An Empress And The Warriors (2008) DVD

Hong Kong superstar Kelly Chen is Yen Feier, the daughter of the Emperor and sole heir to his throne. When her father dies in battle she is trained by General Muyong (martial-arts master Donnie Yen) so that she can step up as empress but, as it turns out, she’ll also need these skills to fight off the assassination attempts of her greedy warrior cousin, Wu Ba (Guo Xiaodong), who sets a fleet of hit men on her in the woods, managing to injure but not eliminate the feisty dame.

Here’s where there’s a kink in the chain-mail, as the plot essentially stops to incorporate the story of Feier’s recovery. The serious tone is suddenly overthrown by a sense of playfulness – as if some cheeky warrior has spiked the tea – as Feier is nursed back to health by her potential suitor, hunky wood-hermit Duan (Hong Kong’s pop heartthrob Leon Lai).

The two exchange witty banter (which just holds up through the subtitles) as they frolic among the trees, until Feier’s sense of duty leads her back to reality and she must step up to the plate to protect her warring kingdom.

Yen charges the epic battle scenes with his typical action flair, particularly in the third act, where he effectively takes on a whole army alone, while Ching’s choreography background results in some exhilarating action sequences.

Again, the ending slips back into a territory that can’t possibly be serious (and wouldn’t look out of place as the grand finale of a Disney classic). But if you can suspend, disbelief the battle is half won – there’s a lot of fun to be had here.