Lavish historical action film telling the story of a trio of warriors in the era of the Qing Dynasty - General Ma Xinyi (Jet Li), Cao Er-Hu (Andy Lau) and Zhang Wen-Xiang (Takeshi Kaneshiro) - who make a pact of brotherhood to one another vowing that anyone who harms one of the brothers will be killed. When the country is plunged into chaos and political upheaval following the Taiping Rebellion, the three blood brothers must struggle to maintain their loyalty as war rages around them.

Chinese historical drama that depicts the events which took the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) to power in the first half of the 20th century. Much of the film follows the personal and political growth of Mao Zedong (Ye Liu), a young student who plays a key role in forming the CCP and will eventually go on to lead it and assume the title, Chairman Mao, by which he is better known. Mao's fate is contrasted with that of Chen Duxiu (Yuanzheng Feng), one of the two main founders of the Chinese Communist Party and an early mentor to Mao. However, Chen's insistence that communist values of sharing and solidarity must be married to democratic elections and the free exchange of ideas ultimately see him barred from the party by Mao and a helpless passenger as the country begins its move towards dictatorship...