In ancient China the kingdom of Yan is at near constant war with its neighbours. In the latest battle the king is wounded and names Murong Xuehu, a man of lowly origins as his successor; the king's nephew, Wu Ba, can't take this and murders the wounded king in an attempt to usurp the throne. Things don't go as planned and the king's daughter; Yen Feier, finds herself being named Empress! Before she can be crowned she must undergo vigorous training as a warrior during which time her treacherous cousin makes another attempt on the crown; this time trying to make Feier disappear; the assassins he sends are thwarted by a hermit doctor, Duan Lanquan, who heals the injured Feier. They grow close but she returns to her country and leads them to victory over a neighbouring kingdom that was attempting to invade. She then abdicates and returns to the doctor… although their peace will be sort lived as she must ultimately return and defeat her treacherous cousin to save her kingdom from constant warfare.This might not be the best Chinese action/romance but it passes ninety minutes rather nicely. As anybody who has seen a few films of this type will expect everything looks great; be it the impressively choreographed fight scenes, the lush landscapes or the impressive woodland home of Duan Lanquan. Kelly Chen makes a fine female lead in the role of Yen Feier in both the action and the more comic and romantic scenes between her and Duan Lanquan. The other leads are fine too. The story is fairly simple; the good characters are unambiguously good and the 'bad guy', Wu Ba, is treacherous from start to his inevitable demise; this isn't a problem though; not every film requires twists and shocking reveals! Overall an enjoyably way to pass an hour and a half.

This is one of those movies that you can tell is trying to be good but ends up being mediocre. There is a love story that is way out of place during a war between the Yan and the Zhao, a love triangle between Donnie Yen, and an ambitious Nephew who will seem to do anything to take over the throne. All of these stories could be well off on their own, but the director doesn't explore either to a satisfaction. Martial arts fans will see a duel between Leon Lai and Donnie Yen, but it feels like it was just placed there just for the sake of having them fight each other. There is good stuff here, but it is rushed and clichéd to the point where it feels like you are buying one of those TV drama DVD sets.

I guess a new Hong Kong trend is emerging. I recall that as a kid, there was the Mr Vampire movie, which spawned a slew of Chinese vampire movies in its wake. Then there was John Woo's A Better Tomorrow, which gave birth to a whole lot of brotherhood-amongst-thieves themed films. And then there was Once Upon A Time in China, which brought about a renaissance in martial arts movies based on historical or beloved fictional folk heroes. These days, we're living in the Warring period era, where we have a fixation with armour, and more armour, thanks to movies like The Myth, Battle of Wits, The Warlords, Curse of the Golden Flower, and more to come with Battle of Red cliff, and Three Kingdoms: Resurrection of the Dragon.An Empress and The Warriors continue this trend, based on the state of Yan which is under constant warring with the state of Zhao. The titular characters here are Yen Feier (Kelly Chen) who becomes empress after the assassination of her Emperor father, and because of the unhappiness of rival generals over the appointment of Donnie Yen's General Muyong Xuehu as heir to the throne. So he refuses to partake in any more political schemes, and throws his support behind his childhood friend and unrequited love of his life, whose relationship with her is made even more complex as he has to train her to become a warrior, ala Mulan, in montage style.And no thanks to her scheming cousin Wu Ba (Guo Xiao-Dong) who tries his very best in sowing discord amongst the court / generals, in order to see his ambition of sitting on the throne through. Another assassination attempt on the life of Feier, and we're introduced to the other Warrior from the title, Duan Lan-Quan (Leon Lai), who in actual fact looks like and lives like an Eastern Robin Hood, on a set that looks a complete rip off from Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves. The inevitable romantic tangle between single beautiful princess and good looking doctor begins, and begs the question whether she still remembers her pledge to put country first. In truth, there are many elements here from the Robin Hood folklore, besides the set, with the bows and arrows, ambush cum assault which was thankfully well done in keeping up the tempo, and a fight sequence atop floating logs that drew inspiration from Robin vs Little John. The romantic angle though was quite unnatural and unfortunately felt very forced, and bogged down the entire movie, with Feier in a dilemma choosing between two potential beaus, and each of them having reason to hold a candle for her. I was half expecting Bryan Adams to come belting out his hit single, but we're treated to a duet by the two leads (who are singers by the way), in what I believe could have a chance to top the mando-pop charts.Action wise, you've got to leave it to Donnie Yen to deliver the goods. Alas, there's nothing too different here with the war battle sequences, as it again borrows heavily from its peers, in particular, Stanley Tong's The Myth (in fact, too much and too direct a reference), and cut down one too many horses (none were harmed of course). Yen did seem rather stiff under all that heavy metal, and there isn't any single fight sequence that stood out during battles, except perhaps for that token same-screen sharing scene with Leon Lai, or that flight into the forest (yet another nod in the direction of A Touch of Zen).All that's left of this movie that's worth mentioning, are the beautiful, intricately designed suits of armour, so much so that even Leon Lai has a full suit just to aesthetically please the movie's poster, and the cinematography, credit due to Zhao Xiao-Ding, who also lensed House of Flying Daggers and Curse of the Golden Flower.An Empress and the Warriors turned out to be a movie that's neither here nor there - a weak romance and a weak war action movie, and its storyline, which at times confounds because of its implausibilities in character motivation and loopholes, all add up to making this an average movie at best.

Basically this movie has a plot typical a romance epic genre. But I don't care much about the story. My only reason watching this flick is because Donnie Yen. The direction seriously damaged by lack of exploration by the filmmaker. This is not movie quality direction rather much like a TV series quality. Very disappointing. The pace is inconsistent, the romantic scenes very immature and lame, there no intensity on the battle scenes at all. The characterization on the bad guys very cheaply done. It's like they are yelling at the audience, "I'm the bad guy, look at my evil expressions, very bad ain't it". Overall this flick is very disappointing. 4/10