a5c7b9f00b In 208 A.D., in the Han Dinasty of China, the tyrannic and greedy Prime Minster Cao Cao forces the reluctant Emperor Han to declare war against the kingdoms of Liu Bei and Sun Quan in the South of China. Cao Cao heads with a mighty army of one million soldiers and attacks Liu Bei. His advisor and war strategist Zhuge Liang heads to South in a diplomatic mission trying to convince Sun Quan to join force with Liu Bei against the powerful warlord. When Zhuge Liang meets the viceroy Zhou Yu, he succeeds in his assignment with the alliance of the two kingdoms against Cao Cao. The armies fight against each other in many battles until the final one in Red Cliff where guile, knowledge and strategy prevail. In 208 A.D., in the final days of the Han Dynasty, shrewd Prime Minster Cao Cao convinced the fickle Emperor Han the only way to unite all of China was to declare war on the kingdoms of Xu in the west and East Wu in the south. Thus began a military campaign of unprecedented scale, led by the Prime Minister, himself. Left with no other hope for survival, the kingdoms of Xu and East Wu formed an unlikely alliance. Numerous battles of strength and wit ensued, both on land and on water, eventually culminating in the battle of Red Cliff. During the battle, two thousand ships were burned, and the course of Chinese history was changed forever. At 4 hours, 30 minutes, Chi Bi (or Battle of Red Cliff) was never going to be a commercial sell-out film. Instead it focused on delivering an expertise in storytelling, without overdoing and putting less focus on individual scenes (unlike many movies based on outside work). With this, each scene is as spectacular as the next, and so much depth and focus was put into each event that it would not seem as if the director cared much for how much time the movie would run for. Such dedication is an inspiration to modern movies to not let commercial value get in the way of tremendous storytelling, and this movie is indeed a landmark in modern film-making and a classic for our time, especially when most film makers are more interested in making money than to share a story for the world to be fascinated upon.<br/><br/>The actors themselves depicted their characters greatly which surprised me as I was sceptical prior to watching the movie at how these heroes would be portrayed after seeing many Three Kingdoms movie flops. The strategies in this movie is a stunning example of the wonders of the art of war, and Chi Bi is a truly astonishing war epic capable of rivalling the works of J.R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings. I thought this is going to be another sad China dark, kungfu focus film. <br/><br/>I was surprise to see this film with quality in all level of entertainment. This is one film that is really made with intelligence. From conversation, strategy, film direction, and music. The war is so smartly planned out. And the best of all is that it is base on a true Chinese historical event with real characters back to life again. <br/><br/>I can say this is one of the best movies I have watched in my life. Having this movie breaking up into two parts is a great move!!! This first part of the movie ended nicely. I am so glad they didn't try to put everything in to just one film<br/><br/>Go watch it, you will be laughing, clapping, wowing, touched, and heart pumping! It is a fully entertaining and intelligent film and super cool ! Definitely Oscar worthy !!! Camp, over-the-top and entirely unbelievable: in short, the best thing John Woo has made in years. Due to the Cinematograph Films (Animals) Act 1937 scenes containing violence to animals have to be cut in the UK. Therefore both versions, the international cut and the original cut - both available on DVD in the UK - were censored accordingly. You can find a comparison between the cut international version (UK) and the uncut international version here. and a comparison between the cut original version (UK) and the uncut original version here. In order to make the whole project much more attractive for international audiences, an International Version was created, that features both Red Cliff movies cut into one movie. Producer Terence Chang said the following: "We wanted to make a Hollywood blockbuster in Chinese that would appeal to non-Asian audiences as well. We worked very hard to create a version of the film that maintains the integrity of the action and character development of the story, while excising some of the cultural details that could be considered unnecessary for Western audiences not intimately familiar with the historical mythology."