Three Kingdoms Resurrection of the Dragon Description China's greatest literary classic Romance of the Three Kingdoms comes to the big screen in the period epic Three Kingdoms: Resurrection of the Dragon. Though big-budget Chinese epics have become a mighty familiar sight in recent years, the Three Kingdoms era and its fabled lore is rarely tackled in cinema, making this latest blockbuster from Daniel Lee (Dragon Squad, A Fighter's Blues) a groundbreaking effort. Deftly hitting screens before John Woo's Three Kingdoms adaptation Red Cliff, Resurrection of the Dragon is based on Luo Guangzhong's 14th-century novel which romanticizes the heroic exploits of Shu King Liu Bei and his larger-than-life generals and advisor. Maintaining his Mandarin period blockbuster streak after A Battle of Wits and The Warlords, Andy Lau stars as legendary general Zhao Zilong (better known as Zhao Yun), immortalized in both Luo's novel and in popular culture as the paragon of courage, charisma, and strength. Starting off as a foot soldier, Zhao rises quickly in the ranks to become the top general under Liu Bei (Ngok Wah). He becomes a living legend in his time with his undefeated record and staggering feats, including single-handedly rescuing Liu's infant son from the grips of Wei King Cao Cao (Damian Lau).
Through the many years of war, tides rise and ebb for the Kingdom of Shu and comrades fall one by one, leaving Zhao alone as the invincible general. With his legacy at stake, Zhao leads his final expedition against a Wei army now headed by Cao Cao's granddaughter Cao Ying (Maggie Q). Other than leading man Andy Lau and pan-Asian beauty Maggie Q (Mission: Impossible III), Resurrection of the Dragon features a stunning line-up of veteran actors including some of Hong Kong's greatest stars of yesteryear. Producer Sammo Hung serves as the narrator of the film in the role of Pingan, Zhao's ambitious friend of humble achievements. Damian Lau, Iron Monkey's Yu Rong Guang, and Shaw Brothers heroes Ngok Wah and Ti Lung light up the screen in welcome supporting appearances, while rising action stars Andy On and Vanness Wu lead the way for a new generation. Though it takes some liberal departures from history and the original novel, Three Kingdoms: Resurrection of the Dragon hits the mark with its epic story, sweeping images, and fierce characterization, gallantly capturing the life and times of Three Kingdoms hero Zhao Zilong.
- Nov 06, 2009 Mix - 三國之見龍卸甲 Three Kingdoms: Resurrection of the Dragon Opening Music [Revised Version] YouTube 三國之見龍卸甲 (2008) 配樂 Three.
- Buy 'Three Kingdoms: Resurrection Of The Dragon Original Soundtrack (OST) (Super ADMS SACD) (Limited Edition)' at YesAsia.com with Free International Shipping!
Buy 'Three Kingdoms: Resurrection Of The Dragon Original Soundtrack (OST) (Super ADMS SACD) (Limited Edition)' at YesAsia.com with Free International Shipping!
Www.yesasia.com Country: Chinese Status: Completed Released: 2008 Genre: Action, Drama, History, War. Coming Episode. Delayed. Delayed. Delayed. About 4 hours.
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Three kingdoms is a great Chinese masterpiece that is set in the era of the three kingdoms that ruled china. The cao, wu and liu dynasties were trying to unite china each under their own leadership and in a result it produces wars between the three houses for decades.
The story in this movie is told from the Liu's point of view and my god what a story that is. I don't know really why people are not giving this high ratings, it should be on the IMDb top 100. I guess most people that watch Chinese movies are in it because of the martial arts and people flying prospective. If you are looking for something like that then go watch house of the flying daggers or The Forbidden Kingdom because this movie is not about massive FX's and stunts. It simply tells a story with some battles shoved in.
The movie is quite emotional and the acting was superb. As for the directing it truly is brilliant, the battles were directed with passion and ingeniousness with great sound effects and slowmo shots that makes it even more desirable to watch over and over again. This is one movie that shouldn't be missed by Chinese history/mythology fans. Its a 10/10 and I don't care what other people might think, its just a masterpiece. Sad to say, I've only read the epic Romance of the Three Kingdom novels once in my lifetime to date, and an abridged English version at that. My only other contacts with this classic Chinese literature is with the China television series that I had to struggle with because the initial episodes came without English subtitles (i.e. Akin to watching a Shakespearean play for the very first time and marvelling at the richness in language used), and of course, the Koei computer game that so many peers of my generation would have played at one time or another.
