Red Cliff 2 (2009)

Score: 8/10

This is the continuation from Red Cliff (2008) where you can read my review here. The previous installment ends with the land troops of Cao Cao experiencing a heavy defeat at the hand Liu Bei and Sun Quan due to Zhuge Liang and Zhou Yu brilliant strategy. That battle is only the beginning though because Cao Cao only uses a small part of his army to test his opponents strength.

In this second installment, the real battle begins. Here you can see even crazier strategy from both Zhuge Liang and Zhou Yu. These two strategists have a bet against each other to complete different missions. Zhuge Liang has to collect 100,000 arrows in three days, while Zhou Yu has to kill Cao Cao admirals so nobody can lead his naval forces. Whoever fails to complete the mission, will be punished by death.

It is very interesting to see the tactic and ruse that they employ to accomplish their missions. It is also scary to see how smart these two persons were at that time. Both strategists have different strong points. Zhuge Liang is more widely learnt in implementing his battle strategy because he can use many aspects to achieve his goals. Zhou Yu’s strong point is his fighting capability so he can lead his men in battlefield directly. Zhuge Liang, on the other hand, always disappears when the battle begins.

The movie does not portray Cao Cao as an evil man. In fact, in this installment, Cao Cao shows great leadership capability, which is better than Liu Bei and Sun Quan. There are other characters that are portrayed heavily here, namely Zhou Yu’s wife, Sun Quan’s sister, and Jiang Gan, Cao Cao’s emissary. Each has different roles that affect the outcome of the battle.

There are some annoying parts though. I feel that the time screen of Sun Quan’s sister doing spy works in Cao Cao’s camp is just too long. There is too much drama. The end of the battle is a bit odd as well. After all the bloody works, it ends with a strange sequence to save Zhou Yu’s wife. However, in spite of these shortcomings, this is still a highly enjoyable movie. In general, it is even more exciting than the first installment. If you like Chinese history, this is something that you cannot miss.

"This is how you collect arrows"