A Battle of Wits (2006)
Reviewed by: dandan on 2007-02-20
Summary: nothing to do with oscar wilde...
general xiang yanzhong (ahn sung-ki) is leading 100,000 men from the armies of zhou to attack han; the only place they pass en route is the small city of liang, which they intend to occupy. the king of liang (wang zhiwen) is torn between surrendering before zhou attacks them and putting up a fight. the king has sent a request to the mo-tsu, a tribe noted for their employment of defensive tactics, but there has been no response. as all appears to be lost, the king sends details of his surrender to the zhou army, only for ge li (andy lau), a mo-tsu warrior, to arrive at liang.

ge li persuades the king that the zhou army are focussed on han, not liang, and, if they can weather their initial attack, they will be left alone. the king and the people of liang decide to fight, leaving ge li to coordinate their strategy: so begins a battle of wits between ge li and general xiang...

adapted from a manga ('bokkou' by kenichi sakemi, which i'd quite like to read) and directed by jacob cheung, 'a battle of wits' is reasonably epic drama. cheung does a pretty good job of creating the atmosphere of a siege and a sense of liang's isolataion. the film's main dramas all surround the relationships that ge li develops within the city; with the king, his tutor (wu ma) and his senior general, niu (chin-siu-ho), all of whom seem to be very suspicious of ge li and jealous of the respect he commands; with yi yue (fan bing-bing), the head of the royal cavalry, who falls for ge li; and, with the prince, liang shi (choi si won), and the archer zi tuen (nicky wu), both of whom embrace ge li's humanist, mo-tsu philosophies.

it is the focus on these relationships, the political atmosphere in the city and the psychology of opposing tactics that give the film its strength. when coupled with a cast who deliver fine performances, the portrayal of liang, it's surrounding countryside and the battles that ensue, you get a pretty solid, entertaining film. that's not to say it doesn't have its faults; the last half hour runs out of steam in places, ahn sung-ki's dubbing is a little rough, there's a couple of quite poor cgi moments and some questionable balloons...

pretty good, on the whole...