrated by the fact that her idea of love is to hold a knife blade to his throat. Secondly, she pursues a lost effeminate man who she leads in leading her in a perverted relationship that allows her to be accepted without the guilt of being a wicked woe-man. She chooses a man who lets her essentially be the man.

Next, we will discuss the male lead. He is the movies idol and catalyst for a twisted morality made manifest by the actions of the female lead. The lack of moral clarity in the film seems to suggest a world without meaning and definitive moral standards. With this excuse we are lead to accept the crude male-mannerisms of the woman and the fiery directionless sword-passion of the man. After all, the world is so bad and so meaningless that these characters are really to have our sympathy, right?

Together, they massage one anothers empty and wicked lives using the blade of a sword to take their attention away from the guilt and wickedness that plagues them or possibly the fiery hell that awaits them. They are both mad and loving it.

Now, I mention this while discussing the male lead (led) because, like it or not, this is the atmosphere that his male presence encourages and generates. He neglects his active role and accepts a passive one whereby in accepting her lead he shows that it he has nowhere else to lead her. The bottom line is, what loving future can a man and woman create when there is no other aim than attacking each other? Their hate/love relationship becomes an end in itself.

The underlying soul twisting attraction to this film is its ability to manipulate mystery. Taking the eternal mystery of the person of God and allocating that to a male sword fighter whom the female effectively creates as an idol for herself to worship and in her self-deception she is carried away by his quite demeanor and evasions. This issue of mystery is one of the central deceptions and intrigues of the story. Also, because the audience views the story from her perspective we are also kept from ever discovering who the male lead is as a person and not a mysterious someone. It is this intentional cloaking of the male lead that gives an austere authority to the perverted love/hate conclusion.

To a degree this movie could be a metaphor for the singles nightlife; The woman actively seeks a man by dressing like a whore and going to the club, she indulges in the intrigue and mystery of the man she lures that night to the conclusion that she leads him to lead her to the wicked act of fornication, indulging the enchantment of ignorance to organism. In other words, using mystery as a cloak for ones own self-deception and wickedness.

It is funny that the editorial review on Amazon.com says this: Two Korean women fighting - Cat fight. LOL, so true! We have an effeminate man and a feminist lesbian woman scratching each other like wild beasts trying to rationally communicate. Perhaps this is the movie writers solution to the curse God placed on men and woman at The Fall.

Finally, the movie has a subtle but misandric (i.e. anti-male) vibe to it. The female insults her male co-worker for laughs, grabs men by the balls, never presents a morally courageous male, and give the female lead the only moral card in the deck.

I think most people will walk away with a very deep fatalistic philosophy rubbed off on them but given that the movie ends on a good note with the male and female whipping at each other into the sunset, just as they desire, I think most people will conclude that this is just a complex love story that takes love (apparently the only remedy to the evils of this world) very seriously by showing that even in love there is conflict and so we must accept love along with hate. Therefore, to walk away loving this movie is to accept the male/female relationship as a love/hate relationship that never end in a cycle of love and conflict.

Obviously I disagree. So what is my alternative?

The man and woman act as I have described above because they do not have Jesus Christ. No authority guides their thinking (other than subjective, relative and arbitrary ones that they have rejected from their culture i.e. Female says: are you trying to teach me Confucianism?) and the fury that results so overwhelms them that only the threat of death can distance the turmoil in their souls. Even the comfort of a quite life and love does not quell. They prefer the games, risks and fury to a life that would otherwise require them to settle down long enough to see that they are acting in destructive, prideful, rebellious and sinful ways.

Their conflict is a spiritual one and very emotionally twisted, much like the stories you hear of women who constantly go back to men who beat them then apologize; they like it because the iniquity the men commits against them seems to so overwhelm their own that it defers them from confronting their own guilty conscious. The solutions any culture gives cannot stave off the madness inherent in the problem. For culture holds no final authority but is merely the product of lost individual men. Only the power of the Holy Spirit can change their wicked hearts.

This movie glorifies the very worst of between men and woman.

PS

Has strong spiritual ties to the following movies:
Millennial Actress
The Thomas Crown Affair
Original Sin

Fire the Reviewer!.......2006-08-13

Kang Dong Won is very much a man! I feel whoever "reviewed" this movies had done this talented young man a great disservice. Next time try watching the movie, before you write a review.

