Preparing for battle

(China Daily)
Updated: 2008-06-24 14:40

Chinese mainland actress Zhao Wei stars as Sun Shangxiang in Red Cliff.

To this Asian director-in-chief, the story of the Three Kingdoms is a canvas on which to draw his own picture. The plot is faithful to history, but the details are all Woo's own.

In China and even around Asia, most people's understanding of the period and its heroes come from the classic novel Romance of the Three Kingdoms (Sanguo Yanyi), a work of fiction based on engaging history.

The biggest difference between Woo's version and the widely accepted Romance is that of the relationship between Zhou Yu, counselor to Sun Quan and Zhuge Liang, main advisor to Liu Bei. In the novel, Zhou was portrayed as a very stingy man, so jealous of Zhuge's supreme talent that the green-eyed man eventually died of jealousy.

Woo, however, thinks it was unlikely the two could have united and achieved victory, if they were so hostile to each other. Historic records, moreover, support him in this assumption. In his film, therefore, Zhou and Zhuge admire each other and their friendship helps the alliance win the war.

"I do not want to make tragic stories anymore," Woo says. "I'd rather make films full of love and hope. I have seen so many touching stories in China. Children in the impoverished mountainous areas trying by all means possible to study; teachers devoting their whole lives to educating them in shabby schools; an old man helping poor children get an education with donations from his paltry income collecting garbage, and all those helping victims of the earthquake"

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