First of all, the cinematic in both Chi Bi I and II are amazing. Colors and sceneries are stunning. Battle scenes from the ships burning to blood spilling off of the cold steel of Zhao Yun's lance are unprecedented in Chinese films. Also, the computer graphics in the movie is a big step up from Chen Kaige's Wu Ji (The Promise 2005).
Other than the visual component of the movie, everything else is unfortunately a failure. I have been been anticipating the movies since late 2007. There had been a trend of Chinese movies trying to mimic Hollywood and impress westerners. I was hoping that Chi Bi would turn out to be an eastern epic of its own since it is based on one of the greatest battles within 4500 years of Chinese history. Yet after being very unsatisfied with the first movie, Chi Bi II: Jue Zhan Tian Xia was even more disappointing. Here are 4 reasons why it was a failure:
1)Characters: Other than Zhuge and Zhou Yu who were depicted in details, most other characters were very one-dimensional. For example, Cao Cao was portrayed as an arrogant, ambitious, and brutal man who makes his own decisions. In the movie, he became the all powerful villain that everyone feared. However, Cao Cao in the story was supposed to be very intelligent, benevolent at times and Charismatic, with many brilliant advisors he often took suggestions from. Not only did Cao Cao give me the impression of Xerxes in 300, it erased other sides of his personalities which made him interesting. Furthermore, John Woo failed to portray Liu Bei as a powerful man who would rise to be the ruler of one of the three kingdoms. In Chi Bi II, he delivered the impression of man who feared death who even had trouble inspiring his own men.
2)Hasty Modification of the Plot: In order to fit most of the key events leading up to the battle within a series of two films, many events were simplified or re-written. For example, Pang Tong - one of the most intelligent characters in the original book was cut out from movie. Instead of his phony surrender to Cao Cao and proposing the method of linking the ships together, it was simplified to a short dialog between Admiral Cai informing Cao Cao of his decision to link the ships. Also, Zhou Yu punishing his general Huang Gai with one hundred back lashes to deceive Cao Cao for the reason of Huang Gai's surrender was modified into Xiao Qiao's (Zhou Yu's Wife) decision of seducing Cao Cao to stall time. Furthermore, themes with Zhuge "borrowing the wind", Cao Cao's escape in Hua Rong Dao were reduced to a prolonged battle scene. With so many events holding great significance which contributes to the ultimate miracle at Chi Bi cut out, the plot of the movie became very predictable, unimpressive, and even confusing.
3)Very One Sided, Zhou Yu in Super Hero Mode: Zhou Yu was supposed to be the mastermind commander behind Sun Quan's army, but with average ability to combat. Yet, in the movie, Zhou Yu was chopping away in tens and thousands of soldiers like Achilles to save his wife. In fact, it was more like a gang of super heroes (Liu, Guan, Zhang, Zhao, Sun)unstoppable against Cao Cao's army. Ironically, none of them actually fought at Chi Bi, it was fought by their generals who were never mentioned. In the original story, Cao Cao also brought with him his best generals (Xiahou Yuan, Zhang Liao, Xu Chu, Xu Huang, Zhang He...etc) who were intelligent and were extremely skilled warriors. Neither were they mentioned. It made the battle seem less dramatic because Cao Cao's men were almost like obsoletes. Cao Cao's generals were portrayed as clueless cowards who hid behind the fences.
4) Misleading Scenes and Redundancy: John Woo put his main focus on the characters of Zhou and Zhuge portraying their friendship and intelligence, which totally missed the point of the intricacy of their alliance. Zhou was constantly jealous of Zhuge's intelligence, and was trying to find every reason to kill him. In fear that Zhou Yu would prevent Liu Bei from becoming a power, Zhuge was also working to protect his master Liu. John Woo's attempt to expand on Zhuge's character with the scene of him delivering a baby horse in the first movie was totally unnecessary, in fact it was absurd. As if there is no one else who knew how to deliver baby horses within the entire army.
Chi Bi Zhi Zhan (Battle of Chi Bi) was between Cao Cao's army of close to one million against 50,000 combined forces of Liu and Sun. The victory was supposed to be a miracle. It was the combination of strategies, weather, geography, from intricate planning. Yet John Woo made it a two men show of Zhuge and Zhou. The over simplification was ultimately resulted in disappointment. It leaves the wrong impression on those who does not know about the story. Overall, Chi Bi had good material to work with, but ended in failure.