Not about Two Women fighting not a cat fight!!!!!!!.......2006-08-03

Once upon a time in Korea, the Minister of Defense, SONG Pil-joon, gets rid of his political opponent and assumes complete control of the armed forces. He goes on to stamp counterfeit money.As soon as it goes into circulation, prices skyrocket and the common people are thrust into extreme hardship. Meanwhile, the royal court grants Minister Song free reign to resolve the political crisis, thereby speeding him on his way to absolute power. Detective Namsoon goes forthrightly undercover with her partner Detective Ahn to investigate the counterfeit money. But when all the prime suspects are killed, the case becomes a much deeper mystery. She discovers one loyal henchman, Sad Eyes, a beautiful swordsman with a pale, blank face, is covering up Minister Song's tracks. Namsoon and Sad Eyes confront each other in a series of duels ? tirelessly chasing, being pursued and dodging each other. Inevitably, they fall headlong in love ? and their forbidden enchantment blossoms. Each struggles to reconcile the desperate conflict between love and obligation to duty, as they square off to meet their fate in one last duel.

MUSA-WARRIOR (DVD/WS ANAMORPHIC/DD 5.1/DTS/ENG-SUB)

Average customer rating:

Not Bad
BORING
Ummm
Great Movie
Reluctant heroes trying to find a way home...

MUSA-WARRIOR (DVD/WS ANAMORPHIC/DD 5.1/DTS/ENG-SUB)

Manufacturer: Modern Audio International Ltd.
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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Warriors of Heaven and Earth
House of Flying Daggers
Hero
A Man Called Hero
The Emperor and the Assassin

ASIN: B0000CBY1J

Amazon.com

The Warrior combines gorgeous cinematography, complex historical politics, and joltingly bloody action sequences to create a sweeping historical spectacular. A squadron of Korean soldiers, sent to protect a diplomatic envoy to China, find themselves unmoored when the envoys are killed in clashes with Chinese and Mongol soldiers. Struggling to return home, they rescue a high-handed Chinese princess (Ziyi Zhang, House of Flying Daggers, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon) and decide that protecting her is their best chance to survive, and possibly improve Korean-Chinese relations as well. Unfortunately, the Mongols want her back, and the squadron find their numbers slowly diminishing as they fight their way to an isolated military outpost. Though there's a more realistic context for the action--The Warrior is based on a historical event and the characters are well-developed--the battle scenes deliver some visceral thrills; the violence is graphic (beheadings, arrows plunging into necks, limbs sliced off) but grippingly choreographed. An above-average action movie; however, it is highly recommended that viewers watch it with subtitles, as the dubbing is typically wretched. --Bret Fetzer

Customer Reviews:

Not Bad.......2007-02-01

A lot of blood and guts...but also is very deep with emotion. Very honorable flick. I was impressed that I didnt feel like it was over 2 hours long.

BORING.......2006-12-18

The movie was simply boring. Do not buy this DVD. The storytelling was slow. There were a couple of shots that could have been edited out. Within the first 10 - 15 minutes there were shots that did nothing to add, develop or enhance the story line. Boring. The costume, cinematography, fight choreography, etc., all lackluster and subpar. I'm not necessarily asking for a big budget martial arts epic, but this was not good. The english dubbed is amusingly bad. I do think part of the soundtrack was dropped. I also have a problem with the voice talent that they used for this film. Maybe I'm used to the voice talents from older martial arts films like Five Deadly Venoms. Oh, I did fall asleep while watching this film.

Ummm.......2006-09-13

There wasn't much plot and it didn't really make sense. For being the founding Emperor of the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Yuanzhang sure tried real hard to find his daughter. 3 stars for the cinematography.

I do like how the relationship between the princess and the slave developed mainly through looks and actions rather than lines.

That old archer dude was awesome, whereas the main Korean general guy just got on my nerves all the time. He did a lot of yelling for no reason and I was like good riddance when he died.

Great Movie.......2006-07-17

I Agree with one of the reviews up above about the original korean or China dvd with english subtitles. The subtitles are setup perfectly throughout the movie to where you can read and follow a long and no miss a moment of the action. This is a great movie if you understand the culture that asia was at this particular time.

