Customer Reviews

MUSA:THE WARRIOR - DVD Movie

5 star:		(41)
4 star:		(20)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(8)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

I wouldn't have known about this movie if I wasn't an Amazondotcommer. I found it in one of those, "if you bought this DVD, you'd want to buy this too" follow-ups. So I thought I'd click on it and was surprise to see that it was a South Korean movie. I have never seen a Korean movie before, so I decided to order the DVD with high expectations due to the good reviews of fellow Amazoners. And you know what, I wasn't dissappointed at all. This movie is terrific. It has all the elements of an "edge-of-your-seat" adventure: love, honour, bravery, conflict, vast sceneries and loads and loads of testestorone driven battle scenes. What's not to like about this movie. Compare it all you want to other similiar Hollywood movies until the sun goes down, at the end, it is movie in itself. No trace of Hollywood here. It has a subtlety that is unique. This is evident in the numerous sub-plots. The kidnapped Ming princess is obviously smittened by the spear wielding, ex slave, Yeosol and he in return is equally enamoured, but these asumptions are only culled from certain gestures, a word spoken here and there and yet their love for each other is so palpable. And how about the young general, Choi. His reason for saving the princess as he tells it to his men, is a ticket out of China. Yeah, right. The second that a breeze lifts the Princess's veil and he was able to see her stuning porcelain face, is the moment he decided to save her. Imagine these two good looking, verile men fighting to the death just for her. Just enough to make a girl swone. This movie is full of little gems like this.

The movie is also full of interesting characters like the Yuan General(Yu Ruan Goung from "Iron Monkey"), the archery expert, Sergeant Jinlip, the cowardly novice, Douchong and they even managed to throw in a pregnant peasant.

The movie moves swiftly with no slow parts, and though it is very gory, (everything gets lopped-off including the horses, guess they don't have PETA over there in Korea) I think the bloody scenes are not gratitious and thye are well justified.

My favorite thing about this movie is how the three characters relate to each other and how in very little words and gestures, are able to convey the essence of who they are. And as the events unfold to its tragic end, you can see that each have resolve their own fears even if it means their demise.

The 130 minutes didn't feel long and if anything, I hated for this movie to end. I thoroughly enjoyed it. My only complain is that this DVD has NO EXTRAS at all. It is handsomely packaged but NO EXTRAS. would have been nice. But thank god, it's not dubbed.

This Korean film by director Kim Sung Soo is a visionary masterpiece that brings to mind "Braveheart" and "Gladiator."

It takes place in ancient China, where Korean missionaries are betrayed by the Chinese and are taken into the desert to die. The Mongol hordes annihilate the Chinese guards and leave the Koreans to their fate. While wandering, the Koreans discover the Mongols have kidnapped the Chinese princess, and decide to rescue her and take her to safety. This is easier said than done, for the Mongols fight back with all the ferocity in their blood.

Zhang Ziyi is the most known star in this film, but she is hardly the main character. There and great performances by Jung Woo Sung as a quiet loner and Ahn Sung Ki, the skilled archer who gives Legolas a run for his money.

The scenery filmed in China and parts of South Korea is grand, and the battle scenes are filmed with finesse and brutality. Limbs are hacked off, arrows puncture necks, and heads are severed. This film is somewhat gory, so be warned.

This film was the biggest budgeted Korean film in history at the time of its release, and it was a box office hit in South Korea. It is a wonder why this film was never released commercially in the States, when it is on par if not far superior, to the films made in Hollywood. The DVD has some great extras in the 2-Disc edition, and I highly recommend this film to fans of Braveheart, Gladiator, and other epic sagas.

In the chaotic Medieval China when two dynasties, Yuan and Ming, were in a war for the power of China a small delegation is sent to the capitol from the Koryo kingdom to plead for peace, since the Mings are in control of the capitol. However, their peaceful attempt to resolve the issues at hand is prevented as the delegation is suspected of trying to assassinate the leader of the Ming dynasty. The delegation is sent to exile as they are attacked by Yuan troops that spare the Koryo delegation's lives. This becomes the beginning of a slow and bloody journey home which is sidetracked as they face numerous challenges on their way. Musa can be described in many different ways as it portrays a story of glory with several different themes built around the plot of war. It is these different themes that make the story fascinating as it displays the affect that the war has on men, women, old, young, and people from different places and socio-economic status. In the end, Sung-su Kim does a terrific job in directing Musa, which provides both contemplation and entertainment in the shadow of a ruthless war.

