Well this came a little too late, but anyhow, the continuation from part 1 of the movie which had screened earlier. This was the thing itself, the naval battle which the title of said movie is based on. (The first part laid all the groundworks and build up the tension ya)

The battle itself was a brutal massive sight of carnage. It was one of the most terrible way to die. Soldiers donning armor will be seared by the onslaught of inferno, and those who take it off were not spared by flaming arrows as well. Jumping into the sea well… with all your equipment is rather a suicidal course… At the end of the day, what is shown on screen is already less impactful than what the real thing would be like. After all, the end result was an overwhelming victory for the allied forces of Shu and Wu, depending on whether its 三国志 or 三国演义, they were going against an army from about 4, 5 times to 16 times (the version the movie used) their combined strength of 50,000.

In terms of the overall value of the film, I say that it is a rather enjoyable show to catch. You can witness how battles are fought back then. Much of the work is done before battles and those are often the deciding factors of the outcome. Actually in those times the actual numbers of the army has alot less significance, which is rather not shown over here. Because not everyone can engage the enemies at one time, and the fact that not all units are trained to the same standard, the most crucial clashes between the vanguards is almost the trigger for the entire battle. Once that falls, retreat is often the way if possible. Alas this was not part of the movie unfortunately! I suppose that the length is long enough to be stretched over 2 parts and they didn’t need to stick so true to the history.

Speaking of that, the part about Huang Gai being flogged by Zhou Yu is rather true. But again it did not materialise in the movie. Not sure whether its the novel or history or perhaps true for both, Huang Gai did indeed feigned surrender to Cao Cao, and it was his vessel that first smashed into the defensive line, setting it ablaze. Other things missing is the character of Pang Tong, the so crucial element that convinced the chaining of the ships, an espionage tactic by Shu; And the retreat of Cao Cao along Hua Rong Trail, correspondingly the ambushes set up by Zhuge Liang. Well, I suppose the film do not intend to glorify Zhuge Liang to a godly extent like in the novel.

No complaints there though Good enough for an epic film of a huge budget (in the chinese film industry). Oh yea, some people commented why there were so many comedic moments, which doesn’t look like a war movie… Chill, it makes you laugh, and it lightens the mood. You really don’t wanna look back on the entire thing and remember only the merciless nature of battle.