Reluctant heroes trying to find a way home..........2006-05-25

Musa is about a band of koreans on a diplomatic mission in China that goes array. After being exiled into the desert they run into a captured princess. She promises them a boat if they deliver her home, and the koreans reason if they save her they can return to their own home victorious. There are several complex emotions that come into play. The Korean leader is full of self doubt and is also competing for the attention of the princess against a slave. The Koreans are resentful of said princess, blaming all of their woes on her. The princess herself is determined to maintain status and composure, however the deaths of her people and the Koreans began to take its toll. Musa is a grand epic, based on the simple desire to see one's home again. The battle scenes are well shot, and action does not let up. The final battle is especially good, focusing on the sacrifices and the bonds that the Koreans have made with the Hans. Musa means warrior, and the movie does not focus so much on just one, but all of them. When the inevitable happens it is enough to bring tears to even the most hardened eyes.

Average customer rating:

Beautiful visuals carry this Korean WUXIA fantasy epic...
A real let down...

The Restless (Standard Edition) DVD
Director: Jo Dong Oh
Manufacturer: CJ Entertianment
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

1 disc pack (region 0 NTSC)

ASIN: B000RNLRR0

Product Description

It is AD 924, at the end of the United Shilla Dynasty. Continuous riots sweep the land ruled by a corrupted government. Evil forces are rampant and malicious demons roam the land. YI Kwak, born with the powers to see spirits, joins the royal demon hunting squad, Chuh-yong-dae after losing his fiancee, Yon-hwa to evil demons. YI Kwak excels as the most talented warrior of Chuh-yong-dae and the royal squad seems to gain momentum as powerful fighters against the forces of darkness. Then one day, YI Kwak drifts into Joongcheon, the world of the dead through a strange shrine. Joongcheon, the intermediate world between Heaven and Earth, a place souls remain for 49 days, preparing for reincarnation.

Customer Reviews:

Beautiful visuals carry this Korean WUXIA fantasy epic..........2007-07-02

The RESTLESS(aka: Jeong-Cheon) is the latest in South Korea's foray into the Fantasy- epic-romance/WUXIA Swordplay genre. This fantasy-adventure can definitely charm the viewer because it looks amazingly beautiful. The set designs are superb and the action is very entertaining.

Jung Woo-Sung(Musa the Warrior) is Gwak Yi, a former Chuyongdae(Royal Demon hunters) who after an encounter with demon-hybrids to protect a village, unexpectedly finds himself in Mid-Heaven, a pseudo-Buddhist holding where deceased souls gather to wait 49 days for their eventual reincarnation. There, Gwak Yi meets So-Hwa(Kim Tae-hee), a heavenly deity who is assigned an important task. So-hwa must deliver the so-called "Holy Stone" to the "Pool of Reflection" in order to prevent evil-doers from making a mess of the balance between Earth and Heaven. Noble and fearless, Gwak Yi enlists in Son-Hwa's cause immediately but he has his own hidden motivation.
Son-hwa is a dead ringer for Gwak Yi's former love Yon-Hwa, who he failed to protect from an untimely death. Actually, they are the same being, Son-hwa is a "Chuneen", who deity with no recollection of their past life on Earth. This complicates matters for both Gwak Yi and Son-hwa even further when Gwak Yi's former comrades(led by Hur Jun-ho)as a "Chuyongdae" are the ones who threaten the stability of Mid-Heaven. Meaning that in order to help Son-hwa, he must once again send his former comrades(to whom he owes a debt of honor) in the earthly plane to suffer a second death.

People who love SFX-laden epics will no doubt embrace "The Restless". There is plenty of action and they are very enthralling, thanks to the top-notch visual effects and awesome fight choreography. Highlights include a cool forest fight, and the very awesome epic finale, where Gwak Yi takes on about 10,000 demonic warrior spirits all by himself.(Azumi and Casshern, eat your hearts out!). The CGI effects are well-done and is sure to impress PS3 fanboys.

The story itself is not very original, but quite bearable. It is about Love and Hate, good and evil. The costumes and set designs may remind audiences of Tsui Hark's "Legend of Zu". The film's main WEAKNESS may be that the plot/characters may have a difficult time connecting with some viewers. The two leads do a decent interpretation of their characters. Jung Woo-sung suits the character of Gwak Yi, while lovely Kim Tae-Hee fills the screen with her charisma.

