Review of Red Cliff

could feeling the numbness all over my right wrist. The dislocated disc does not really moving back to its original place. Well, it is obvious that I was carried something heavy just now. And it did make my hand feel horrible right now. How could a disc be dislocated that easy?!

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went to watch the movie Red Cliff last night. Seriously disappointed against the movie. Regardless of the characters or the story, none of them had reach my expectation. Utterly disappointed,. And the worst thing is that the movie is to be released in 2 parts totaling 4 hours in length, with the first part premiering in July 2008 and the second in January 2009. Hmmm... It is well known that The Battle of Red Cliff is one of the few popular battles in the historical novel The Romance of Three Kingdoms. There were numbers of historical events which I supposed to be shown in part 1 since the story of The Battle of Red Cliff is really much to talk. For examples, Zhuge Liang sends his army to collect the enermy's arrows by using the grass-made battleships, alternatively known as 草船借箭 in mandarin, how Zhou Yu wants to kill Zhuge Liang due to his jealousy, Huang Gai suffers from beating in order to gain Cao Cao's trusting, alternatively known as 苦肉计 in mandarin, and so on...

though I had mentally prepared that the plot of movie might slightly different with the real historical novel, but I never thought that they did that much of changes. As I told Low, something was missing in the movie, and after I had re-checked the novel, it proved me right. Cao Cao's army was defeated by the allied army in the very first battle of the Red Cliff in San Jiang Kou, but not using the Eight Triagrams Formation. In fact, the Eight Triagrams Formation was used by Zhuge Liang in the another battle which is utterly not related with The Battle of Red Cliff. Second, Cao Cao was asked his soldier to kill the Zhou Yu's letter deliverman. On the contrary, it should be Zhou Yu killed Cao Cao's deliverman when he feels that Cao Cao was looking down on him after Zhou Yu had received the letter which is written by cao Cao. Third, Liu Bei supposed to throw his own son on the ground when he found that Zhao Yun took a risk to save his only son. ETC.

hmmm... okay, 'bout the characters. To me, the movie specially emphasizes certain number of actors or actress. For instance Xiao Qiao, the character is not that important actually. Even without her existence, it would not affect the movie. Instead, I would like to see Huang Gai more than Xiao Qiao in the story. At least Huang Gai is a person who plays an essential role in deceiving Cao Cao. Also, the movie should emphasize the complicated relationship between Guan Yu and Cao Cao. 'cuz at the end of The Battle of Red Cliff, Guan Yu will be released Cao Cao in order to repay Cao Cao's kindness. And these are the scenes I wish to watch in part 1 instead of telling the audience how Zhao Yun saves Liu Bei's son or keep reminding us how strong and large in number the Cao Cao's army is, which we have already knew it.

to be concluded, it is definitely not a good idea to change a plot of well-known historical story. People might not be able to accept it. At least I am the one.

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next coming post...
the Big Apple Donut @ Tesco Extra
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