Other than the visual component of the movie, everything else is unfortunately a failure. I have been been anticipating the movies since late 2007. There had been a trend of Chinese movies trying to mimic Hollywood and impress westerners. I was hoping that Chi Bi would turn out to be an eastern epic of its own since it is based on one of the greatest battles within 4500 years of Chinese history. Yet after being very unsatisfied with the first movie, Chi Bi II: Jue Zhan Tian Xia was even more disappointing. Here are 4 reasons why it was a failure:
1)Characters: Other than Zhuge and Zhou Yu who were depicted in details, most other characters were very one-dimensional. For example, Cao Cao was portrayed as an arrogant, ambitious, and brutal man who makes his own decisions. In the movie, he became the all powerful villain that everyone feared. However, Cao Cao in the story was supposed to be very intelligent, benevolent at times and Charismatic, with many brilliant advisors he often took suggestions from. Not only did Cao Cao give me the impression of Xerxes in 300, it erased other sides of his personalities which made him interesting. Furthermore, John Woo failed to portray Liu Bei as a powerful man who would rise to be the ruler of one of the three kingdoms. In Chi Bi II, he delivered the impression of man who feared death who even had trouble inspiring his own men.
2)Hasty Modification of the Plot: In order to fit most of the key events leading up to the battle within a series of two films, many events were simplified or re-written. For example, Pang Tong - one of the most intelligent characters in the original book was cut out from movie. Instead of his phony surrender to Cao Cao and proposing the method of linking the ships together, it was simplified to a short dialog between Admiral Cai informing Cao Cao of his decision to link the ships. Also, Zhou Yu punishing his general Huang Gai with one hundred back lashes to deceive Cao Cao for the reason of Huang Gai's surrender was modified into Xiao Qiao's (Zhou Yu's Wife) decision of seducing Cao Cao to stall time. Furthermore, themes with Zhuge "borrowing the wind", Cao Cao's escape in Hua Rong Dao were reduced to a prolonged battle scene. With so many events holding great significance which contributes to the ultimate miracle at Chi Bi cut out, the plot of the movie became very predictable, unimpressive, and even confusing.
3)Very One Sided, Zhou Yu in Super Hero Mode: Zhou Yu was supposed to be the mastermind commander behind Sun Quan's army, but with average ability to combat. Yet, in the movie, Zhou Yu was chopping away in tens and thousands of soldiers like Achilles to save his wife. In fact, it was more like a gang of super heroes (Liu, Guan, Zhang, Zhao, Sun)unstoppable against Cao Cao's army. Ironically, none of them actually fought at Chi Bi, it was fought by their generals who were never mentioned. In the original story, Cao Cao also brought with him his best generals (Xiahou Yuan, Zhang Liao, Xu Chu, Xu Huang, Zhang He...etc) who were intelligent and were extremely skilled warriors. Neither were they mentioned. It made the battle seem less dramatic because Cao Cao's men were almost like obsoletes. Cao Cao's generals were portrayed as clueless cowards who hid behind the fences.
4) Misleading Scenes and Redundancy: John Woo put his main focus on the characters of Zhou and Zhuge portraying their friendship and intelligence, which totally missed the point of the intricacy of their alliance. Zhou was constantly jealous of Zhuge's intelligence, and was trying to find every reason to kill him. In fear that Zhou Yu would prevent Liu Bei from becoming a power, Zhuge was also working to protect his master Liu. John Woo's attempt to expand on Zhuge's character with the scene of him delivering a baby horse in the first movie was totally unnecessary, in fact it was absurd. As if there is no one else who knew how to deliver baby horses within the entire army.
Chi Bi Zhi Zhan (Battle of Chi Bi) was between Cao Cao's army of close to one million against 50,000 combined forces of Liu and Sun. The victory was supposed to be a miracle. It was the combination of strategies, weather, geography, from intricate planning. Yet John Woo made it a two men show of Zhuge and Zhou. The over simplification was ultimately resulted in disappointment. It leaves the wrong impression on those who does not know about the story. Overall, Chi Bi had good material to work with, but ended in failure.