I just wanted to make buyers aware that this is not the 155-minute long original Korean version as the Description advertises, but the shortened 130-minute edition. I bought this new release assuming I would get the 20+ minutes of cut footage, but was disappointed to find it was the same version that has already been out for several years, only now the subtitles have been butchered (dumbed down) for US consumption. For instance, the older Region 0 DVD contains dialogue along the lines of "My feet are parched like turtle shells," but Sony's new edition merely has "My feet are blistered." Whereas the older version had somehting like "Leave the b_stard here," the new subtitle has "Leave him here." Talk about losing a lot of the original colour!

I rented this movie just for the heck of it a little while ago, having an interest in Asian history (Though my main interest is in Japanese, not Korean history). Anyway...

This was a very lucid movie about a group of Korean diplomats who, exiled from their target country for treason, and unable to return home for shame, attempt to redeem themselves by saving a member of royalty from a group of Mongols. If all went well, they would be absolved of all charges of treason, and could therefore complete their mission. The situation gradually degenerates from a heroic rescue to a frantic battle for survival as the Mongols seek retribution for the intrusion into their affairs.

Contrary to what some claim, there actually IS some character development going on in this movie; it's just not what they're used to. Asians are a very subtle people, certainly not prone to the same habits and melodramatic emotional outbursts of your typical Western character. You can slowly, but surely see the growing resentment by the leader of the group at the weakening of his authority; the frustration of the head archer at the stubbornness of the leader; the despondency of the Mongol chieftan as he attempts to fulfill his duties-- duties for which he has neither heart nor interest. As far as the princess goes... yes, she was annoying. But then, she was supposed to be. Get over it! Even members of royalty have their quirks. Particularly royalty, actually. Some characters, admittedly, didn't make much sense; the movie still flows fairly smoothly, nonetheless.

Besides having an interesting plot and characters, the scenery is also beautiful. There's something particularly fitting about the desert; it's as if it will swallow everything whole. The movie was also well budgeted, so the camerawork and action sequences were very well done.

Finally, the movie concludes with a very nice battle sequence and the usual Asian flair for depression and gloominess.

Some problems:
Some of the scenes can drag on for quite some time. I didn't mind, but I'm aware that many people have almost zero patience.

The relationship between Yeosol and the princess is odd. I personally have trouble understanding it, though that's not all there is to the movie.

It is not a celebration of "cultural diversity in our time," nor does it promote "character building values for the youth of America." Sorry, the main character is not arbitrarily black, and violence solves everything.

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So... in conclusion, I love this movie. Some people might not love this movie. We are all entitled to our own opinions, and theirs is wrong. But seriously, if you don't like a little drama intermixed with your bloody, gory action, then don't buy this movie. Or at least rent it first.

I really don't know where to begin.

(possible spoilers ahead)

When I first saw this movie, I could only see how arrogant the Korean general was. Then later, I realized how our social class (in this case, the Korean society in 14th century) awareness has made him that way. In the desert, the social class differences didn't matter as much as before, but almost unconsciously, everyone carried out their specific role and followed it. As the movie progressed, many characters (and the viewers) could clearly see that the system of assigned roles was flawed.

It pondered me how the princess, who was utterly selfish when it came down to persuasion of her interest (like when she handed her fine yellow silk robe to another girl so that the girl could act as a bait) was kowtowed at when the villagers saw her. Yet she also was true to her feeling when she gave a piece of cloth to a slave which clearly meant a lot to him. The general saw the slave in a negative light due to slave's recent acquisition of his freedom from his deceased master (the general says about this: "Once slave you are forever slave. That is the law of Koryo"). But when Yesol (the slave) is captured by the enemies, the general becomes worried as much as anyone else. And Yesol, (oh boy, what a great character!), although freed, he could not escape his duties to the family of his previous master, and when captured, Yesol was offered honor, prestige, and wealth had he joined the Mongols, but instead Yesol comes back (to a place where he could still go back as a slave if everything resolves) to fight with his travel companions, then he saves the life of the princess at cost of his. Previously, before the final battle began, the general said something akin to: "the greatest honor of a warrior is to die in a battle", but when he is dying, he sees no honor and purpose of such death, and dies sad and disappointed.

So what is the whole point of me telling you all this? It seems that all the characters in this movie has some flaws, but not due to their erroneous choices, but as the victims of their acquired perspective through the experiences in this world. Notice, when they made the right choices, it is due to following their "true feeling" rather than following how things are supposed to work out in this world. Yes, I just indirectly said that this movie makes a good case of destiny affecting more than our choices to our life in this world.

So what is the movie trying to tell us? Maybe the more "noble purpose" we humans think we have, the more we tend to become arrogant and wrong, and we provably won't notice it until the end of our lives. Yesol, who was only a slave, who could not even properly understand freedom, ultimately died in the most fulfilling way, by showing what his love was capable of, unlike the general who had loftier ideals like (superficial) honor, which it ultimately bounded him and made him less free, making him a less humane being. Notice that I only talked about 3 characters in the movie, but there are more, and you will see how each finds their own truths (particularly pay attention to the archer guy, although he is almost like an observer).

