Three Kingdoms: Ressurection of the Dragon

[Radken]

Shouldn't be hard to suspend the belief that someone looking like Maggie Q to exist back then. Just imagine she was a chinese person with pale snowy skin.

[expression]

How's the box office for this juicy movie?

[bubblesM]

Three Kingdom - Resurrection of the Dragon was screened throughout Asia for 3 weeks and it managed to collect more than HK$10000,000 in the box office in its first 6 days of screening in Hong Kong. The film was also the top 3 grossing movie when it was screened in Mainland China, Taiwan and Korea in its first weekend.

and the director daniel lee intends to make a sequel!

[expression]

Oh no! Trashman is encouraged to make more trash...

[bubblesM]

any movie maggie q is in isnt trash

[ghostdarTeal'c]

so when are you guys gonna start discussing bout the story itself? is it crappy? is it good? and since i dont plan i watching it so i guess im just gonna sit back and read the reviews

[Radken]

so when are you guys gonna start discussing bout the story itself? is it crappy? is it good? and since i dont plan i watching it so i guess im just gonna sit back and read the reviews

http://lovehkfilm.com/reviews_2/three_kingdoms.html

[Guo Xiang]

so when are you guys gonna start discussing bout the story itself? is it crappy? is it good? and since i dont plan i watching it so i guess im just gonna sit back and read the reviews

I'm still waiting for Jene's review!

[flamer]

#SPOILERS#

Wow okay I just finished the movie. And i've got some questions some pro might be able to help me with.

1) Zhao Yun's forces, although halved, should not be so thoroughly outnumbered by Cao's forces. 1:3 should be the max difference, and 1:2 a more realistic one. (I cant imagine Cao's forces to be 1.5 times of original Zhao's forces and yet be able to defend the 6 Counties and probably killed Zhang Bao, Guan Xing, and their 1/2 of Zhao's forces.) And also note that Zhu Geliang wanted Zhang Bao/Guan Xing to destroy Cao's forces after they are done with the 6 Counties. Unless ZGL had wrong intel on the numbers of Cao Ying's force (by at least 2-3 times), the soldier numbers make little sense.

2) What was the point of the gunpowder? I cant see its uses unless only the 100 horses and insignificant amounts of Cao troops entered the battle. This cant be the case as the previous 3 deputies were already killed and the battle was shown to be quite tilted to Cao's side (as the last deputy saw the hopelessness of the fight before he entered it). The explosions would only destroy your army, along with the enemy, and that particular casualty can be lessened, if you just let your army do the job anyway.

If the answer is "its a movie", i can cope with that too. It might just be poorly planned out.

#End of Spoilers#

Overall I thought the fighting scenes were a bit messy, Maggie Q not really suited to her role, ending a bit anti-climax... but except for those, and the above questions, Im fine with the movie and found it worth watching.

[windstorm]

watched it. all the roles IMO were well-acted.

[bubblesM]

so when are you guys gonna start discussing bout the story itself? is it crappy? is it good? and since i dont plan i watching it so i guess im just gonna sit back and read the reviews

im pretty sure someone posted a thorough review......

I'm sure there are alot of moviegoers who did like the movie but most critics hated it.

Unfortunately, I didn't like the movie too. Not that I expected to; I was just hoping for a pleasant surprise and got a confirmation that it was crap.
There's one thing I wasn't prepared for -boredom.
I thought it'd be all entertainment and no substance. Instead, I got no entertainment AND no substance. Shame!
By the way, that was an awful ending, and for such a historical figure too. Tsk tsk. The dubbing was TERRIBLE, the characterization was shocking, and the storyline just didn't fall into place nicely at all (particularly with all the time frame skipping). Not the smoothest film I can guarantee you. The best thing about the movie was Hung Kam-Bo. His acting was impressive and very real. Very heartfelt. You could understand him on a very humane level and it tears at you a little bit. They should've extended his role; for me, he's what saved the film a little bit. But because there wasn't enough of him, nothing much could be done which is really just too bad (and if you get around to watching this sad sad film -not that I recommend it - you'll really feel for him towards the end in particular).
It's kind of ironic if you think about it. All this promotion of Andy Lau and Maggie Q and not so much of Hung, yet if you really look at their acting on a critical view, the promotion should have been reversed. Still, all the hype is probably going to surround Andy and Maggie in these next coming days or weeks. Sad how commercialism works in some ways.
I don't have much to say about Andy because really, he's no different from how he usually acts. Same guy, same expression, even some role (close enough -all those heroic sorts he plays)!

On to Maggie since everyone is discussing her.