I bought the KOREAN (region-3) 2-disc Special Edition when it came out a month ago. Korean released dvds have such good presentation, which is why it's no wonder they're expensive. Great DVD from CJ Entertainment.
Take note that dvds made in Taiwan(like the unofficial ones circulating in Amazon)may be compressed in a way that may freeze in most stand alone players. They are encoded with no region coding to fool U.S. players.
PICTURE: 2.40 ratio Anamorphic Widescreen. The video transfer is phenomenal, sharpness and detail is awesome. Colors are very vibrant and the flesh-tones are very good. No complaints.
AUDIO/Subtitles: 5.1 Dolby Digital-Ex and DTS-ES Korean Language track. The sound is POWERFUL(especially on DTS), the channels are very nicely separated. English Subtitles are well-timed and translated.
EXTRAS: Music video, commentary, "making of", Behind the scenes, trailers and more.., unfortunately there are no subtitles in most of the docos.

CLOSING REMARKS:
The Restless may not be wholly original but it is a very well-made feature. You can really tell that they spent most of their budget in the visual effects, costumes and set designs. It is worth seeing and is a quite entertaining. Fans of Wuxia Swordplay epics will definitely embrace it for the action, if not, for it's beautiful visuals.

RECOMMENDED!

A real let down..........2007-06-21

***************Mild Spoilers********************

I have to say I was fairly disappointed with The Restless. Having read a wonderful review about it, and an interesting synopsis, I was hoping that this movie would be as good as my favorite Korean epic, Musa.
The story focuses on Yi Gwak, a demon slayer who is poisoned by a group of villagers who intend to kill him and collect the bounty on his head. He manages to escape, and passes out. He wakes up alive, but in Midheaven, the place where souls go and stay right before reincarnation. There, he meets a white reaper, who resembles his long dead wife. The plot gets complicated when his ex-squad of dead demon slayers show up chasing after the wife. Apparently she has something they want.
Unfortunately, the interesting plot is just about all this movie has going for it. The two lead actors were kind of dull and had no chemistry. Dare I say the acting even borderlined on bad? The fight scenes were redundant and cliched. They were all typical of your average Wu Xia films. The female lead tries to fight, gets overpowered and the hero runs in to save her... not once but SEVERAL times. In fact, in ALL of her fight scenes that's how it ends up. And the ending has the obligatory one man against a gazillion soldiers that he cuts through with relative ease. And some parts of the films just flat out DRAGGED. The dialogue was quite boring, leaving the characters very two dimensional.
That being said, the special effects were pretty. There was even one memorable and touching scene of a close up of the hero's friend as he dies, turning into this burning paper.
But unfortunately, special effects alone can't carry a movie.
So needless to say, I'm still searching for that wonderful Korean epic that will blow Musa out of the water.

Average customer rating:

fantastic!
good movie, nothing special
Musa and Warrior: A Potent war Epic
Rent the Sony version if you want English dubbing, buy this one if you want a higher quality picture and sound
one of the best movies ever seen

Musa: The Warrior
Starring: Zhang Ziyi , Jung Woo-Sung , Joo Jin-Mo , and Ahn Sun-Gi
Director: Kim Sung-Su
Manufacturer: Modern Audio (International) Ltd.
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

( M ) | Titles | Features | DVD | Video

Warriors of Heaven and Earth
House of Flying Daggers
Bichunmoo (Dance With Sword)
The Princess Blade
The Emperor and the Assassin

ASIN: B0002JC66A
Release Date: 2003-09-02

Album Description

Asian exclusive NTSC/All Code DVD. South Korean film, originally issued in 2001, directed by Kim Sung-Su & starring Zhang Ziyi (Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon). In 1375, China was in chaos between the Yuan & Ming Dynasties. Coryo sent a delegation of many diplomats, soldiers, & a silent slave to make peace with the new Chinese government. However, this delegation got charged as spies & sent in exile to a remote desert. On the way the group came across a Yuan troop & the Coryo soldiers managed to survive the battle. They began the journey to the faraway home country. Korean & Cantonese dialogue with English & Chinese subtitles. 130 minutes. Modern. 2003.

