Three Kingdoms (2008)

His country torn asunder by civil war, Zhao Zilong, a common man heeds the call of duty and from the humblest of roots rises through the ranks on wings of courage and cunning to command an ... See full summary »

Director:

Daniel Lee

Writers:

Ho-Leung Lau, Daniel Lee

Stars:

Andy Lau, Sammo Kam-Bo Hung, Maggie Q

2 wins & 7 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Andy Lau	...	Zhao Zilong
Sammo Kam-Bo Hung	...	Luo Ping-An
Maggie Q	...	Cao Ying
Cunxin Pu	...	Zhuge Liang
Andy On	...	Deng Zhi
Rongguang Yu	...	Han De
Hua Yueh	...	Liu Bei
Lung Ti	...	Guan Yu
Zhi-Hui Chen	...	Zhang Fei
Vanness Wu	...	Guan Xing
Damian Lau	...	Cao Cao
Haifeng Ding	...	Zhang Bao
Hongbo Jiang	...	Ruan
Hongtao Wang	...	Huang Zhong
Menghe Wu Liji	...	Ma Chao

Storyline

His country torn asunder by civil war, Zhao Zilong, a common man heeds the call of duty and from the humblest of roots rises through the ranks on wings of courage and cunning to command an army charged with liberating the land from an evil warlord. Inspiring by action, honor and a dream of unifying his divided nation, Zhao Zilong's heroism becomes legend, but as the years pass and the throne changes hands the war still rages on. When a newly enthroned king decides peace can only be achieved by defeating the warlords once and for all, the aging Zhao Zilong embarks on his final and greatest campaign, a road to adventure that will crown his name in glory for all time.

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Plot Keywords:

3rd century | ancient china | military leader | civil war | china | 

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Taglines:

China, 228 AD. The age of great heroes who rule the world. Their last astonishing battle shook the world.

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Genres:

Action | Drama | History | War

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for bloody battle sequences

Did You Know?

Alternate Versions

The UK version is cut by 3 secs to remove shots of cruel horsefalls.

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Connections

Version of Diao Charn (1958)

User Reviews

Epic story is reduced to showing big battles and simply using dialog to link them

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.

Details

Official Sites:

Official site [Japan]

Country:

China South Korea Hong Kong

Language:

Mandarin

Release Date:

3 April 2008 (China)

Also Known As:

Three Kingdoms

Filming Locations:

China

Box Office

Budget:

$25,000,000 (estimated)

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$21,159,916

Company Credits

Production Co:

Visualizer Film Productions, Taewon Entertainment, China Film Group Corporation (CFGC)

Technical Specs

Runtime:

102 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1