War (2007 film)

War
Directed by	Philip G. Atwell
Written by	Lee Anthony Smith Gregory J. Bradley
Produced by	Steve Chasman Christopher Petzel Jim Thompson
Starring	Jet Li Jason Statham John Lone Devon Aoki Luis Guzmán Saul Rubinek Ryo Ishibashi Sung Kang Mathew St. Patrick Nadine Velazquez
Cinematography	Pierre Morel
Edited by	Scott Richter
Music by	Brian Tyler
Production companies	Lionsgate Fierce Entertainment Mosaic Media Group
Distributed by	Lionsgate
Release date	August 24, 2007 (2007-08-24)
Running time	103 minutes
Country	United States
Languages	English Cantonese Japanese Mandarin
Budget	$25 million
Box office	$40.7 million

War is a 2007 American action thriller film directed by Philip G. Atwell in his directorial debut and also featuring Stage Combat by Corey Yuen. The film stars Jet Li and Jason Statham. The film was released in the United States on August 24, 2007. War features the second collaboration between Jet Li and Jason Statham, reuniting them for the first time since 2001 film The One. Jason Statham plays an FBI agent determined to take down a mysterious assassin known as Rogue (played by Jet Li), after his partner is murdered.

War's working title was Rogue; it was changed to avoid conflict with another film with the same name. It was re-titled as Rogue Assassin in New Zealand, Japan, Hong Kong, Singapore, India, Australia, the Philippines, and several European countries.

Plot

During a shootout against Japanese Yakuza at a San Francisco dock warehouse, FBI agents John Crawford (Jason Statham) and Tom Lone (Terry Chen) stumble across the notorious assassin Rogue (Jet Li), a former CIA assassin who now works for the Japanese Yakuza. Rogue ambushes Crawford and is about to execute him when Lone appears and shoots Rogue in the face, causing him to fall into the water. Rogue's body was never found and he is presumed dead. However, Rogue survives and retaliates against Lone, his wife and his daughter. He kills them, burns down the house, and leaves their three corpses in the ashes of their home.

Three years later, Rogue re-appears, working under Chinese Triad boss Li Chang (John Lone). While working with Chang, Rogue secretly instigates a war between the Triads and the Yakuza, led by Shiro Yanagawa (Ryo Ishibashi). Rogue first attacks a club run by the Yakuza by killing the gangsters and later on the runners in order to recover a pair of antique gold horses, family heirlooms of Chang.

Now the head agent of the FBI's Asian Crime Task Force, Crawford is determined to hunt Rogue down and exact revenge for Lone's death. Crawford's obsessive pursuit of Rogue has taken a toll on his personal life causing him to be estranged from his family. Crawford comes close to catching Rogue in the wake of Rogue's various killing sprees against the Triads and Yakuza, but Rogue always manages to stay one step ahead.

Ultimately, Rogue's actions have gained the trust of both Chang and Yanagawa. Rogue succeeds in killing Chang, but spares Chang's wife and child, turning on the Yakuza. With Chang dead, Yanagawa appears in America, intending to expand Yakuza business operations. However, he is confronted by Crawford and the FBI; Crawford presents Yanagawa with proof that Rogue has betrayed him and spared Chang's family, but Yanagawa refuses to assist Crawford in locating Rogue.

Later, Rogue delivers the horses to Yanagawa personally. Knowing of Rogue's betrayal, Yanagawa captures Rogue and demands the location of Chang's family. Rogue turns the tables on Yanagawa's men and kills them all, and engages in a sword fight against Yanagawa himself. Yanagawa discovers that the real Rogue was killed when attempting to assassinate Lone. Lone in turn surgically altered himself to assume the assassin's identity. Lone reveals that his actions have all been designed to bring him face-to-face with Yanagawa, so he could kill the man who ordered the death of his family. Yanagawa reveals that Crawford was in his pocket that whole time and responsible for leaking Tom Lone's identity and home address to the real Rogue. Angered, Lone disarms and decapitates Yanagawa.

Meanwhile, Chang's wife receives a package from Lone, containing one of the two golden horses that belongs to Chang's family and a message reading, "Make a new life". Yanagawa's daughter also receives a package with the same message and inside the box is her father's head. Lone then calls Crawford as he is packing up his office, asking him to meet him at the dock warehouse where they last made their investigation. Before going to the warehouse, Crawford enlists the help of Goi (Sung Kang), an FBI sniper that aided Crawford throughout the investigation.