Customer Reviews:

fantastic!.......2007-01-14

excellent product, shipping, and service...arrived in great condition, as promised...absolutely flawless! thank you so much!!

good movie, nothing special.......2006-09-19

Now there has been a lot of reviews on the DVD quality. The picture of the movie that I am reviewing is the same as the customer image from T. Lam. It has the Tai Seng sticker on the front, has great DTS sound, and near total perfection on the picture quality in a letterboxed format. It comes in a fold out case that slides into another outer case.

This is a Korean movie and all that I had heard about it is it smashes Braveheart and Gladiator in terms of action. I also heard that the budget was over 60 million dollars! Now if they put all the money on costumes and weaponry, I could believe it. While it is a beautiful looking movie, it only has one set: the desert. The cinematography is great except for the action where they could have done without so many close-ups.

The story is about a Korean Envoy who fails in completing there mission of meeting with the Ming emporer. There is one man who was a slave but was freed by his master just before he died. This will not be excepted by anyone in the party which includes a general, Seargent, ..., all who are against him. So he leaves them and walks on his own to bury his master's body. This conflict between the slave and the people who should be his friends was really the only thing I found of interest in this movie storywise. So we find out he can use a spear very well. When the Mongol general sees this, he wants him to be on his side. I will let you experience the rest on your own but wiull warn you that the princess had me falling asleep during her scenes.

I have to be honest, this is a very boring film that didn't leave me thinking about it whatsoever afterwards. I found everything predictable and even when they did surpirse me, they did it in a terrible way and left me wishing they kept their linear path.

This movie is a Category III film(rated R) and their are some of the most gruesome action scense I have seen since Black Hawk Down.

Also I found out that the Tai Seng version that I saw is cut by 25 minutes, that certainly could have made a difference in my rating.

Musa and Warrior: A Potent war Epic .......2006-05-12

This historical Korean War epic takes place during the first year of the Korean Woo Dynasty, the Yuan(Mongol Khan)Empire and the Ming Dynasty around 1375AD. A Korean diplomatic expedition is sent to reestablish peaceful political relations with the Ming dynasty. But they find themselves mislead by Ming representatives and never make it the chinese capital to fulfill their mission. They are treated like criminals or enemies of the state and are escorted by Ming guards as prisoners to the desert until they are attacked by the Mongols. The Mongols in essense have no quarrel with the Koreans and leave them to their peril to survive the desert. The characters seems to develop at this point with plenty of realistic action here and throughout the film. It has the feel of 'Gladiator' but without the intense drama, development and interaction between the main characters. They are the spoiled brat myopic general, the solemn and free slave who is a well skilled talented martial artist, the practical strategist and noblisse obliged wise sergeant officer, the Ming Princess who is level headed portrays herself as royalty that cares for her people and the Mongol General sent in pursuit to recover the princess to use her as bargaining chip for the sister of the Mongol leader with the Ming King. The film plot sacrifices an interesting epic story that could be deeper in dialogue and character development for prolonged detailed battled scenes. The mystical but talented Warrior free-slave YeoSung is the central hero for this story for which the film is named. He is respected by the enemy Mongol General, despised by the Korean General and is trusted as the personal bodyguard by the Ming Princess, who seems to have romantic thoughts as a reward for his duties if they survive the chase. But that thought is only potrayed through the fine acting of Ziyi Zhang.
This is not a martial arts film, so the story that the film is trying to tell misses its mark at scoring hugely in the international market because it lack drama and character development. For example 'Hero'with Jet Li was based on the King Qin the first king of the Chinese Empire which developed the characters who interacted in the story beautifully and had drama while at the same time displaying excellent martial arts. A well told story has a good plot, excellent drama and character development. The characters in this film never draw you into the story. So the true meaning of a potentially fantastic story is lost making it unmemoriable. But I have to say that the battle scenes were of epic purportions that Hollywood should take a cue on. They are realistic and brutal the way a war film should be especially during this time period. If you are into this type of film I would suggest that you watch 'The Emperor and the Assassin' which basically tells the same story as 'Hero' but it is of epic purportions with brutality on the battlefield as well as, in the kings court like you will never see it. It hits you in the gut harder and more times than the 'Warrior' or 'Hero' because of the combination of drama and some graphic scenes that draws you into the characters and the plot. It also has some good martial arts scenes that are realistic and quick as they would happen in the real world.
The difference between the films 'Warrior' and 'Musa,The Warrior' is it seems that the Sony version 'Warrior' has a cleaner digitized picture with English subtitles. 'Musa' has language in Korean and Chinese with Chinese and English subtitles along with better dolby surround. Other than that the English Dubbing(language voice over) seems that it was done by the same people that did the old language dubbing in the 70's and 80's for the Chinese Kung Fu flicks or the anime Japanese films. The voice dubbings could have more inflection for the scenes and characters but I guess they reflect the drama and out of budget minded accountants that are responsible to use it as an after thought by hiring anime voice dubbers. I'm sure this is not the last time that this story will be told on film. I just hope it is given more care in being told by a more colorful and dramatic story teller to make it unforgettable for all audiences.