And of course, one of my favourite general characters, was Zhao Zilong. Outside of the Liu- Bei-Guan-Yu-Zhang-Fei brotherhood together with their unsurpassed military strategist Zhuge Liang at their side, Zhao Yun had qualities like valour which I thought was exemplary, and an episode, though taken on a whole new spin in presentation where he goes rescue the infant son of Liu Bei, to demonstrate that, gets its fair share of airtime in this movie. As I mentioned in an earlier review of An Empress and The Warriors, we're getting plenty of such period war movies coming out in recent months, culminating perhaps with John Woo's highly anticipated Red Cliff, but amongst the recent releases, Three Kingdoms draws first blood. But I suspect that Red Cliff will probably blow all competition out of the water going by the trailer, though the final product remains to be proved this Summer.
Three Kingdoms rode on its star power to carry its relatively bland storyline forward, with Andy Lau as Zilong, Maggie Q as nemesis Cao Ying (who's male in the novel), Sammo Hung as newly created character/narrator Luo Pingan, and a whole host of supporting acts in Vanness Wu, Andy On, and even Ti Lung in a surprisingly nicely presented Guan Yu. You cannot fault the designs of the sets, the costumes (though of course some would complain it looks so Japanese), and I thought the weapons were eye-poppingly beautiful and intricately designed - you just have to take a look at Guan Yu's Green Dragon Crescent Blade! It's impossible to try and distill the entire classics into a 3-hour long movie, or even a trilogy would do its richness injustice, let alone a 2 hour one. While the runtime for John Woo's movies (in two parts?) is still not finalized, at least his focus is on one key, primary battle.
Resurrection of the Dragon's focus is on one man - Zhao Zilong, and in doing so, fairly summarized his tale from beginning to end, with plenty of artistic and dramatic license taken of course, where purist will probably have a field day discussing all the inaccuracies and departure from the source material. However in doing this, we do get to see familiar characters sharing the stage, albeit some given very little screen time.
And I don't think it's me who's feeling quite jaded from the clanging of weapons against armour. Here the one on one action scenes between characters are wonderfully choreographed by Sammo Hung himself, but the quick cuts, close ups, tight shots and dizzying camera work marred it all.
The battle sequences were worse, with fake blood splattered all over, and the usual hacking of limbs and demonstration of superhuman strength by its chief characters. It did offer some simple philosophical gems to ponder over in between all the chaotic fighting, but really the feeling you get out of the battle sequences, was that it was like a distant cousin to 300 styled choreography.
Don't expect any depth injected in most characters here too, as you can smell the plot revelation a mile away from the get go. I thought Maggie Q was wasted with a flower vase role that took less than 20 minutes of screen time just to snarl nastily, while Sammo Hung really relegated himself to the backseat choreographing the action.
Andy Lau, a real life hero, was probably the top draw here in putting bums in seats, but even he can't save the story from having to insert a needless hint at unattainable romance because of Zilong's sense of duty and obligation to serve his country, putting it first before (the starting of) family. On the whole, it's aesthetically beautiful but ringing really hollow. Let's hope John Woo's Red Cliff, with the return of some of our beloved characters from Romance of the Three Kingdoms, does some justice in its film adaptation of a key battle, even if we have to contend with flying doves and slow-motion handling and twirling of swords. Keep your fingers crossed! Andy Lau stars as a general who started as a foot soldier and worked his way up through the ranks after several acts of heroism.Thirty years on he's forced to fight one last battle against the daughter of an old enemy. Apparently based on the same source material (The Romance of the Three Kingdoms) that John Woo is using for his 5 hour Red Cliffs (due for release later this year) Here the 'epic' story is reduced to around 100 minutes of marching armies and battles. Any sense of plot is cast aside for the fighting and deep pronouncements.
To be fair the DVD I watched had barely coherent subtitles, but at the same time they were coherent enough to know that they really didn't have a great deal to translate. The plot lurches from thing to thing with very little explanation- or rather only explanation to carry the emotion. We're told things rather than shown things. The performances of Lau and Sammo Hung provide a great deal of emotion that isn't in the script. The bond between the two men and the emotion that they impart are the reason you watch the film, not for anything else.okay maybe the action.
As a film of epic action scenes its quite good. Its not great but it is is good in a retro old school style.