At the warehouse, Crawford and Lone battle each other in an intense hand-to-hand fight in which Lone reveals his true identity to Crawford.

When Lone reveals his true identity, a devastated Crawford reveals that it was true that he was working for Yanagawa at the time but had no idea that Rogue was still alive. He was then blackmailed into giving Lone's address to Yanagawa thinking that Yanagawa's men were only going there to "rough him up a bit". Ever since, Crawford was angry at himself and wanted revenge against Rogue and everyone else involved in what he thought was his partner's death.

Crawford asks for forgiveness, but Lone refuses and shoots him in the back after Crawford jumps in front of Goi’s line of sight to prevent a kill shot. The next day, Lone drives out of town to start a new life.

Cast

• Jet Li as Rogue / Tom Lone
  • Terry Chen played Lone before he changed his face
• Jason Statham as FBI agent John Crawford
• John Lone as Li Chang
• Mathew St. Patrick as Wick
• Sung Kang as Goi
• Luis Guzmán as Benny
• Saul Rubinek as Dr. Sherman
• Devon Aoki as Kira Yanagawa
• Ryo Ishibashi as Shiro Yanagawa
• Mark Cheng as Wu Ti
• Johnson Phan as Joey Ti
• Nicholas Elia as Daniel Crawford
• Nadine Velazquez as Maria Chang
• Kennedy Lauren Montano as Ana Chang
• Steph Song as Diane Lone
• Andrea Roth as Jenny Crawford
• Kenneth Choi as Takada
• Peter Shinkoda as Harbour Yanagawa Member
• Angela Fong as Kabuki Dancer
• Kane Kosugi as Temple Garden Warrior
• Dario Delacio as Mahjong Player

Reception

Box office

War opened on August 24, 2007, with $9.8 million from 2,277 theaters, a $4,312 average. As of December 2007, the film grossed $24.5 million in the United States and $26.2 million in international box offices, totaling $50.7 million. DVD sales totaled $28 million.

Critical response

Rotten Tomatoes gives the film a score of 13% and an average rating of 3.90/10 based on reviews from 60 critics. The website's "Critics Consensus" for the film reads, "Jet Li and Jason Statham find themselves on opposing sides in the immensely boring War, which is full of clichés but short on action." On Metacritic the film has a score of 36 out of 100, based on reviews from 15 critics. Audiences surveyed by CinemaScore gave the film a grade B.

Paul Semel of Premiere wrote, "War is like Statham's other actioners The Transporter and Crash -- fun, but not big or dumb enough to be glorious." Joe Leydon of Variety magazine wrote "Quickly devolves into a standard-issue crime drama laced with routine martial artistry."

In 2014, Time Out polled several film critics, directors, actors and stunt actors to list their top action films. War was listed at the 93rd place on this list.

Soundtrack

War
Soundtrack album by Brian Tyler
Released	August 21, 2007
Length	65:09
Label	Lionsgate Records

The soundtrack was composed by Brian Tyler. The additional music is by RZA, Mark Batson and Machines of Loving Grace.

1. "Spyked" – 2:31
2. "War Opening Titles" – 5:05
3. "Confession" – 3:05
4. "Rooftop Pursuit" – 1:44
5. "Whips" – 2:14
6. "Swordfight" – 5:16
7. RZA – "Rogue Cleans Da Hizouse" – 2:15
8. "Getting Started / Scene of the Crime" – 2:51
9. Mark Batson – "The Set Up / Mr. Chang Sends Regards" – 2:36
10. "Shiro Comes to Town" – 3:55
11. "Bangkok Downtown" – 2:18
12. "This Isn't Japan" – 2:16
13. "Cop Hunting / Face to Face" – 2:42
14. Mark Batson – "Compliments of Mr. Chang" – 0:36
15. "Rogue's Revenge" – 1:09
16. "Showdown" – 2:49
17. "Plans for Retaliation" – 4:00
18. "Watching the Changes" – 0:45
19. "Shiro's Estate" – 2:33
20. "War End Credits" – 5:31
21. Machines of Loving Grace – " King" – 4:04
22. "War Opening Titles (Remix)" – 4:54

External links

• Official website
• War at IMDb
• War at AllMovie
• War at the Internet Movie Firearms Database
• War at Rotten Tomatoes
• War original soundtrack at SoundtrackCollector.com