Star rating: ***
Dirs: Peter Chan, Wai Man Yip
With: Jet Li, Andy Lau, Takeshi Kaneshiro

The 1860s, China, and a country torn apart by civil war and famine. Into this arena step two brothers, and a mysterious stranger they adopt as one of their own.

Martial arts legend Jet Li, Andy Lau and Takeshi Kaneshiro are the blood brothers inquestion,andthefilm followstheirbidtounite warringfactionsandstay alive long enough to see peace reign once again. Peter Chan and Wai Man Yip's picture has some fantastic battlesequences,asyou would expect with the likes of Li in the cast, but it's the human stories at the heart of the action that impress the most.

Love,honour,betrayal, men and women doing what men and women have to do in such a brutal world - this engrossing epic has it all. Though it errs on the long side, even for an epic, it was a box office smash in the Far East, and deserves attention here too.