The Warrior’s Way is found through beautiful hair.
Take a dab of ‘300’ uber-seriousness and theatricality, some slo-mo Matrix moves and some dodgy out-of-place but strangely apt rock, music, sprinkle liberally with a bizarre voiceover in a Southern US accent and you have the opening sequence to The Warrior’s Way, as truly odd a mainstream film as you’ll see this year.
The Warrior is named Yang, a member of the assassin group known as the ‘Sad Flutes’, so called due to the sound made when they slit your throat.
Nice.
“Look at me acting!”
In the opening sequence Yang shows that he is practically invincible and indestructible, yet when he spares the infant daughter of a rival family he becomes ostracised by his own clan and ultimately hunted by both sides. This impels him to skip town and he ends up in America in an honest to goodness Wild West town, where within minutes he runs into a ‘sassy’ American girl Lynne, played hammily by Kate Bosworth.
Yang stays low key and mostly silent – and listening to some of the lamentable dialogue in the early going I would say that’s a wise choice – he integrates cautiously with the friendly locals, hanging mostly with out of work carnie folk and running a laundry service, giving no inkling of his past or broad skillset.
The middle section of the film unfolds Karate Kid style with Yang and Lynne hanging out in a platonic way. Once Lynne tells Yang of her troubles past and how she became an orphan at the hands of a dastardly fiend he eventually lets on that he is more than a mere laundry-dude and starts teaching her his moves – but only once she agrees that they exclusively use montages to show her development.
All the while the little girl, now a toddler, toddles around in the background serving no purpose. It appears her work was done in the opening sequences.
So now the two ‘solitary’ people find their soulmates, united by the knowledge that out there in the ether their own personal nemesis awaits…
Of course a few minutes later who shows up but Lynne’s rival ‘The Colonel’ (Danny Huston), surrounded by his horde of no-goodniks, and you know it’s only a matter of time before the flutes show up to find their lost instrument.
The fight scenes in The Warrior’s Way that top ‘n’ tail the film are pretty good, even if they are 90% CGI assisted, but it must be said the fact that Yang single-handedly took out a myriad highly trained ninjas and Wild West scoundrels with nary a scratch did make the film even more cartoony.
“Nice try Toots THIS is acting.”
Huston works his fingers to the bone bringing the icky and menacing and Yang gets to prove that he is not only a noble and handsome guy, but one who will gladly fuck you up into tiny pieces of naughty if you cross him.
The Warrior’s Way sports a distinct look that again brings to mind ‘300’, the backdrop seems to alternate between light and dark colours depending on the prevailing tone, but it is never too distracting or cartoonish.
“Ummm, I’m here to collect my paycheque…”
With all the chop-socky, scenery chewing acting and at times inane dialogue going on I had to occasionally pinch myself to remind me that esteemed actor Geoffrey Rush played a drunk carnie worker. He obviously knows that this isn’t necessarily high art but puts on a good show nonetheless.
Final Rating – 7 / 10. I know I’m second-guessing the 7 myself… call it more a rounded up 6.6 than a rounded down 7.4. The Warrior’s Way is stylish and pretty entertaining even if it is hardly vital cinema. Sue me, but I kinda liked it.
