10 Minute Promo for Tian Zhuangzhuang's Epic 狼灾记 (The Warrior and The Wolf)

What is the best antidote against creative stagnation? Delving into familiar territory from a completely different perspective, for instance. If you take into account the current oversaturation of Chinese historical epics, what really stands out is not so much the visual splendor and increasingly grandiose battles, but the rather disarming lack of historical consciousness, which is always something an historical drama can't do without. Zhang Yimou, John Woo, Peter Chan and Ching Siu-Tung have made that concept painfully clear in their latest multi-million dollar escapades, but things might change a little with a few recent Chinese epics.

The first is 孔子 (Confucius), the biopic of the great sage, marking the film debut of one of the biggest and most talented names on Chinese TV, that Hu Mei whose 汉武大帝 (Han Wu the Great) and 雍正王朝 (The Yongzheng Dynasty) broke one record after another. If there's anyone who can finally bring some real history to Chinese historical epics, that's certainly her. The other might concern Tian Zhuangzhuang's 狼灾记 (The Warrior and The Wolf). I don't know about historical consciousness, but a departure from the stylized warfare of recent epics is very welcome, as this 10 minute promo of the film shows. Adapted from a novella by one of the biggest names in Japanese historical fiction, the late Inoue Yasushi, The Warrior and The Wolf stars Joe Odagiri, Maggie Q and Tou Chunghua. Looks like we'll get a lot more realism and raw power than the usual "made for western consumption" Chinese epic, which is kind of surprising considering the cast, but not so much when you think that this is the guy responsible for 蓝风筝 (The Blue Kite) and 盗马贼 (The Horse Thief). That it was going to be pretteh, we knew that all too well already. But this also looks like quite the hard-hitting drama as well. Film releases on October 14. Let's hope....