I know I have been talking about film Chi Bi ‘Red Cliff’ for a while, and I promised I will let you know the background of this film.
However, I struggled to tell you the story!
It’s not easy, as the story happened in a chaotic time—the Three Kingdom Period in Chinese history. It is about 220-280 AD. Not long after one of the greatest dynasties in Chinese history, Han, lost control of its country.
As it involved in 3 kingdoms, I found a map on Wikipedia which will give you some ideas where these 3 kingdoms were and why battle of Red Cliff was decisive for them.
The three kingdoms were Wèi , Shǔ , and Wú . Wèi in the north, led by Prime Minister Cao Cao; Shǔ in the south west, led by warlord Liu Bei; and Wú in the south east, led by warlord Sun Quan.
The Han emperor was under Cao Cao’s control, and he used the rebels, Liu and Sun, as an excuse to persuade the Han emperor to send him to south and regain control of these areas. Cao’s got numerical superior forces of army, so Liu and Sun allied together and successfully frustrated Cao Cao's effort to conquer the land south of the Yangtze River and reunite the territory of the Eastern Han Dynasty.
This is a decisive battle to ensure the survival of Liu and Sun’s power in south, and it gave them control of the Yangtze area. This battle also provided a line of defence that was the basis for the later creation of the two southern kingdoms of Shǔ and Wú.
This is the basic story background. If you would like to know more detail information. Please check links below.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_Kingdoms
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Red_Cliffs
Three kingdoms period is one of the most chaotic time in Chinese history. The official record is called the Records of Three Kingdoms (三国志 Sānguó Zhì).
However the Romance of the Three Kingdoms (三国演义 sānguó yǎnyì), written by Luo Guanzhong in the 14th century, is more popular for most of the Chinese people. It is a Chinese historical novel based upon events in the turbulent years near the end of the Han Dynasty and the Three Kingdoms era of China, starting in 169 and ending with the reunification of the land in 280. It is also one of the 4 greatest novels in China’s history.
In director John Woo’s interview, he said this film will use primarily the historical record Chronicle of the Three Kingdoms (or Romance of the Three Kingdoms) as a blueprint for the Battle of Red Cliffs, rather than the historical novel Romance of the Three Kingdoms. This means the film is less exaggerated.
As most Chinese people know the stories of the Three Kingdoms, John Woo didn’t give much explanation of the background of the battle. And that means most westerners simply get lost and don’t know what is going on when watching it in cinema.
As the battle involved with 3 kingdoms, and it’s all about strategies they used in battle, friendships, and their ambitions, this film has got hundreds of roles with hundreds of Chinese names to remember. And believe in me, I am a Chinese, but I find it difficult to remember all the names and their positions in this film. That is another reason why most people cannot follow up the plot.
Another reason some people can’t understand this film is it is a 280 minutes film but has been cut into 148 minutes when released outside Asia. I was lucky that I watched part of the film when I was back in Taiwan for holiday this March and I found out some parts missing when I went to watch it again in cinema here. Some of the scenes are quite important and play as important bridges to link other scenes.
Translation is always a problem in Chinese films. I don’t mean the translation is not good, I meant some traditional concepts simply don’t have equivalent translations. It’s happening again and again in Chinese films. They always give near translation but not the message behind the words.
To the film itself, more introduction and details can be found on Wikipedia.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Cliff_(film)
The plot below is from Wikipedia and it’s the ‘full version’ plot. If you watch ‘Red Cliff’ here, you will notice lots of the scenes are missing.
Part 1
In the summer of AD 208 during the Eastern Han Dynasty, the imperial army led by Chancellor (or Prime Minister) Cao Cao embarks on a campaign to eliminate the southern warlords Sun Quan and Liu Bei in the name of eliminating rebels, with the reluctant approval of the Emperor. Cao Cao's mighty army swiftly conquers the southern province of Jingzhou and the Battle of Changban is ignited when Cao Cao's cavalry unit starts attacking the civilians who are on an exodus led by Liu Bei.
During the battle, Liu Bei's followers, including his sworn brothers Guan Yu and Zhang Fei, give an excellent display of their legendary combat skills by managing to hold off the enemy while buying time for the civilians to retreat. The warrior Zhao Yun fights bravely to rescue his lord Liu Bei's entrapped family but only succeeded in rescuing Liu's infant son.
Following the battle, Liu Bei's chief advisor Zhuge Liang sets forth on a diplomatic mission to Wu to form an alliance between Liu Bei and Sun Quan to deal with Cao Cao's invasion. Sun Quan was initially in the midst of a dilemma of whether to surrender or resist, but his decision to resist Cao Cao hardens after Zhuge Liang's clever persuasion and a subsequent tiger hunt with his Grand Viceroy Zhou Yu and his sister Sun Shangxiang. Meanwhile, naval commanders Cai Mao and Zhang Yun from Jingzhou pledge allegiance to Cao Cao and were received warmly by Cao, who placed them in command of his navy.
