Red Cliff – the movie vs. the book

January 18th, 2009 by Lara

The big-budget movie of the Battle of Red Cliff was so cumbersome that it was split into two thrilling installments. One was released last July just before the Beijing Olympics, and the other is now out in theaters, at least here in Singapore. Part I starts with the rescue of Liu Bei’s son, Ah Dou, defeats the forces of Cao Cao in the Eight Trigrams formation, and stops with Sun Quan’s paltry navy lined up across the river from Cao Cao’s enormous array of ships. I haven’t seen Part II yet, but we all know how it ends.

Although I am a newcomer to Three Kingdoms, even I could see the main lines of change from text to movie. Some of it is welcome, from a modern point of view – more girls, preferably swinging swords, are needed in any action film, and Sun Quan’s sister gets a bigger role. His mom, none, nor any old people save perhaps for Liu Bei and Cao Cao, who looks remarkably well preserved. Maybe I would, too if I were running China with a lot of resources behind me.

Liu Bei pointedly does NOT throw Ah Dou to the ground, which makes sense in the context of modern China and the one-child policy, but not if you’re trying to figure out why good generals serve this hapless old guy.

Cao Cao is (ick) lovesick for Zhou Yu’s wife. Surely not? I know she and her sister were famous beauties, and Liu Bei wound up with one of them, at least legally, but I can’t believe Cao Cao would be lovesick for anyone. But then I may just be insufficiently familiar with the male psyche under polygamous and bellicose conditions.

Sun Quan is depicted as more than necessarily wishy-washy about going to war against Cao Cao – is this to expand the role of his martial sister? Or to cut down on the amount of talk between the pro- and anti-war factions at his court? He’s sort of reduced to a cipher next to Zhou Yu, which is too bad. I mean, I like Zhou Yu a lot, but his boss deserves a little more credit.

Well, I could go on but I’ll stop and see if anyone else wants to chip in.

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