The story takes place in ancient China, where various kingdoms are vying for control of the country. Kelly Chen plays Feier, who has been made the leader of the Yan people after the death of her father. Taking orders from a woman doesn't set well with some of the Yan, who hatch an assassination plot. Poisoned and left for death, Feier is brought back to life by Duan (Leon Lai), a doctor who is hiding a mysterious past. Feier and Duan being to fall in love, but Feier realizes she must return to her people, and so she teams with her childhood sweetheart, Muyong (Donnie Yen), to take out the Yan's internal and external enemies.

There's nothing wrong per se with the plot itself, but An Empress and the Warriors suffers from bad pacing. After a fairly exciting first act, things nearly grind to a halt during the second, which almost solely concentrates on the growing relationship between Feier and Duan. Now, there's nothing wrong with characterization in a film like this, and it is admirable that the film-makers were trying to do something a bit different with the historical epic, which seems to be the favored genre of both Hong Kong and Chinese productions as of late. But while both Kelly Chen and Leon Lai seem to be really trying, the onscreen results simply come off as hammy and cheesy -- something you want in a sandwich, not in a movie.

Thankfully, things do bounce back during the final act, which features some outstanding action work from Ching Siu-Tung. The battle scenes aren't as good as some recent entries like Red Cliff, but they're exciting enough that you might just be able to forgive the clunkiness of the expostion that preceeded them. At the end of the day, despite its' problems, An Empress and the Warriors still should satsify fans of Chinese historical epic pictures -- it just might leave them more than bit disappointed, though, especially given the pedigree of the people involved in the production.