[Red Cliff Part II] Special Feature

[Red Cliff Part I] Special feature

Cast and Credits

Chinese Name: 赤壁: 决战天下 Chi Bi: Jue Zhan Tian Xia
Director: John Woo
Producer: Han SanPing, Terence Chang
Adapted Screenplay: John Woo, Chen Han, Guo Zheng, Sheng HeYu
Director of Photography: Lu Le, Zhang Li
Production and Costume Designer: Tim Yip
Action Director: Corey Yuen
Music: Taro Iwashiro
Genre: Epic/War

Starring

Zhao Wei 		as Sun ShangXiang
Tony Lueng 		as Zhou Yu
Takeshi Kaneshiro as ZhuGe Liang
Zhang FengYi	as Cao Cao
Chang Chen		as Sun Quan
Hun Jun		as Zhao Yun
Shidou Nakamura	as Gan Xing
Lin ChiLing		as Xiao Qiao
You Yong		as Liu Bei
Tong DaWei		as Sun ShuCai
Song Jia		as Li Ji
Hou Yong		as Lu Su
Zhang Shan		as Huang Gai
BaSen ZhaBu		as Guan Yu
Zang JinSheng	as Zhang Fei

Filming Locations: Beijing, Hebei
Release Dates (2009): January 7 (Mainland China), January 9 (Singapore), January 15 (Hong Kong, Taiwan), January 22 (Malaysia, Thailand), April 10 (Japan)
Length: minutes
Title Song: "Red Cliff～Da Jiang Dong Qu～" by Alan

Official Sites

Trailers

Chinese 1 (.FLV 4.88MB)
Chinese 2 (.FLV 7.44MB)
Korean (.WMV 14.8MB)
Japanese (.WMV 7.8MB)

Synopsis

Translated by ShenXianMeiMei(Canada)

Dressed in male garments, the courageous and skillful male impersonating Sun ShangXiang crossed the River to become a spy in the Cao Camp. There, she befriended Sun ShuCai, a Cao military officer. Later, the two had romantic developments. Sun ShuCai even recruited Sun ShangXiang into his Cuju (translator's note: Cuju is a ancient form of soccer invented in ancient China) team.

Not Acclimatized to the climate of the South, soldiers in Cao Cao's navy fell sick one after another, until an epidemic spreaded on a massive scale. Unmoved by what he saw, Cao Cao went as far as tossing the corpses of his sick soldiers into the Coalition Camp. Although Zhuge Liang was quick to act, the epidemic still spreaded in their camps. Many soldiers fell sick, thus the morale of the Allied Forces was deeply beaten. Liu Bei, Guan Yu, Zhang Fei, Zhao Yun and other army commanders also fled for their lives.

As the date of final battle approached, the Coalition's military strength were unfavorable. At the same time, it was in dire need of arrows. Thus, Zhuge Liang set a trap which would also help diminish the power of the Cao Army. Under heavy night fog, he sent twenty strawhut boats in a linear formation, and instructed the soldiers to put on the appearance of attacking Cao Cao's navy. Not knowing that it was a trap, Cao Cao ordered for archers to shoot arrows toward the boats in the distance instead of countering the alleged attack. Consequently, the tweenty strawhut boats returned triumphantly with over a hundred thousand arrows stuck on the outside of the boats. The next morning, suspecting that there might be spies in his army, Cao Cao discovered the letters that his two navy commanders had written to Zhou Yu (which were actually forged by Zhou Yu), in which the two expressed that they intended to gift a hundred thousand arrows to Zhou Yu as a token of appreciation for becoming the latter's subordinates. Cao Cao was furious, and ordered for the immediate beheading of the two. The navy soldiers were fearful that their ties with the executed navy commanders would cast a negative light on themselves, thus fled in all directions. They were subsequently captured and executed for betraying the Cao Camp and surrendering to the Allied Forces. Nonetheless, Cao Cao was still determined to launch an attack on the Coalition forces in a few days. He presented his views vehemently, and finally turned around the morale of the soldiers.

At the Red Cliff camp site, the Allied Forces planned to employ the fire attack to tackle Cao Cao's navy, since the latter's battle ships were all linked together. However, at the time of year, the predominate wind was the northernly wind. So it was highly possible that the Coalition's ships would catch fire instead if they were not careful. Meanwhile, Sun ShangXiang returned to the southshore with a map of the Cao Camp. The Coalition forces planned out their strategies according to this map.

Despite Zhou Yu's opposition, Xiao Qiao went to the Cao Camp alone, attempting to convince Cao Cao to withdraw his army, so that she could at least stall some time. In fact, Cao Cao had always liked Xiao Qiao, and at that moment, he was even more attracted to her beauty. Others went on to say that the purpose of Cao Cao initiating this battle was to gain Xiao Qiao's heart.

Meanwhile, Zhuge Liang reported to Zhou Yu that the next day would be Winter Solstice, and that according to the astronomical signs, the direction of the winds would change, so that the Allied Forces can proceed with their plan. Zhou Yu directed Dong Wu's army to quietly prepare for the battle, enveloping the Cao Camp from three direction on land as well as planting the battle ships of the navy in a linear formation, waiting for the easternly wind. As for Xiao Qiao, she continued to socialize with Cao Cao, in attempt to divert his focus.

The direction of the wind finally changed. Dong Wu's burning battle ships charged into Cao Cao's navy camp. Aided by the roaring winds, the Cao Camp immediately became a sea of flames as thousands of battle ships burned down to ashes. the Wu army also began attacking from land.

Cao Cao was caught off guard, but he quickly got back on his feet and ordered his elite cavalry to counterattack, chasing the Wu army to the edge of the River. It was then that Liu Bei arrived with his army, fighting off Cao Cao, and taking advantage of the opportunity to launch attacks on the latter's strongholds. Covered by Zhao Yun and Sun Quan, Zhou Yu rushed into the Cao Camp and rescued Xiao Qiao. Having almost lost his life, Cao Cao had no choice but to flee. His 830,000-man army was killed off to a few hundred people. Thus the Sun-Liu Coalition had achieved victory in the battle of Red Cliff.

Seeing the rout of the Cao Army, Zhuge Liang ordered for the troops to leave a way out for dejected Cao Cao, so that he can return to report on the completiong of the defeated mission to Emperor Xian of Han. Afterwards, Zhuge Liang reluctantly said farewell to Zhou Yu and Xiao Qiao.