Rent the Sony version if you want English dubbing, buy this one if you want a higher quality picture and sound.......2006-03-26

This movie is a lot better than some of you people (who just want action and not historical drama) are giving it credit for. And this film is not going to intrigue you if you are someone with a short attention span who only hoped to rely on "dumbed-down" English dubbing.

I've rented both the American (Sony) release (with 5.1 English dubbing, and 2.0 Korean), and the Hong Kong original (Modern Audio International Ltd.) with NO English dubbing but well done English Subtitles. As well as the dubbing being 5.1 in both Korean and Cantonese.

A bad video transfer, reduced sound quality, and bad subtitles, can all contribute to making a movie undesirable.

So now, this is what everyone probably wants to know:

The Hong Kong original from Modern International Ltd (VED19104), is the one that you will want to buy. The video quality is excellent (sometimes it seems a little yellowed but the definition remains sharp) and the sound quality is in room-consuming 5.1 surround sound stereo in Korean and Cantonese.

The American release of this film from Sony is simply called "The Warrior".
The original title is "Musa: The Warrior".
Amazon, here, just calls this Modern International Ltd version "Musa".
But, the Modern DVD box does say "Musa: The Warrior".

I can tell on some of these reviews here, that some people have watched the Modern version and some have watched the Sony version. But praise consistently goes to the Modern International Ltd version.

Try this. Rent the Sony version first if you have to watch it with English dubbing. This may help some of you slower people (don't be ashamed) to understand the film, although much of its appeal and important intricate dialogue will be lost in that version. Then rent or buy the Modern version. All the film's true splendor will blow you away, and you'll just have to depend on subtitles to get you through it. But, it's worth it!

Plus, this Modern International version comes in a beautiful multi-fold box with some embossed Chinese print. Truly, a beautiful collector's item.

one of the best movies ever seen.......2006-03-01

This warrior movie is a very seriously directed, edited and performed movie, a great movie, far better than 'El Cid' or any other movies. The fighting scenes, the screenplay, the actings, the directing, editing, setting, costumes, cinematography.....you name it, all not just good but great. A fantastic movie. Kowtow to Korean new generation directors and screenwriters, they've become so mature and so seamless defined. Also kowtow to Korean government, without its 100% commitment in helping the Korean movie industry, this almost perfect production record in recent years simply won't happen. Hollywood be aware, you guys now almost suck every time churning out lousy productions one after another. Except overused dynamite explosions, unnecessary sexual scenes, disturbing and annoying sound tracks, scores, stereotyped screenplays, plots, scenarios...what else you guys in Hollywood really did good and well to the movie industry?

Average customer rating:

The Warrior aka Musa

Manufacturer: HK Video CO. LTD
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

DVDs Under $14.99 | Today's Deals in DVD | Special Features | DVD | Video

Widescreen 16:9
NTSC, All regions
5.1 Dolby Digital Surround Sound

ASIN: B000L6ICCG

Product Description

In 1375, China was in a state of chaos because of fighting between the Yuan and Ming Dynasties. The Korea Dynasty, one of Korea's ancient kingdoms, sent a delegation of many diplomats, soldiers and a silent slave as envoys to make peace with the new Chinese Ming government. However, this delegation was accused of spying and exiled to a remote desert. On the way, they were attacked by Yuan troops who killed all the Ming soldiers, leaving only Korea warriors. The head envoy, General CHOI Jung of the Royal Guard, decides by himself that they must return to Korea. Vice Envoy LEE Ji-hun dies from the strain of the march, and tension builds between LEE's bodyguard slave Yeosol and CHOI Jung

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