赤壁之戰

[赤壁之戰]

The movie [赤壁] is coming soon... and I've already been pretty flustered over the loads of stupid questions from people around me. (Heck, you could be one of them). This is technically a guy's film, but one would most likely see more girls in the threatres than guys, whom most will finish the entire film and exit the threatre with a bucketful of drool and without an idea of the movie plot at all... (ok, this is a sweeping statement...)

Literally translating "赤壁" into "Red Cliffs" would have void the whole meaning.

Engravings over a thousand years old, on a cliff wall near modern Chibi City, Hubei.

I already know the many girls around me who are anxious over being the first one to watch the film BECAUSE of Tony Leung (as Zhou Yu) and Takeshi Kaneshiro (as Zhuge Liang)...

Well, the boys have Vicky Zhao (as Sun Shang-Xiang) and Lin Chi-Ling (as Xiao-Qiao) though...

BUT PLEASE... get your facts right before you go watch this film... dun go in and drool.... and come out asking lotsa stupid questions...

I already have people asking me the below stupid questions:
1) Zhuge Liang is good guy or bad guy?
2) Then what about Cao Cao? Good or bad?
3) Why is it called 赤壁?

My view: All are GOOD GUYS; whoever risks their lives for the sake of their nations / territories are HEROS to their own country. They just happened to have different lords and come from different sides...

................

Zhou Yu (starring Tony Leung), from [Wu 吳], Sun Ce's sworn brother. After Sun Ce's died, his brother, Sun Quan, succeeded the throne, and appointed Zhou Yu as his Naval Commander.
Zhuge Liang (starring Takeshi Kaneshiro), also known as 孔明, or 臥龍, is from the [Shu 蜀] side. I will kill you if you dunno who this fella is...

Sun Shang-Xiang (starring Vicky Zhao), sister to Sun Quan and Sun Ce, wedded Liu Bei.

Sun Quan (starring Zhang Zhen), from [Wu 吳], son of Sun Jian, and succeeded his eldest brother, Sun Ce, at the age of 18.Xiao Qiao (starring Lin Chi-Ling), wife to Zhou Yu. Xiao Qiao's name was not in the historical records, hence she and her older sister were simply referred to as Da-Qiao and Xiao-Qiao.
Cao Cao (starring Zhang Feng-Yi), from [Wei 魏]. This fella has a reputation for being the "bad guys"... to me, he united Northern China, and wanted to unify the rest of the China. He's good!

Zhao Zi Long (starring Hu Jun), also known as Zhao Yun, from [Shu 蜀] side. I have not much ideas about him...
Gan Xing / Gan Ning (starring Shido Nakamura), I have no freaking idea on this character... if you find this guy familiar, go re-watch Jet-Li's [霍元甲], he's the Japanese Judo fighter.

Some points to know:

• Records / Chronicles of the 3 Kingdoms = the historical facts...
• Romance of the 3 Kingdoms = Romanticised and exaggerated account...
• The 4 great classical novels of Chinese literature = 三國演義 /水滸傳 / 西遊記/ 紅樓夢
• The 3 Kingdoms period = 220BC - 280BC
• The 3 Kingdoms = [Wei 魏], [Shu 蜀], and [Wu 吳].
• The battle at 赤壁... simply put, its Cao Cao's [Wei 魏] side marching South-wards in an attempt to conquer and unify China. But they're met with the alliance / coalition army of Liu Bei's [Shu 蜀] and Sun Quan's [Wu 吳], preventing him from doing so...
• Why is it called 赤壁? Hmmm... actually I have no ideas too~

Now, who wants to treat me to the movies?