Movie Review Musa: The Warrior

4/5

This is the most expensive Korean movie ever made, it's epic.

I really enjoyed this movie! The fight scenes were a bit much for me, too gory but otherwise the story was great. I actually enjoyed seeing Zhang in a more subdued roll, in other films she's fighting impossible fights. In this one she's cast well as the Princess with a cool head.

I especially liked Jung Woo-Sung as Yeo-sol. He was kick ass. :D He acts circles around any Hollywood actor and he doesn't speak! He must have said less than 20 words through the whole movie but blew me away none-the-less. It's all conveyed with his body. I found the movie had everything, touching scenes and even a bit of comedy. And blood, if you don't like major fight scenes and blood you really must stay away from this one.

It also looked gorgeous. The costumes were interesting and the actors looked real. They were dirty, bloody and sweaty through the whole thing, just like they would have been. The landscape was captured well, the desert scenes were breath taking.

One thing I didn't like was the use of modern music, these types of movies are always better with traditional music.

All in all, great adventure and action. I'm surprised it's isn't as well known as some of the other movies like it.


Foreign & Int'l Action Adventure Chinese - 130 mins - 2001
Touted as the most expensive Korean film ever produced, Musa is a sweeping real-life epic about an official envoy from Koryo (ancient Korea) struggling to stay alive in war-torn China. The film is set in 1375 when the Yuan dynasty collapses after a 100-year reign against the insurgent Ming. As the Ming dynasty solidifies power pushing the remaining Yuan armies to the north and west, Koryo sends a delegation of diplomats to shore up their strained relations with the new government. Upon arrival the lead diplomat is thrown in jail and the rest are exiled to the dusty hinterland for spying. There, the party is ambushed by Yuan soldiers. The survivors are led by General Choi Jung and a bodyguard slave of another fallen general, Yeo-sol. After facing all sorts of adversities, the group make it to a remote country inn where they learn that the beautiful Ming princess Furong (played by Zhang Ziyi of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon fame) has been kidnapped. When Yeo-sol gets abducted by the same band of Yuan thugs, Choi Jung resolves to free them both. Fleeing from the same Yuan army, the Koryo warriors with Furong in tow learn that the Yuan has burned all ferryboats in the Yellow River valley. When they happen upon a group of Ming refugees, Furong promises them supplies and safe passage home if they escort the refugees to the Mud Castle upriver. The castle, however, proves to be in ruins and the Yuan are closing in. This film was screened at the 2001 Toronto Film Festival. ~ Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide