The movie God of War is truly a breath of fresh air from the China's cinema scene. From the unimaginative bog that's choke-full of overused, money grabber adaptions of Romance of Three Kingdoms, Journey to the West and fictitious Wuxia stories, we finally get a proper historical war epic! This fact alone is enough to convince me to reach for my wallet, and the attention to details as well as accurate unfolding of historical events are just icing on the cake. What a pleasant surprise!
With that being said, I must also point out that the film has its share of weaknesses and inaccuracies. Some of them are probably deliberate modifications to make the story more interesting, while others are most likely due to oversight. I also feel some of the plots are a bit forced, and certain scenes I feel should be given more screen time are cut short. My biggest gripe however, is that the director forcibly turned the legendary general Yu Da You (俞大猷, played by Sammo Hung) into a tactically inept idiot in order to emphasise the awesomeness of Qi Ji Guang (戚繼光, played by Vincent Zhao), but failed to deliver any of the tactical geniuses of Qi Ji Guang anyway.
Okay, let's cut off the fluff and go straight to the point. Here's a list of what I like and dislike about the movie:
The events as portrayed in the movie are for the most part accurate. For example, Qi Ji Guang really fell three
leaders with three arrows, and Ming army really took down the stronghold of Cen Gang (岑港) in a night raid. Qi Ji Guang also
after witnessing the gang fight between two villages over a disputed mine, and his wife really did command the defense of Xin He (新河). Even the political backstabbing, the portrayal of Qi Ji Guang as a wife fearer, Hu Zong Xian (胡宗憲) as both noble and corrupt, as well as the military running cadence, are all highly accurate.
are some of the best reconstructions I've ever seen! They are of correct size, the dragon head paintings on the shields are accurate (if a bit too modern-looking), and even minor details such as wooden beads on the shield are present! That being said, Ai Pai should be hung around the neck, not handheld.
The mandarins in this movie are portrayed with accurate costumes: Mandarin hats without hatpins (hatpin was a Qing practice) and plain, undecorated mandarin robes in appropriate colours with rectangular
rank badges. Took them long enough to finally get the details mostly right (although the sleeves should be narrow and the belts look odd).
Hu Zong Xian can be seen in the movie dressed in a red mandarin robe with a tiger badge, indicating him as a military official of the third rank (outranking both Qi Ji Guang and Yu Da You), while the fat Zhao Da He (趙大河) pictured above is wearing a blue mandarin robe with a bird badge (most likely a
mandarin duck), indicating him as a civil official of the seventh rank (thus ranked below Qi Ji Guang, a fourth rank military official).
And yes,
no kowtow!
Contrast between Chinese and Japanese.
I am sure many of us wage slaves can relate to the terrible workplace environment of Ming generals — uncaring superior that decides the target and deadline for you, but has no expertise/understanding on the actual situation and provide zero support (if not actively working against you). On top of this, he pins all the blame on you if you fail, and robs you of your accomplishment if you succeed. Your colleagues are either incompetent, or they are caught up in their own troubles (from the same uncaring superior) and thus helpless.
This is in stark contrast to the Japanese/Wokou side, where wisdom and experience are respected, and leaders is given full freedom to carry out the mission in any way he see fit. Yet subordinates do not shy away from voicing their own opinions or even questioning their leader's decision. When push comes to shove, the leader took up responsibility with grace and dignity to give his talented underlings a second chance.
Now I am sure not all of these are historically accurate, but they add to the depth of the story greatly. I am especially appreciative of the superb performance of Yasuaki Kurata (倉田保昭). There are something unique in the ways Japanese speak, interact with each other, and in their general mannerism that cannot be done right unless the actors are Japanese themselves.
The insane mudsleds.
I literally went "yeeehaw" when I saw this scene. As ridiculous as these so-called "mud horses" look, they are real, and Qi Ji Guang really did use these sleds against the Wokou (although not in the way depicted in the movie).
Treacherous terrain.
It opens and closes with epic battles in settings that range from narrow city alleys to treacherous mud flats.
— The Washington Post movie review
Now you know why Ming army favoured small unit tactics. Too bad the movie fails to demonstrate it (see below).
No crossbow.
Awesome. Crossbow was so last century anyway.
What I dislike
Inaccurate equipment and weapon misconceptions.
