Warriors Of Heaven And Earth (Blu-ray)

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Although He Ping's "Warriors of Heaven and Earth" has a lyrical title that makes it sound as if it's yet another soaringly graceful martial arts epic, it's surprisingly a horse of a different color. Make that "Old Paint," a Western horse.

Ever since Akira Kurosawa's "Seven Sammurai" (1954), which was remade in the U.S. six years later as "The Magnificent Seven," Western lovers have become more aware of Far Eastern "Westerns" that are shot in remote provinces and incorporate some of the same conventions as the American horse-and-saddle genre. He Ping's epic adventure follows in that tradition.

As men on horseback (and camelback) ride the Silk Road, with its rugged desert mountains looking as if they could be part of John Ford's Monument Valley, you can't help but think of the Santa Fe Trail. As whooping Turks ride circles around the Chinese in an all-out attack, it's hard not to think of the way that Plains Indians have been portrayed in Hollywood. It's also familiar territory to have Japanese warrior Lai Xi (Nakai Kiichi) ordered to clean up the Western provinces by hunting down fugitives. The only thing really different about it is that this bounty hunter isn't so much a mercenary as he is forced by the emperor to "get his man." And colorful characters of the mangled, Gabby Hayes sort? They're here in spades: Old Diehard, One Eye, Ma Gun, Baldy, and a youngster who's not fit to join the group, called (no, not "grasshopper") Salamander. But the real kicker is that there are corals and chink-chink-chink showdowns with swords instead of six-shooters and a bandit leader who runs a remote town. Or, as one of his men puts it, "Master An is boss here."

As with any Ford Western, the rugged West itself is as important as the action, and with Zhao Fei's stunning cinematography we get the same feeling in "Warriors of Heaven and Earth." It's the 8th century, and the Tang empire stretches far and wide, making it as hard to protect and govern as those remote outposts in the American West. The Chinese had to battle constantly with nomadic Turks and bandits for control of the Silk Road. I'm not so sure about Heaven or Earth, but this is a tale of two warriors, both of them good guys but one of them a fugitive.

Lieutenant Li (Jiang Wen) had to go on the run after he was ordered to execute Turkish prisoners and refused to kill women and children. A revolt ensued, and he was forced to fight and kill the emperor's soldiers. Along with the men who fought by his side, he was forced to head west and make a living guarding camel trains. Now, he's the last fugitive that Lai Xi has been ordered to track down and kill. Do this, he's told, and he will finally be allowed to return to his native Japan.

Well, pardners, over the span of two hours their paths finally cross, but they also have run-ins with the bandit-boss, Master An (Wang Xueqi), and soldiers of Lord Khan. There's also a female (Zhao Wei) who's along for the ride and may or may not be what she seems, and a monk carrying a precious cargo on a camel train that they decide to protect together and delay their inevitable showdown.