I notice people often comment on her action scenes or physical appearance (which I have to say is not at all convincing as a Chinese). I'm here to mainly discuss whether she did justice to her role.
Let's put aside the blatant historical inaccuracies, & have a look at what kind of character she's meant to portray.
In the film (and I'll quote from the official website to make it easier), Cao Ying is meant to have "martial prowess on the battlefield equaled by a strategic artfulness that matches Zhao's". She's also meant to be "wise beyond her years". With this in mind, I think Maggie presented a very superficial portrayal of Cao Ying. She succeeded in demonstrating a 'cold' character and combined with the action choreography given, she's able to 'fight' well enough (which isn't a surprise judging from her action resume -I read that she's a natural athlete too) but I did not ONCE get a feeling that she was a cunning strategist. She didn't represent any traits that Cao Cao was supposed to have. Instead, she came across on screen as apathetic but also very hot tempered at random moments. Her acting was very inconsistent. I could actually liken her portrayal to a 'pissed off spoilt little kid who tries to act all self-assured until he doesn't get his way and throws a tantrum'.
Instead of being "wise", I felt she was inexperienced and even naive (despite her harshness) during various scenes. And even though her actions were meant to illustrate her 'intelligence' and wide 'knowledge' for tactics, (such as when she sacrificed that one guy), Maggie's portrayal made me think she was irrational. There just too much of either a cold, straight face or, too much snarling and expressions that can be best described as looks of annoyance. I don't know, Maggie gave me mixed feelings about the character. On one hand, I know she's supposed to represent a brilliant military genius of some kind, but on the other hand, the acting left me entirely unconvinced. I felt that yes okay, she was ruthless (BECAUSE of her immoral deeds)and cold hearted, but nothing more, and nothing less. Oh yes, and I never felt any inner conflict that she was meant to have felt towards Zhao Zilong. To me, there was too much posing and not enough acting (or in those few scenes where she actually twitches her face, overacting). And all that instrumental (pipa) playing in the midst of war didn't bring anything to the character other than it was just for show -to make her appear 'so very cool'. But I blame that on the director/scriptwriter.

And yes, she was dubbed which in the film appeared pretty comedic and unrealistic.

[smurf120]

saw parts of the movie last night and didn't really understand much of the story between...umm.. napping....

I don't know much of the Three Kingdoms lore so can some let me know who the real characters and made up characters are?? I am reading about the "historical inaccuracies" but have not found any listing of them.

- yes - I feel the need to watch the CCTV series version now, too!

For example, did Cao Cao really have a warrior granddaughter?

[sniffles]

saw parts of the movie last night and didn't really understand much of the story between...umm.. napping....

I don't know much of the Three Kingdoms lore so can some let me know who the real characters and made up characters are?? I am reading about the "historical inaccuracies" but have not found any listing of them.

- yes - I feel the need to watch the CCTV series version now, too!

For example, did Cao Cao really have a warrior granddaughter?

I've only read an abridged version of the San Guo, so I don't know if Cao Cao had a granddaughter at all. But Zhao Zilong, Guan Yu, Zhang Fei, Liu Bei, and Zhuge Liang are all characters from the book.

I watched this movie a couple of nights ago. I'd already seen Chi Bi / Red Cliff a week earlier. This movie was a great disappointment by comparison. I don't really mind the historical inaccuracies so much. The problem was that they tried to make the viewer empathize with Zhao Zilong without really taking the time to develop the character. Li Ping-An's voiceover narration wasn't enough.

This movie was actually too short, at least in the DVD release I saw. It felt like the middle of the story was chopped out. We meet Zilong, see him do something heroic and get to be a big general in Liu Bei's army, and then suddenly we jump ahead 20 years. More backstory would have been helpful. It would have been nice if they'd taken the time to develop his unfulfilled romantic yearning for the puppeteer girl, and the rivalry between Ping-An and Zilong. Maggie Q was totally wasted. Anyone could have played the part of Cao Ying. All she did was pose and look sinister.

No wonder the studio released this movie well before Chi Bi. They knew they couldn't stand up to the competition.

[kidd]

This is a radio talkshow discussing about this movie. The guest is either the director or scriptwriter. I'm not sure. It's in cantonese. Anyone interested can go and listen.

http://www.rthk.org.hk/rthk/radio1/F.../20080403.html

It seems that Maggie Q's character's role is actually the role of Cao Cao's grand son in-law. But, the movie change this role to a female. The scriptwriter/director has given the reason to why he made the change other than for commercial value. The is also a kinda of debate of whether this change should be made, whether the change is beneficial to the movie or not. (Note:This is only a small part of the discussion. They discuss many things).

[JamesG]

Watched it tonight and enjoyed it. Not in the same league as Red Cliff.