Set in the ferocious Gobi Desert, the story follows Lieutenant Li (Jiang Wen) and Japanese emissary Lai Xi (Nakai Kiichi), both first-class warriors and master swordsmen. After decades of service to the Chinese Emperor, Lai Xi longs to return to Japan, but is instead sent to the west to chase wanted criminals. His only passport back to Japan is to capture and execute Lieutenant Li, a renegade soldier wanted for leading a violent mutiny when he refused orders to kill female and child prisoners.

Li and Lai Xi battle, but finally agree to delay their final personal fight until the caravan carrying a Buddhist monk is brought to safety. The monk, however, is carrying a sacred and powerful pagoda that attracts the attention of the region's ruthless overlord, Master An (Wang Xuengi). Lai Xi and Lt. Li, accompanied by Li's former posse of soldiers, who have forsaken their peaceful new lives to return to his side, must face the cruelty of the desert, the region's barbaric bandits and the brutality of the overlord's men before they can finally face one another.
 
"...the acting is uniformly compelling, the fight sequences are energetic...the material is especially enthralling."  Andrew Sun, The Hollywood Reporter
"A magnificent looking and occasionally very silly Chinese Western."  Jami Bernard, New York Daily News
"The spaghetti western may be dead, but the noodle eastern looks to be alive and well."  Rick Groen, The Globe & Mail
 


Editor's Note

He Ping, the director of the cult classic SWORDSMAN IN DOUBLE FLAG TOWN and the better-known RED FIRECRACKER, GREEN FIRECRACKER, enters the big time with WARRIORS OF HEAVEN AND EARTH, an epic battle between two heroic figures fighting for themselves and for their countries. When Li (Jiang Wen) refuses to kill innocent women and children, he becomes a rogue soldier without a land. Master swordsman Lai Xi (Nakai Kiichi) is ordered to assassinate him if wants to get back to to his home in Japan and see his mother before she dies. But first they must join together to help a caravan with precious cargo make its way safely across the desert--with a beautiful woman, Wen Zhu (SHAOLIN SOCCER's Zhao Wei), caught in between them. The gorgeous cinematography is by Zhao Fei, who shot such Asian epics as RAISE THE RED LANTERN as well as such Woody Allen films as SWEET AND LOWDOWN and SMALL TIME CROOKS. The lush look of the film is echoed by A.R. Rahman's marvelous score and outstanding costuming and set design. Ping masterfully recreates seventh-century China as horses and camels lead the protagonists down the famous Silk Road during the time of the Tang Dynasty.