Its pretty pictures of armies fighting and it is entertaining, if rarely engaging (something the films scant dialog and character building prevents from ever happening). Never mind that coming as it does on the heels of the Jet Li masterpiece Warlords the film has a great deal to live up to since that earlier film had real characters and real action, two things this film never manages to achieve. Add to the mix the over use of slow motion and the film really isn't worth the trouble. Actually its worth looking at if you want to see the fighting and a couple of good performances. It seems as though it is only a half finished project. A first time joint venture- a major motion picture project put together by the Chinese and the Korean production teams, the Chinese took part in pre-production; from writing up the screen play to directing (a Chinese guy who made Jet Li's 'Black Mask), acting & filming while the Korean team took care of most of the post production (& funding), the CGI, and scoring. With almost unlimited amount of funding and the pool of world-class production talents in Asia, I cannot help but wonder how an opportunity like this could have gone this wrong.
The famous Chinese classic- the three kingdoms - is an epic war story that one could not find its proper match in its scale in any part of the world. The movie deserved more than only a 90 min. Why Why Why did the director and its team decide to cut out anything that resembled a real drama? Jhon Woo wanted to give the project a proper attention, so in his upcoming three kingdoms project,'the red cliff' he is devoting 4 hours to tell the story. The action sequences, camera works, set designs, costumes, and props, and even the score, you name it, they were all top notch. Why no Drama? Why could't the director decide to use another 30 more minutes to supplement the sheer absence of story-telling and the sufficient characterization of each of the major characters?
It would only have made the film 120 minutes, which is still within the main stream block buster length range. Besides I bet that anyone who came to see the movie must have expected something more of a. 'brave heart' type of epic story and heart wrenching human drama and understood appreciatively even if the movie went more than 2 hours. What a waste.indeed!!! I am a big fan of Three kingdoms and Any Lau, so i will always love any project that has anything to do with those 2 elements, but this one. A surprisingly disappointing project, indeed.
I gave it a 5 out of ten, because as I mentioned, the picture is only a half-finished and at least that half was pretty good. I think this movie is about heroes that doesn't get a step back from no enemy. It has his moments where like a metaphor try to show that a courage of one man can make much more to bow to him and be defeated.
Zilong is a true hero a idealistic soldier who fight for peace, his village, his lord and a dream of a family in a safe world. Andy Lau does a very good role here in the first part is young and fearless and doesn't seem so wise but when he look much older after 32 years he is just great a general who is like a rock unmovable, undefeated and named The Invicible General.I really like the epic moments when he is facing a army alone and he is going to freely give his life on the battlefield. Samo Hung as Luo Ping-An he plays also good giving life to a character who is invisible to the others and not a hero like Zilong wanting to be much more then the destiny has in mind for him.
And not the last Maggie Q is a strong feminine touch to the movie being a great strategist and a good warrior. The overall of the movie is don't miss it if u like war movies with heroes that doesn't fear death you will not be disappointed. The only drawback of the movie is the time much to less to present a truly epic feeling. He doesn't give enough time to all of the characters in the movie with much more potential. If it had like 160 minutes to show you each character as a great personality who fights for honor and strives to reach their goals it will really be a great movie.
Well, This is the first time that I came here. Actually, it is because of this movie made me come here!
Because he is a Korean Director, I can bear and forgive his unknowns about the real and reasonable history of Three Kingdoms of Ancient China. But there is something I can't bear, and I am sure nobody had known Ancient China can bear.
The costumes(or Amor), I am sure they are all Japannese Style! I am not want to cause any racism arguments, but it is Chinese History, what's hell you give the worries Japannese Amors?
Can I shoot a movie about Civil War of US but give them Ancient European Amors? And also there are many many unreasonable details about the story. Our Forums have discussed how bad and how stupid about this storyWell, I know most of u guys can't understand what I am saying. Overall, it is not a good story, but it may be a good WAR FILM which made people excited.
Another Chinese epic film filled with heroes, enormous battle scenes, amazing panoramas and some great actors. Sounds cool and like a sure winner yet its an enormous waste of money and talent. The battle scenes are a big disappointment. It would be fine if the writers/director/producers created a film that was small on battle scenes big on character development, plot development and dialog. Yet, the battle scenes are the majority of the film and there is no character development, very limited plot development and the dialog is boring and thankfully there's not much of it. The battle scenes are filled with short cuts which are extremely hard to follow.
One cut will have mounted units charging from left to right on the screen and then the next cut will show mounted units charging from right to left. Logically the viewer is led to believe that there are two opposing mounted units charging each other. A few cuts later it becomes apparent that all the mounted units are on the same side and chasing one guy.
The film spends 30-45 minutes on two battle sequences featuring a young Zilong, then 5-7 minutes on an elaborate ceremony featuring a middle aged Zilong and the rest of the film time is spent on the old Zilong. The cinematography is typical of recent Chinese epics overly beautiful (death never looked so pretty) and big on ceremony. The problem is that it was chopped up like almond-fried chicken. The cinematography could have been the saving grace of this film however it was edited by someone on crack. The result is that it is beautifully confusing.
