Honestly I can’t believe it took me as long as it did to see this, not only Woo’s return to China, but with such a great case, and an adaption of the great Chinese novel, THE ROMANCE OF THE THREE KINGDOMS which I have read in it’s entirety unabridged (damn it took a while). This film is the first of two parts, and adapts one important battle with Liu Bei and the kingdom of Wu battling the evil Cao Cao who has taken over the imperial palace. The adaption is a good one, though it does remove the magical elements, though still keep the great strength and battle ability of the generals. This film is epic and absolutely gorgeous, with stunning battles, really only suffering from it being a part 1, since instead of ending on a battle, it ends after a battle, with a bigger battle looming, and more character development in between. And don’t expect long battles only, because while this has 2 great battles, the rest of the film is slow character development, which I loved (having read the book and loving these actors), but which may turn some off to the film.

The film starts in 208 A.D. with the battle of Chang Ban, where the evil Prime Minister Cao Cao (Zhang Fengyi)has Emperor Xian (Wang Ning) under his finger and has Lui Bei (You Yong) and his people on the defensive with a much smaller force, and they can’t run because they are protecting too many civilians. The gruff, but strong Zhang Fei (Zhang Jinsheng), Liu Bei’s sworn borther, has a small group of soldiers protecting the retreating civilians, but needs more help. He uses reflective shields to stop the attacking calvalry with a plan by Liu Bei’s chief advisor Zhuge Liang (Kaneshiro Takeshi). The soldier Zhao Yun (Hu Jun) heads back in the city to Find Liu Bei’s wife Lady Mi (He YIn), her infant sun Liu Shan as well as her sister. Zhao Yun goes to rescue them, but is wounded and only manages to bring back Liu Shan as Lady Mi kills herself in a well. Zhuge Liang meanwhile has brought Liu Bei’s other sworn brother Guan Yu (Ba Sen Zha Bu) to help in the battle. They hold off the enemy, and Guan Yu holds back to hold off the enemy. He throws his halberd, just missing Cao Cao, who lets him go, realizing he could have easily killed him if he wanted to.

REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS…

Zhuge Liang realizes that while they have the best men, they have too few, and are on the run, so they must make allies with the kingdom of Wu in the south, so he sets off to meet Sun Quan (Chang Chen) and make him an ally. All of Sun Quan’s advisors want to surrender, but the generals all want to fight, and Zhuge Liang wants to get him to follow his heart to fight. He allies with Lu Su (Hou Yong) who takes him to meet Sun Quan’s viceroy and head of the army Zhou Yu (Tony Leung Chiu Wai).

Zhou Yu is training his troops with his right hand Gan Ning (Nakamura Shido), and slowly grows to like Zhuge Liang. He gets a call from his lovely wife Xiao Qiao (the lovely Lin Chi Ling in her first role) about a horse that is trouble giving birth, and Zhuge Liang comes and helps and at the celebration dinner, they both play music, and realize each other’s intentions, Zhou Yu wants to fight.

Cao Cao has meanwhile enlisted the two aquatic generals Cai Mao (Yi ZHao) and Zhang Yun (Jia Hongwei) and assembled a great fleet to destroy Wu and Liu Bei. Cao Cao also plans to take Xiao Qiao as his wife once he takes Wu.

Zhao Yu takes Sun Quan along with his warlike sister Sun Shangxiang (Zhao Wei) on a tiger hunt, to get Sun Quan to find his backbone, and realizes he is as good or better than his famous older brother and father, and he will go to war. And they do go to war.

Zhao Yu and his generals tour Liu Bei’s camp, and discuss ideas for the fight. They come up with a plan to fight the land army by using Sun Shiangxiang to lure them into an Eight Trigrams Formation, where they get trapped inside walls of shielded warriors, and get slaughtered in a great battle.

Meanwhile Cao Cao comes down with his navy, and makes camp across from Red Cliff at Chi Bi, and gets ready to make war.

Zhou Yu and Zhuge Liang discuss plans to fight the army. Zhao Yu says he hopes that they will not become enemies in the future. Zhuge Liang is able to find a weakness in the enemy naval formation, and we see him lighting a miniature ships on a map, showing what they will do to the Navy.

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Damn I can’t wait for the next film! This film was epic and amazing, makes me wish Woo had never left Hong Kong!