An Empress and the Warriors

Can a kingdom with centuries of bloodied hands ever find peace? This is the question the movie, An Empress and the Warriors, addresses. This Dragon Dynasty film tells the tale of Yan Feier (played by Kelly Chen) who must assume the thrown after her father is assassinated by her cousin and film antagonist, Hu Ba (Xiaodong Guo). However, Ba does not approve of the kingdom’s first Empress and plans for her failure. During Feier’s military training, Ba sends out a secret team to attempt to assassinate her. Feier escapes the attack but not unscathed. She is shot by a poisonous arrow, thrown from her horse, and is left unconscious in the woods. Here, Feier is rescued by a hermit doctor, Duan Lanquan (Leon Lai), with a dark past. During her recovery, Feier not only falls in love with the doctor but also gains a vision of what her new empire could be, a nation of peace.

Lanquan’s home is full of medical and technical advancements of the time; the most important is the hot air balloon he is constructing. I found this balloon to be a vital visual trope in the film. Feier does not believe that it is possible for man to fly but Lanquan is determined to prove her wrong. Once they take flight in this new phenomenon, Feier is shown a whole new world. From the skies, the world below is peaceful and calm. There are no wars, there is no bloodshed. Lanquan, a former warrior himself, believes that the world can be the same in the air and on the ground. He encourages Feier to return to her kingdom and to make a way to bring this kind of peace to her people. The balloon represents two things, peace and overcoming the impossible. Until that moment, flying had been a thing only for the birds but Lanquan achieved it. Just like flight was possible, so could attaining peace and it is Feier’s duty to overcome this hurdle. The very end of the movie ties together this concept of peace and impossibility but the details of that example I will leave that discovery up to the audience.

An Empress and the Warriors is a film full of war, revenge, romance, family troubles, courage and the strength of one young woman to change her existing world forever. Epic battle sequences and complex choreographed fight scenes keep the audience on edge.