If you are looking for another great or at least entertaining Chinese epic film look elsewhere. There really is no reason to watch this film unless you are curious to the point of being masochistic as I often am.
To be brief, this movie was a disappointment. The reasons are simple - it lacks any characterization, the whole story feels like a synopsis, not a full story. Scenes and images flashed by as if we are scanning (selected) pages of a novel, with no real details given. I thought Andy Lau was good for the role and I didn't even mind Maggie Q's role; the samurai-like armor; the Wei forces' helmets resembling Stahlhelms (Nazi helmets) and the Shu's are like British soldiers being so obvious. These are cosmetic and artistic choices and didn't pose as a serious distraction.
(The brief appearances of some other main ROTK characters were done just right and did provide a nice glimpse into what might have been part of a more romantic epic.) But still, give more meat to the story and characters, make it a real movie, not a hundred minutes long trailer. As usual, Chinese war movie is good. The action and the fighting of this movie is good. The dialog is also cool and the acting is awesome.
You'll be easily satisfied by watching the action without thinking the story line. But there is something that makes feel that this movie is not outstanding. It is the duration.
Vaness Wu, the second Liu Dynasty King and some others play too short. You can even skip them and not losing the story line. The girl is also play too short.
I might think that she is only a refreshing 'image' due to the dominating men scene. The ending is quite disappointing. The ending is that the dynasty was reunited by Jin Dynasty. The question is, who the hell is Jin? There are no dialog about it. Must we read the history book first to get the point? I'm sure that 90 minutes are too short for this movie.
Additional important scenes are truly needed to make this movie as a depth movie, not just a cool bloody kick-ass. Overall, it's a worth-enough movie to be watched. Not bad compared to Andy Lau previous Warlord and a good addition to colossal war movie, especially when that kind of movie is rare recently.
This is not a bad movie. While the plot line and story is simplistic the action scenes are OK.
I likened it to watching the game Dynasty warriors. Thats how the action scenes look. Armies charging at each other, individual battles with ONE person killing everything in sight, one swipe of the spear taking out everyone within reach, bodies flying and one person being able to defeat an army. The 3 Kingdoms is used as a back drop for this movie. It is only used to set the characters and the time period. At no point is there any plot concerning the 3 kingdoms.
The story is base on the military life of ZiLong. His enlistment as a recruit, how he won fame and became a general then it fast forwards to his last battle. No character development or even a story.
This is strictly an action movie. There have been many negative comments regarding costuming, especially how the armour look Japanese. I would say that most ancient armour look alike but in this case the producers have taken artistic license to up the 'cool' factor for the armour. The 1st thing i noticed were the helmets, British 'Tommy' Helmets and German 'Fritz' helmets. Also noticed how the more peaceful guys had the Tommy helmets and the invading hordes the Fritz helmets.
My main complain, not only with this movie but the made in China 'historical' epics is how it reeks of government propaganda. Divided nation/people and how sacrifices must be made of one self or of the people to achieve unity.
Trust the leaders, the sacrifice is for the good of the nation. Three kingdom: Resurrection of the Dragon tells about the legend of one famous General Zhao Yun in the Three Kingdom. But unfortunately, there are many flaws in this movie.
First, this movie is a little bit off from the actual history. I never knew that Zhao Yun started his first career as a soldier directly under Liu Bei.
He should been under a general name Gongsun Zan, before he changed his loyalty to Liu Bei. Then, there are Cao Ying and Luo Ping-An. Who the hell are they? Because as far as I know, the one who fought Zhao Yun in the last battle was Chao Zhen. Secondly, for the actor. I personally think that Andy Lau is well-suited as General Zhao Yun here. But the actor for both General Guan Yu and Zhang-Fei is a little bit out of the course.
While the actor who casted as Guan Yu seems too old, the actor's face who cast as Zhang Fei seems so childish. And the actor who played as Zhuge Liang looks like a traditional physician instead of a strategist. Generally, I would say, the casting is a minus here (except for Andy Lau, of course) For the story, it lacks explanation. There's no explanation for any act inside.
No briefing before wars, no strategy meeting before wars, no nothing. It just give off the conclusion of what is happening right now, and lead us directly into the war. And that too, is a minus. But still, I like the war in this. That's why I still give this movie a rating of 6, instead of 5.