This is actually par for the course for most "historical" movies came out of China, so I am not especially upset about it. That being said, the director at least spent some efforts to make the costumes appear slightly more historically accurate and not overly gritty (although some helmets still looks like they are modified from Jacky Chan's
Dragon Blade), so credit where credit's due.
Many inaccurate portrayals of weapons are explained elsewhere in this blog. Notable ones include
spears that are way too short,
Lang Xian do not work that way (and Qi Ji Guang did not invent the weapon), tiger forks in place of
Tang Pa (钂鈀), and
bulletproof rattan shields.
Japanese side is full of inaccuracies as well. Notable examples include the lack of
sakayaki (月代) hairstyle, reflective golden fans, out of place manga illustrations, explosives that can blast through a freaking town gate,
lack of spears, mobile shields, and
zillion-folded lightsaber katana that cuts through other sword like it is made of tissue paper. Also, as much as I applaud the director's effort to reconstruct accurate Japanese ship,
Wokou usually burn down their own ships once they landed. Surprisingly, Chinese junks would be far more appropriate for the last escape scene in the movie.
Oh, if you are wondering why some Chinese troops are seen wearing
sashimono (指物), that's because historically they did. We just don't know what kind of banners were used.
Vincent Zhao's sloppy archery.
 |
| He is not even looking at his target! |
While Vincent Zhao is undoubtedly a great martial arts actor, he and most actors in this movie clearly have no understanding on the art of archery. One of the most glaring errors is that there's no
thumb draw! Korean movies certainly have the Chinese soundly beaten in this particular field.
Besides, I am sure many kyūdō (弓道) practitioners will cringe at the sight of the ridiculous "jump and shoot" scene.
No, ō-deppo (大鉄砲) is not supposed to shoot explosive shells.
While large enough to be considered a handheld cannon,
ō-deppo (大鉄砲), more commonly known as
kakae ō-zutsu (抱え大筒), can only shoot solid musket balls or incendiary
bō hiya (棒火矢). It is also usually shot from a lean forward body position, not standing upright.
As a side note, I also think that the weapon is somewhat anachronistic.
No Chinese matchlock.
As
noted elsewhere in this blog, Ming army already had access to matchlock weaponry for decades before events in the movie took place. In fact, Ming arquebusiers were explicitly deployed in all major battles in the movie.
Also,
San Yan Chong (三眼銃) only became really prevalent during the last years of the Ming Dynasty, so even if the director wanted to emphasise the technological backwardness of Ming army, he should have gone for single-shot handgonne like
Shen Qiang (神鎗) instead.
The climatic battle.
 |
| I do like those long Japanese arrows though. |
This may sounds anticlimactic, but historically Qi Ji Guang only lost a grand total of THREE MEN in Battle of Hua Jie (花街之戰), the climatic battle of the movie. The battle was so one-sided in favour of Qi Ji Guang that it wouldn't make for an interesting story, so (I think) the director had to intentionally "dial up the difficulty level" by inflating the number of Wokou in that battle and adding a whole bunch of actual samurai into the mix.
Not that it matters, because Qi Ji Guang really did fight Wokou numbering tens of thousands and unusually well-disciplined and well-equipped Wokou elsewhere. He slaughtered them all the same.
Ridiculous handheld mortar.
No, no, no, you can't shoot a
Hu Dun Pao (虎蹲砲) like that! The cannon is staked to the ground before firing for a reason. Its recoil will kill you outright!
What irk me the most about this scene is that, for all the supposed tactical genius of Qi Ji Guang, he still had to rely on this timely "cannon to the rescue" to win the climatic battle, and that is despite the fact that some of his opponents were acting on impetus and disobeying order.
No tactics.
If you go to the movie looking for some authentic and historically accurate military actions, you will be sorely disappointed. The war scenes of this movie look like they're coming out of the ridiculous John Woo's
Red Cliff, and there's no
Mandarin Duck Formation in action either. I can't help but feel that none of the Chinese screenwriters really know how to write a proper war scene.
What a shame and a wasted opportunity, because urban combat and counter-ambush tactic were some of the Qi Ji Guang's most notable specialities. In fact, Qi Ji Guang himself used his success at Battle of Hua Jie as an example to demonstrate his counter-ambush tactic in Ji Xiao Xin Shu (《紀效新書》)!
Posts