After the hasty formation of the alliance, the forces of Liu Bei and Sun Quan call for a meeting to formulate a plan to counter Cao Cao's army, which is advancing slowly towards Red Cliff at godspeed from both land and water. The battle then begins with Sun Shangxiang leading a light cavalry unit to lure Cao Cao's vanguard army into the Eight Trigrams Formation laid down by the allied forces.
Cao Cao's vanguard army is utterly defeated by the allies but Cao Cao shows no disappointment and proceeds to lead his main army to the riverbank directly opposite the allies' main camp where they laid camp. While the allies throw a banquet to celebrate their victory, Zhuge Liang thinks of a plan to send Sun Shangxiang to infiltrate Cao Cao's camp and serve as a spy for them. The duo maintain contact by sending messages via a pigeon. The film ends with Zhou Yu lighting his miniaturised battleships on a map based on the battle formation, signifying his plans for defeating Cao Cao's navy.
Part 2
Sun Shangxiang has infiltrated Cao Cao's camp and she has been secretly noting details and sending them via a pigeon to Zhuge Liang. Meanwhile, Cao Cao's army is seized with a plague of typhoid fever which kills a number of his troops. Cao Cao cunningly orders the corpses to be sent to the allies' camp, hoping to pass the plague on to his enemies. The allied army's morale is affected when some unsuspecting soldiers let the plague in, and eventually a disheartened Liu Bei leaves with his forces while Zhuge Liang stays behind to assist the Wu forces.
Cao Cao hears that the alliance had collapsed and is overjoyed. At the same time, his naval commanders Cai Mao and Zhang Yun propose a new tactic of interlocking the battleships together with iron beams to minimize rocking when sailing on the river and reduce the chances of the troops falling seasick.
Subsequently, Zhou Yu and Zhuge Liang make plans on how to eliminate Cao Cao's naval commanders Cai Mao and Zhang Yun, and produce 100,000 arrows respectively. They agreed that whoever fails to complete his mission will be punished by execution under military law. Zhuge Liang's ingenious strategy of borrowing of arrows with straw boats brought in over 100,000 arrows from the enemy and aroused Cao Cao's suspicions about the loyalty of Cai and Zhang towards him.
On the other hand, Cao Cao sends Jiang Gan to persuade Zhou Yu to surrender, but Zhou Yu tricks Jiang Gan instead, into believing that Cai Mao and Zhang Yun are planning to assassinate their lord Cao Cao. Both Zhuge Liang and Zhou Yu's respective plans complement each other when Cao Cao is convinced, despite earlier having doubts about Jiang Gan's report, that Cai and Zhang were indeed planning to assassinate him by deliberately 'donating' arrows to the enemy. Cai and Zhang are executed and Cao Cao realised his folly afterwards but it was too late.
In the Wu camp, Sun Shangxiang returns from Cao Cao's camp with a map of the enemy formation. Zhou Yu and Zhuge Liang decide to attack Cao Cao's navy with fire after knowing that there is a special climatic condition known only to Wu's forces, that the South-East Wind (to their advantage) would blow sometime soon.
As the Wu forces made preparations for the fire attack, Huang Gai proposes to Zhou Yu the Self-Torture Ruse to increase their chances of success, but Zhou Yu does not heed it. Before the battle, the forces of Wu have a final moment together, feasting on glutinous rice balls to celebrate the Winter Festival.
Meanwhile, Zhou Yu's wife Xiao Qiao heads towards Cao Cao's camp alone secretly, in hope of persuading Cao Cao to give up his ambitious plans but she fails and decides to distract him instead to buy time for the Wu forces.
The battle begins when the South-East Wind starts blowing in the middle of the night and the Wu forces launch their full-scale attack on Cao Cao's navy. On the other hand, Liu Bei's forces, which had apparently left the alliance, start attacking Cao Cao's forts on land. By dawn, Cao Cao's entire navy has been destroyed.
The allied forces launch another offensive on Cao Cao's ground army, stationed in his forts, and succeeded in breaking through using testudo formation despite suffering heavy casualties. Although Cao Cao is besieged in his main camp, he manages to holds Zhou Yu hostage after catching him off guard together with Cao Hong. Xiahou Jun appears as well holding Xiao Qiao hostage and causes the allied forces to hesitate. In the nick of time, Zhao Yun manages to reverse the situation by rescuing Xiao Qiao with a surprise attack and put Cao Cao at the mercy of the allied forces instead. Eventually, the allied forces decide to spare Cao Cao's life and tell him never to return before leaving for home. In the final scenes, Zhou Yu and Zhuge Liang are seen having a final conversation before Zhuge Liang walks away into the far distance with the newborn foal Mengmeng.
Personally I think ‘Battle of Red Cliff’ is not an easy subject to talk about, and John Woo is brave to pick up this subject and make it into a film. As it is one of the most familiar and favourite stories in Romance of the Three Kingdoms, lots of Chinese people criticized this film. But I think it is still worth watching. Now as you understand the background of the story, you will be able to enjoy this film more, at least more than most of the westerners in cinema.
Enjoy the film, and wish all of you a nice weekend!
Cindy
Cindy