Not good enough for all three kingdom fans. But if you're looking for just a war movies, than this is definitely for you. Andy Lau's been making war movies like they're going out of style, but his latest is a long arrow shot off the almost-classic A Battle of Wits, the anti-war actioner with the humane moral we liked so much. Three Kingdoms, which to its credit is at least somewhat historically accurate, is very much removed from anything to do with discouraging carnage. In fact, it's one of those patriotic affairs where the opening sequence (yet again) bemoans the land's splintering into hostile polities, and the need to consolidate. Not only have we seen exactly this kind of rhetoric a million times before, we've seen it in what feels like a million better, more fun movies.
This Three Kingdoms isn't about fun, it's a laborious film whose greatest achievement is squandering tremendous star power on trivialities and a formulaic story. Just to make sure you know, it's got Andy Lau, Sammo Hung, Maggie Q (why can't she just be Margaret Quigley we don't know), our beloved Andy On, Ti Long AND Yu Rongguang. Even with all of these obviously talented and well-trained professionals on board, Three Kingdoms still ends up a disappointment. And we won't even go into this being a DANIEL LEE flick. Yes, one of our fave directors in HK and the guy that kindly gave us awesome fare like Black Mask and Dragon Squad. OK, it's not all bad.
The basic premise is entirely trite but could have worked had it been treated well. We have one Zhao Zilong (Andy Lau), a regular guy from Changsha who joins the army in defense of his kingdom, one of three main ones competing for primacy over the realm. Yes, it's the story straight out of the novel and previous iterations, more or less, with sort of the same characters.
Zhao Zilong befriends senior troop Luo Pingan (Sammo Hung), who guides the younger man into combat, where Zhao promptly proves his mettle and proceeds to rise through the ranks until making it as a nigh on invincible hero general. Along the way he meets a cast of warriors, including Andy On and Vanness Wu in supporting and ultimately unfulfilled roles (and some awkward hairwork on the part of makeup).
On the opposing side, we find Maggie as warlordess Cao Ying, aided by her general Han. None of these characters get sufficient room to breathe and grow, resulting in something more akin to Konami's Dynasty Warriors there's constant hacking and slashing, with protagonists hard to believe since they're so powerful but with no likable goal. The only motivation seems to be a jingoistic 'unite the word by killing everyone', which is fair enough, but not enough to make a film good. The battle sequences aren't the best, and you've sat through much more exciting ones very recently. There's some good CGI blood splattered all over the shop, which is an added bonus, but the inverse ninja law here simply isn't as amusing as it usually is the two Andies go through so many enemy black armors it's literally not funny anymore, proof positive that if you want to make a massive swordplay movie, either endow it with a strong, heartfelt message, or render it a la the insane wuxia of the early to mid '90's.
As it stands, Three Kingdoms is like Zhang Yimou's Hero without the pretty, artistic visuals and buzz power, or like Musa without the visceral grit and cynicism. On the plus side, Three Kingdoms ends by mentioning the Jin dynasty, one of history's less remembered mainland dynasties.
Yes, we get to avoid another heralding of Qin Shihuang. This isn't trying to go heavy-handed on the movie.
I'm sure they worked hard and meant well, but the end result isn't satisfying not even close. For sure we'll be getting better stuff soon both from the director and his cast. Skip this one, you won't be missing much.
I like eastern movies, that are build around dynasties and wars and such. Even a lesser effort like this can be entertaining for me.
I've said it before though, since I've watched MUSA, no other movie has come close to that! It's difficult to make another one, that would be in the same vein. While this one couldn't hold up to that, it's not able to hold up to other movies too (even from recent future, like THE WARLORDS, with Jet Li and Andy Lau). All in all, this is quite nice, the action is decent, the story moves along with a good pace and it's quite enjoyable overall. If you will like it or not, depends on your view of movies in that genre/vein.
Just don't expect anything great and you won't be disappointed! Zhao Zhilong, a legend might not want to spend his hard earned money on this movie about his life. Really, i think this movie doesn't quite live it up to the hype that it should be, and if you had watched 'The Warlords' before this one, you'll really be disappointed with the whole setup of plot and action.
I give credit, the costumes are quite decently well done, the only complain i have is that the soldiers, commanders and Maggie Q's Cao Ying are too Japanese armoured. Yes, their armour reminds me abit of those armour worn by soldiers, samurais during the warring period. I wouldn't have minded if both Shu and Wei had the same armour but different color in this case. I give credit also for the work done for Andy Lau when he appeared as an aged Zhilong, the make up really bring out the age and favour when you see the aged Zhilong. Other than that, the plot strings itself quite weakly with some narration to string the viewers from one event to another. Fact is, it almost felt like those cut scenes in video games, where they want to bring you right into the action.
