Three Kingdoms: Resurrection of the Dragon by Daniel Lee Yan Kong (2008)
2 July 2008I went into this not expecting much, and while this film does not hew too closely to the original material, I actually enjoyed this epic popcorn film. I thought they even did a good job with Maggie’s Q’s makeup so you could almost believe that she is 100 Chinese. Nothing too deep here, but an enjoyable and bloody epic film that is an overarching story of betrayal and trust. Worth checking out, though certainly no competition of John Woo’s the Battle of Red Cliff.
The film starts at the end as an old Zhao Zhilong (Andy Lau Tak Wah) says goodbye to his closest friend Pingan (Sammo Hung Kam Bo) and heads out to do battle with the armies of Cao Cao’s granddaughter Cao Ying (Maggie Q). We then go back in time to see Zhilong joining up as normal soldier and befriending Pingan. And when Pingan lost Liu Bei’s (Yueh Hua) wife and son, Zhilong stands up for him, and fights Liu Bei’s chief Lieutenants Guan Yu (The great Ti Lung) and Zhang Fei (Chen Zhihui). Zhilong’s skills are so impressive that they send him after Liu Bei’s son, and he manages to return him, even having a run in with the enemy Cao Cao (Damian Lau Chung Yun) , and quickly move up the ranks, becoming known as invincible, though Pingan never does move up.
REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS…
Zhilong becomes a major general, and is the only surviving from the old school, but when the sons of the old lietenants are sent out to prove themselves against Cao Cao’s forces, but Zhilong decides to go as well, and under the orders of Liu Bei’s chief advisor are given instructions, and end up splitting up.
Zhilong is betrayed by one of his own, and is surrounded, and has to retreat to a temple, where there orders say they will only have to wait for a day before the relief comes, so Zhilong goes out and battles Cao Ying, and with the help of Pingan manages to defeat her, but lets her go unharmed, and his forces go back into the temple, and Zhilong is wounded though he hides it from his soldiers to keep moral up.
Then Cao Ying gets word that the relief forces led by the songs of Guan Yu and Zhang Fei have been defeated, and Zhilong finds their will be no relief. So he allows his soldiers to go out and die with honor.
Then it is back to the opening, except now we see Pingan admit that he is the traitor,a nd that he was offered a generalship and money from Cao Ying and took it because he had nothing in his army. Zhilong forgives him and goes out to battle, and the two of them die.
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Enjoyable overall, but why add more to a story that is so ridiculously long already. They didn’t need to add Pingan, and it was obvious he was the traitor from way too early on. I would rather have had a story that more closely followed the book, instead of adding stuff on. Still overall and enjoyable and bloody popcorn film.
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