The Warrior and the Wolf

Plot

General Zhang is the commander of a northern border's army camp which repels the attacking barbarians every year. When snowfall make the support of the base with supplies impossible, the troops return home.

Lu Shenkang is a newly recruited soldier who was a shepherd, has no courage and tries to flee the army on several occasions. Lu bonds with General Zhang and when the barbarians attack and take him hostage, Lu exchanges him with a captured tribal prince.

The wounded General Zhang returns home earlier and Lu stays in charge.

When the winter's snow arrives, he leads his men on the trip home. Due to the harsh weather they take refuge in the Harran tribe's village where Lu takes a hut and woman for himself.

Shortly before the soldiers leave the village to continue their return home, the woman tells Lu that legend says that being intimate with outsiders leads to them becoming wolves.

The army marches on and are attacked by wolves. A following sand storm kills all but Lu who returns to the village.

Years later the barbarians surrender to Imperial China and General Zhang returns to the region to deliver the court's messages.

Two of his men shoot at wolves and are found dead in the morning.

General Zhang is bitten to death by two wolves after riding out to a deserted fortification.

Cast

Reception

Critical reception was generally poor. Perry Lam writes in Muse Magazine, 'The original story is both a heartfelt tribute to physical love as a life force and an angry condemnation of the aggressive instincts of human beings... To transport the story to ancient China, and, through the novelty of casting, to have a Japanese actor play the role of a Chinese warrior and an American Vietnamese play a Chinese widow, is not to challenge the imagination but to impoverish it.'