And that's how it felt at some points of the movie. I just felt that it could be far better executed.
The action scenes are nothing much to write home too. Like i said before, if you had watched 'The Warlords', you'll find it a yawn. I'm not implying i want a lot of violence and gore, but there wasn't much intensity in the fights, from the soldier to soldier clashing up to duels between characters, i just feel a lack of intensity in most of the battle scenes. You will get to see some additional 3 Kingdom characters appearing in this movie, and I really think some of the casting of characters is quite wrong. The 2 big disappointment for me was how Guan Yu looked liked (way too short!) and the casting for Guan Xi. All in all, i wouldn't catch this movie again honestly, wouldn't recommend it.
To end off in a positive note, i do have to say that Andy Lau is able to play a decent Zhao Zhilong, just felt bad the movie doesn't really help to showcase his role! The posted review for this film is a disgrace. I agree that It's not a very good film but the reviewer stunned me with his/her towering ignorance. Here's a few points: 1) The romance of the three kingdoms was not a civil war, China wasn't even a united country until afterwards when victory was attained. 2) The reference to more modern British and Nazi helmets is idiotic. The similarity is to first world war helmets anyway so they would be German not Nazi for starters. Secondly everything in the film is traditionally Chinese so why are helmets any different.
Thirdly there were no 'goodies' or 'baddies' so why do they want to subtly want to make us think that. Finally you don't think that two designs for protective headgear might just look similar. 3) Agreed, poor (non existent) characters and objective story telling. But the romance of the three kingdoms is a story which spans many years and a number of lifetimes and has countless characters. It should really have been a trilogy or a series. They really bitten off more than they could chew.
Before you go and write something make sure you at least have a clue what you're talking about please. I suspect too many reviewers on this site to have an extra chromosome or two. Come on and put in a little more effort eh. The top review I see on here asks why this movie isn't getting higher ratings. I counter: why should it? What should be a masterful story is ruined by absolutely poor directing. This movie seeks to do such much in a short amount of time.
Three Kingdoms Resurrection Of The Dragon Wikipedia
If this movie were another hour long, maybe they could've squeezed everything in. Instead, you have back stories that don't get fleshed out, people who become major characters out of nowhere and then suddenly its supposed to be emotional when they get killed, and decades of time passing with barely any filler of what happened in that time. And what is up with the ending? There is no catharsis, there is no meaning behind any of the actions that occur, there is just superfluous and emptiness.
And why even throw in that hint of a love story? Nothing ever gets spoken of it again. Everything that occurs is just pointless. If you are looking for a Chinese war movie simply to pass some time, this is watchable. Beyond that, there are many other movies in that genre that are more enjoyable and well crafted.
2 stars for action sequences and the 5 pieces of costume mustered to make this film. Enough people have mentioned the horrible armour design so I won't get into it. Where do I start? Zilong is Zhao Yun's courtesy name. Do not throw it around like sardines as this movie did since it is Zhao Yun is what he is more commonly, rightfully known as and referred to. Changshan, where Zhao Yun is from, is located North East of China.
It is also one of the earlier territory annexed by the Wei kingdom (the antagonists of this film). The screenwriter brings it up relentlessly since he knows nothing more about Zhao Yun's well documented genealogy. So the scene where people were celebrating that he became a well known general is utter cow dun, unless its people want to get sacked by their own kingdom. So the supposed plot of Zhao Yun making a 'last stand' at Changshan to complete the 'full circle' that is his life is ridiculous. Changshan has been chilling way behind the front-line for a long time. Zhao Yun was not born a peasant, as the movie portrays him to be.
He was born of Han's warrior elites and served a northern lord by the name of Gongsun Zan prior to serving Liu Bei. He was also well acquainted with Liu, Guan, Zhang way before the battle of Xinye - the battle the movie opened with (note for director to google). Therefore, the scene where Zhang Fei not knowing who Zhao Yun is and fighting him makes no sense. What resurrection of the dragon? What resurrection? Who is that chubby guy?
You actually need to put in an incompetent and jealous supporting role just to make Zhao Yun seem more awesome? If you've read half a page on Zhao Yun, you would've handful of material to justify why he is the most bad-ass person you've ever known.
Instead you resorting to pulling an underdeveloped and one-dimensional character out of thin air just to kill more of your audiences brain cells. Talking about stupid roles. What is point of of Maggie Q's character?
Wei, the dominant kingdom during all of three kingdom period, with an endless pool of talented generals are all the sudden so incompetent that they need Cao Cao's grand-daughter to lead and fight front-line battles for them? There is a truck load of ACTUAL female, more relevant, compelling characters for Maggie Q to portray if it is imperative that you give your top billed actress some screen time.