If you really want to understand this film, you have to be an active viewer like the reviewer below suggested. Keep looking at each character's faces and their expressions; if you do, I can promise you one of the most awarding film experiences.

The only flaw of this movie is that Koreans fought rather too well; but then, same happens to Americans with their own films. I guess no one can escape the delusion of self-appointing protagonist mentality.

This is a great movie. I actually have the original Korean DVD. Be warned, American marketing would like you to think Zhang Xiyi is going to give you some great fights with that Photoshopped sword in her hand. In this movie, she is a princess, she isn't a wushu fighter. The characters, story, acting, and fight sequences are exciting, but not "wire-fu". I truly hate it when companies superimpose heads on different bodies and put weapons in actor's hands when it is not reflective of the movie. The result, you sucker someone into buying a movie expecting something of which the cover speaks otherwise. That in itself is false advertising. But if you are interested in seeing a good movie, watch this movie (originally called Musa: the Warrior). This isn't "crouching tiger", it's more of a gritty historic epic and worth watching!

Musa The warrior is a top of the line action movie and shouldn't be missed by any action fan or history buff or any movie fan. The actors are top of the line as well as the camera men. This movie tops "Braveheart" and "Gladiator" for the shear realism and to me the reason it is 2 years late reaching America is that Hollywood didn't want to be put to shame. Once viewed this movie will stick in your mind. I watched the Chinese version and was blown away. The realism is so good that Koreans speak Korean and the chinese speak Chinese. While it has a no rating do be warned that the violence is graphic. And for less then 20 bucks such movie making is a steal.

I first watched this movie at the Asian Film Festival in SF and throughly enjoyed it. I'd give it a 4 (despite the absurd kill ratios, the inexplicable fact that the Mongols never utilize their horse archers, or the ambigious status of the princess- is she really Yuan or Chu?)

However, this DVD itself only merits 2 stars (maybe 3 if you haven't seen the original Korean version.) Why? No extras, second rate English subbing, and most irritating, they cut out about 15 minutes of the movie which developed the second characters (particularly the interactions between the priest and interpeter Park, as well as the one-eyed guy who constantly and humorously repeated that he was too ugly to get a girlfriend).

It's not a deal-killer, and I understand they did the same for other foreign releases, but the movie feels underdeveloped just the same. Why does the priest tag along? Why does Park grow a spine at the end? Do we really care that the other random guys survive until the end? You wouldn't be asking these questions if they hadn't edited those parts out of the movie.

Also, this may have been particular to my DVD, but there was an irritating glitch around 1:16:45. At this point I'm not sure whether I'll return the movie or not.

I love this movie. Korea has a great sense of dramatic action. They can be serious with beautiful style in their action sequences. This is a fictional story inspired by a historical setting. If you were moved by LOTR: The Two Towers with the story of warriors leading people away from the enemy to a place of safety where the stand for all you believe in will take place...then this is a good story for you. If you are not familiar with Cowboy/Western flms or Eastern Warrior stories then this may feel unfamiliar or slow.

The cover is angering me because it is very missleading because they want someone passing by the "Martial Arts" DVD section to pick it up. Miss Ziyi is not a warrior in this film. Her being the popular Chinese actress for American audiences associated her with Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, Rush Hour 2 or House Of Flying Daggers expect her to be fighting always. NOPE. So her holding a sword so bravely on a DVD cover is false to her character. (especially with the movie being called The Warrior) She plays a bratty yet beautiful princess who has never stepped out into the real world in her life. Woo-Sung Jung's character does not use a sword. He fights with a spear throughout the film. If anything else he uses against an enemy was a horse whip. The importance of swords I guess comes from a history of cool characters of fantasy or period films using swords. Bad guys or second characters use the axe and that is rare. Everything else would suck I guess. Now the picture of these two actors are from posters & photos used in promotion for the film...but those hands were photoshoped poorly into the cover. Woo-Sung looks like he is leaning over a sink ready to brush his teeth with that thing.

In conclusion, type in Musa for a dvd search of this film and you may be lucky to find on sale the Tai Seng release of this film titled Musa (translates to Warrior). The quality is equal to this release. I was lucky to get the Tai Seng release but then this one came out and for some reason the Tai Seng release is hard to find. I guess its not in print. So if you can't find the tai Seng release then buy this one because the movie is good even though the DVD cover is lame. Its just a lame cover like the domestic release of infernal affairs with some random Chinese woman dressed up like a Bond chick with a gun...whaaat? One day we wont need lame DVD covers for our domestic releases of great films.