Today,the article is about a film in 2007 named The Warlords(投名状tóumíngzhuàng). The Warlords, previously known as The Blood Brothers, is a 2007 epic war film directed by Peter Chan(陈可辛Chén Kěxīn)and starring Jet Li, Andy Lau(刘德华 Liú Déhuá), Takeshi Kaneshiro and Xu Jinglei. The film was released on December 13, 2007 simultaneously in most of Asia, except Japan. The film is set in the 1860s, during the Taiping Rebellion in the late Qing Dynasty in China and centers on the sworn brotherhood of three men.
The story, based on the assassination of Ma Xinyi in 1870, tells of three sworn blood brothers who eventually turn against one another due to the harsh realities of war and political intrigue.
The Warlords’ star Jet Li as General Pang, who barely survives a brutal massacre of his fellow soldiers by playing dead, and joins a band of bandits led by Er Hu (Andy Lau) and Wu Yang (Takeshi Kaneshiro). After fighting back attackers from an helpless village, the three men take an oath to become “blood brothers,” pledging loyalty to one another until death, but things quickly turn sour and the three men become embroiled in a web of political deceit, and a love triangle between Pang, Er Hu and a beautiful courtesan (Wu Jing-Lei).