Without Maggie Q to fill your empty film you'd be losing money, I know. Yes Zhao Yun out-lived most of his kick-ass contemporaries. But for him to still be chilling when Shu falls is nonsense.
AND THAT CHUBBY GUY, who is supposed be older than Zhao Yun, IS ALSO ALIVE!!! He must be pushing 170. The ending, where Mr. Chubby is like 'Three kingdom is now one, and it's called Jin', and then half quote the Ming Dynasty poem that was part of the lyrics for the opening credit song for the Three Kingdom TV series from 1994 is more hastily done than a conclusion to C students paper after he pulls an all-nighter for a course no one cares about. Where is my puke bucket? Daniel Lee, before you decide on taking what little creative liberty you have on classic material, read a book, feed your imagination, it is starving.
But I guess that is not your style judging by the other abomination titles you've created. If I didn't have to endure this film for research on bad film making, it'd be in my furnace 5 minutes in. But to look on the bright side now I know to stay away from anything with your name on it.
On the surface this movie had everything. Sammo Hung directing the fight scenes and acting in a major role. Maggie Q in a Chinese speaking action role.
Some amazing scenery and sets. But sadly it is quite a dull movie, probably because the direction and script were also dull. Chi Leung took an interesting story and made it boring. The action scenes were not bad but seemed to have no point to them. The story was hard to follow and at points you lose interest in it. Who is who is confusing and the characters are not well rounded out, so much so that this feels like a movie full of extras and no stars. Magge Q is excellent but too underused and her character is just not evil enough.
Any Lau may as well not have been in the movie as he is as dull as can be. So a wasted opportunity when this could have been so much better. Based on the classical 'The Romance of the Three Kingdoms' Daniel Lee ventures back to one of the most important eras of Chinese history - the time of the titular Three Kingdoms, of ever-lasting conflict and battles, which formed many a legend. Here focus is directed to the famed and glorified general Zhao Zilong (an ever-pleasing Andy Lau), a supposedly undefeated warrior, who brought glory to the the kingdom of Liu Bei. Backed by the military genius of Zhuge Liang (Cunxin Pu) and the remaining Five Tiger Generals, the heroes bathed in glory.
Opulent, radiant the settings, scenery, cinematography, lighting and general art direction borders on perfection with each shot nurtured and tended too is this lavish epic. With appropriate heroic pathos to accompany the story-telling Zhao Zilong is presented as a chaste and immaculate warrior, as if almost striving towards a Buddhist transcendence. Unrivalled in battle, loved by all men and glorified even by contemporaries, Zhao shines even when riding out by himself against an entire army.
Naturally such a directorial choice can't be criticised, similarly as chanson de geste type poems are what they are: glorified monuments of heroic deeds, unabashedly singing praise to the main protagonist. In a take it or leave it deal, Zhao Zilong is a hero, unfailing and relentless in pursuit of unification of the kingdoms, even in tragedy a man suit for tall tales of glory. However 'Three Kingdoms' falters due to one rather overbearing glitch: lack of middle story. The depiction of Zhao Zilong's life basically limits itself to an extravagant presentation of two moments of his story: the beginning and the end of his legend. Unfortunately Daniel Lee fails to even trouble himself with building any back-story to the character (who was he?
Where did he come from? What motivated him?) or worse yet fails to build any backbone to Zilong, instead fast-forwarding us from his initial feat of bravery as a young man, straight into the time of him being an elderly general, the sole remaining of the Five Tiger Generals, right before what was to be his final battle. The whole context of in between is forfeited, thus never even truly affording the audience an understanding as to the prominence of his battle achievements or allowing him to build an emotional connection with viewers. Such a thinly presented story is however aptly summarised in the fading line of the movie itself 'How many things before and after fade into gossip and laughter.' Well, it is actually a nice movie.
Some good fighting scenes and nice music. BUT, it is only a nice movie, if you don't know anything about the actual novel or history this movie should be based on. For people who know the novel or history, you can say the movie is just painful to watch, at least for me. Let me give you an comparison: Since it should be based on a novel, let's take LotR. So, you know the story of LotR, you read the novel and you just love it.
Now they make a movie out of it and it will be like that: Legolas is the main character(which is fine, since we all like him). And it is about his life, how he should be a great, undefeated warrior(oh, and he is wearing a Roman armor). He started as a pawn under King Aragorn and worked all his way up and during that he hat an fight with Boromir and Theoden. And at the end he fought against the granddaughter of Sauron(you think: what the heck? I have the same thought, when I watched this movie), who is leading Sauron's army(when she was young, Sauron took her to battles with him) and ended up loosing to her and dies. Ah, by the way. Gandalf looks like a beggar and fortune teller.
