The main content of Red Cliff

"Red Cliff" begins with the battle of Changbanpo. After defeating Liu Bei, Cao Cao thinks that Soochow is a threat to his domination of the world, and Xiao Qiao, whom Cao Cao loves, is determined to attack Soochow. Sun Quan sent Lu Su to meet Liu Bei in the name of mourning Liu Biao to discuss the joint resistance against Cao. After Liu Bei agreed to the proposal to unite with Dongwu to fight Cao, he sent Zhuge Liang to Dongwu. Sun Quan's younger sisters, Sun Shangxiang and Lu Su, strengthened Sun Quan's determination to fight against Cao by goading him, and recalled Zhou Yu to preside over the fight against Cao. The two armies finally met at Chibi, and under Huang Gai's deception, Cao Cao was defeated and returned to Jiangling along Huarong Road.

behind-the-scenes production:

"Red Cliff" is edited into two episodes.

According to the person in charge of the overseas distribution agency of the film, the Asian version of "Red Cliff" will be edited into two episodes, each lasting two hours, while the version outside Asia will be a single episode of two and a half hours.

The idea of dividing Red Cliff into two parts came from Han Sanping, general manager of China Film Group. "The stories of the Three Kingdoms are so familiar to Asian audiences, especially those in China, Japan and South Korea. They can almost casually tell every important character and every important battle. It is an impossible task to condense all these into two hours, so we decided to release two versions."

At present, nearly 1 countries have signed the memorandum of copyright purchase for Red Cliff, and European buyers have shown great interest in this oriental epic directed by John Woo. The first episode of "Red Cliff" is scheduled to be released in the summer before the 28 Beijing Olympic Games, and the next episode is scheduled for the Lunar New Year at the end of the year, but the release time outside Asia has not yet been determined.

The war drama is on par with "Trojan Horse Killing the City"

Wu Yusen revealed that the film is progressing smoothly at present. The Cao Jun Camp built in Hebei is nearing completion, and the reservoir used to shoot the water war and its surrounding mountains have also been taken to the computer special effects department in the later stage to make a three-dimensional model map and brought back to the United States. Because the mountains in the north are completely different from those in the south of the Yangtze River, it needs to be synthesized by computer. Wu Yusen said frankly, "The most difficult thing in the whole film is the war scenes. Although I had experience in controlling the big scenes of war when shooting Whisperwind, it was more difficult to shoot water wars than before."

During the filming, about 2, warships with various ancient props gathered in a reservoir surrounded by mountains in Hebei Province to shoot big scenes. Wu Yusen will combine three-dimensional computer technology to transform this reservoir into the Yangtze River and the surrounding mountains into Chibi. Five well-known American computer stunt companies will be responsible for the computer animation part of the film. Wu Yusen, the director, explicitly requested that the final effect should be in line with the "Trojan Horse Slaughter". At present, the total investment of the film has increased to 7 million dollars, making it the most expensive Chinese film so far.

The script was changed to "both Chinese and Western"

Since 24, the producers have been searching for excellent screenwriters and brainstorming, and determined the initial script outline. The story of Battle of Red Cliffs is divided into six sections, namely, "Liu Bei is kind for the people", "Er Qiao gives his life to take justice", "Kong Mingzhi inspires Zhou Yu", "Zhou Yu borrows a knife and an arrow". Wu Yusen, the director, was not satisfied after reading it. He hoped that the characters in Battle of Red Cliffs would change in the background without violating history: Liu Bei was no longer cowardly, Cao Cao was no longer treacherous, and Zhou Yu was no longer narrow-minded ...

In 26, Wu Yusen invited another famous screenwriter in the film circle, Reed, to polish the existing script, and the script was changed from the hand of Reed to the ninth draft. Wu Yusen's "ambition" is clear. "I don't want to make action movies or martial arts movies, but I want to make a magnificent epic movie."

John Woo hopes that the final story will be "suitable for both China and the West" and "excite China people who know this history, interest foreigners who don't know this history, and make it a truly international" Three Kingdoms ". Wu Yusen also emphasized that the reason why the script was revised so much was because the relationship between the story and the characters was complicated. "I was tired of history in the early stage and was limited to some historical facts. Later, I finally jumped out and slowly liberated my mind. In contrast, The History of the Three Kingdoms has contributed much more to the script than The Romance of the Three Kingdoms. "

tidbits:

John Woo said, "When I was about 1 years old, I drew the figure of" Three Kingdoms "on the glass with a brush, and then I took a flashlight and covered myself with a blanket. It was black like a cinema. When I turned on the flashlight, the light passed through the glass and projected the picture on the wall. As my hand moved up and down, I felt that the image was moving, which was very interesting."

according to Ye Jintian, when ZhangFeng yi was asked to play Cao Cao, the crew had some hesitation, because ZhangFeng yi's appearance was too healthy and decent, and they were worried that Cao Cao would not give the whole film enough pressure.

Lin Chi-ling's tall and slim figure is not suitable for women in ancient China, because she is too tall and has western standards, so it is difficult to meet the definition of classical beauty: small shoulders, flat chest, slightly shorter legs, slightly emerging abdomen and so on. Finally, Ye Jintian purposely turned Xiao Qiao's clothes down, and added the overlapping matching.

Since the preparation of "Red Cliff", there have been many hardships. Because it doesn't agree with the director's idea, the martial arts finger was changed to Yuan Kui in the middle, and some previous plays have to be remake. Photographer Lu Le had to leave the group because of the schedule. However, Tony Leung Chiu Wai resigned from Zhuge Liang and Chow Yun Fat broke the contract halfway, so the loss caused by the change of the protagonist was almost devastating, and the scenery, costumes and so on had to be redesigned because of the change of the protagonist. In addition, the film was originally scheduled to be filmed in the Yangtze River in Hubei before shooting, but it had to be temporarily filmed in Hebei studio because of environmental problems; The heavy rain during the filming made the filming stop again and again; Aerial aircraft crash; A fire broke out during the make-up, killing one staff member.