One of the best Chinese movies I’ve seen lately, Warriors of Heaven and Earth, offers a unique story of adventure through the Gobi desert that will keep you entertained for it’s whole two hour duration. It’s full of great scenes taken in the deserts of Xinjiang Autonomous Region of China, and is action packed with realistic battle scenes. No wire-fu in this movie.

The movie is set in western China in about the year 700 and revolves around two protagonists, Lieutenant Li of the Chinese army and Lai Xi the Japanese emissary. They end up coming across a caravan that’s carrying a powerful, mystical relic which is accompanied by a Buddhist monk. They decide to protect it as they travel through the desert.

The movie’s soundtrack was composed by Indian composer A.R.Rahman. If you saw Slumdog Millionaire, he’s the same person who composed the music at the end of that film. The theme song, “Mirage (Warriors In Peace)”, was translated in 3 languages, Chinese (Mandarin ), English, and Hindi. The Mandarin version of the theme song is sung by Taiwanese singer Jolin Tsai, which you can hear by clicking on the video right below.

Warriors of Heaven and Earth was first released in 2003 and got good reviews. I would give it an A myself. The acting is great, the cinematography is great, and the story is interesting. The only bad thing was the special effects, but it really doesn’t have a major impact on the film as a whole. You can watch the whole movie on Tudou.com(China’s version of YouTube) here: Warriors of Heaven and Earth. This movie is widely available though if you want to watch it in better quality and with English subtitles.