Universal termsrv.dll patch windows 10. So you see my problem with the movie? It doesn't really have anything to do with the novel.
It just borrowed the names and some events. So, if you don't know the novel or the story of the Three Kingdom, go ahead and watch it. It's pretty amusing. But if you DO know the story and want a movie which fits to it. Don't watch it!!!
It will destroy your image of the heroes in the novel. Wait for the Red Cliff movie this summer =D So it is only my opinion. Thanks for reading it. Those who are not familiar with the 'Three Kingdoms' period in the history of China will be able to take the movie objectively as presented, character and all.
Those who are (regardless of whether through the immensely popular classic novel or through academic studies) may not like the movie. While I am reasonably familiar with the background story (through the novel), the following comments are written from the perspective of the former. While the movie borrows liberally background and characters from The Three Kingdoms, it tells its own story of the fatalistic nature of war. With its welcomed simplicity, the plot allows the movie makers to focus on this theme.
The story is told, voice over, by professional soldier Luo Ping-an (Sammo Hung) who gets nowhere after decades of service while watching Zhao Zilong (Andy Lau), a young lad he recruited initially rise to become the most revered general. With impeccable loyalty to the Zu Kingdom through its rise and decline, Zhao comes full circle, after 30 years, to the same place where he made his name. In his final battle, he faces Cao Ying (Maggie Q), the granddaughter of the enemy he once humiliated, now sworn to avenge her grandfather.
This movie is a solid, well-crafted piece of coherent work. Andy Lau is perfect for the role of the hero.
Maggie Q has demonstrated before that she is more than just a pretty face when it comes to gritty action. In this movie, she also projects the ferocious intensity inherited from a grandfather, a ruthless, cunning emperor and warrior. The action is second to none, particularly the stunning combat scenes on horseback.
The photography does full justice to the savagely beautiful landscape and desolate mood. There is also a scene when the haunting sound of the pipa takes the horror of the slaughter in the battlefield to a new dimension. This movie is among the very best in its genre in recent memory. If on other three kingdoms serials or movies, we watched the history of The Three Brothers: Liu Bei, Guan Yu & Zhang Fei, how they started known each other, became brothers with the same goal, and defeated in the end, So on this movie we would know more about 'One of The 5 Tigers General', Zhao Zi Long (子龍) a.k.a Zhao Yun.
Since he joined Liu Bei's Shu Han army, The rescue of Liu Shan (Liu Bei's only son) in Changban, and his end. This film focus on him.
Of course we can't doubt Andy Lau's acting skill. But the minus point is the film story is a little bit different with the history/novel. And it's too 'little' to show about the great things Zi Long did actually.
Because of that you have to know at least a few history about three kingdoms (3 brothers) before, or you will not interest much with this film. If you do, the same as me, will like it much! For some scenes, I need tissues. I was so exciting when i got to know the film is released. I drag my girl friend go to the cinema immediately, she was not so exciting but i persuaded she having a try.
Then, during the show, we were all deeply moved. She cried and can not stop being emotional even we got to home. Today i check IMDb and see a low score and low remark of this film, i'm so disappointed. IMDb provide a platform for global audience, however for this story, only those who understand Chinese history and have three kingdom story with their growing up can give a fair remark.
I've been watching Hollywood movie since i was a boy. This version of three kingdom is the best three kingdom story i've seen and the best movies i've seen. Better than brave heart, godfather, the legend of fall etc. 'Three Kingdoms: Resurrection of the Dragon' is an action movie that uses some history to justify lots of fights, too many close-ups, and some hammy dialogue. It makes for ninety-odd minutes of average fun, but not much more.
The story is easy to follow: We have Andy Lau's Zilong, the unbeatable general, and. Well, that's basically it. He goes around, has fights, looks like he's constipated (actually Lau's acting is good enough) and talks a lot. All of this with the fights between some kings (or emperors) for the unification of China as the background of the story.
It will be easier to follow the story if you know a little bit of the hi-story. But it could be about anything, really, if it was for the plot. But if there's not much plot, and the characterization and acting is just average, what makes the movie interesting? Well, the fights are acceptable, and you have your good share of them.
And even if the dialogue falls into the cheesy type, all this bigger-than-life speeches make for a good time. And it looks the part. Nothing amazing, but, as said in the title, good enough if you don't have much to do and are in for some action-history-fighting.