#chi bi

[music-musou]

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[linggluu]

this was way too steamy for my then 16 year old eyes lmao

[romance-of-three-memes]

Was looking for the full version of Red Cliff (again) but instead found this short documentary about the battle called 'Cao Cao's Bad Day', which sounds like the title of a children's book.

Yeah, sure, you could say he had a bad day. That's not wrong.

[yinglipeggedwenwu]

(Re)Watching Tony Leung Chiu-wai: 赤壁 (Red Cliff, 2008-9)

SO I know I’m not the only one looking at Tony Leung Chiu-wai with fresh horny eyes after Shang Chi. I’ve seen quite a few folks who are similar to me too - the man is a household name to anyone adjacent to Hong Kong and Chinese media! But maybe similar to a lot of HK families, Wong Kar Wai flicks weren’t exactly on the rotation, and tbh I was more into the pretty boys like Takeshi Kaneshiro to pay attention to Lil Tony so I’m not gonna play like I have been in this camp all this time!! With that said, this was a good excuse to dip back into some Chinese films via Tony’s filmography. I bet many new/returning fans are doing the same, so I’m just going to chronicle my journey in case others are on the same path :D

I’m not doing this by any particular order, either, so without further ado: 赤壁 Red Cliff, the international cut!

OVERALL: It’s a good action flick, though I wish I could have seen the full version. Not Fast and the Furious levels of mindless, but definitely worth a watch for premium Asian studs (featuring actors from China, HK, Taiwan, and Japan) and a visualization of old time military tactics.

Tony notes: Zhou Yu is the antithesis of Xu Wenwu - if you wanna see the man flex some acting chops, it’s worth the watch. Despite the massive ensemble cast, Zhou Yu’s definitely a Main Character and gets a lot of screen time and dimension. Plus he shows some skin!

SOOOO Red Cliff was originally a massive two-parter, but unfortunately I could only find the international cut, which basically smashed the two together, which is a bit much. Red Cliff is a real battle, which is portrayed in Romance of the Three Kingdoms which like... historic RPF and so massive as a cultural thing in Asia that I just cannot dedicate more space to it right now. But the point I want to make is that the story has a LOT of names to digest, even for people who are comfortable with Chinese names. I have read Rot3K and played hours of Dynasty Warriors, so I’d say going in I knew 80% of the major cast names (and recognized the actors, too), but I had a hard time keeping up with like the ten dudes I didn’t know! So this might be a bit dense for folks who are coming in totally fresh to all of these names/faces. (flashbacks to me watching GoT and getting paranoid about having white people face blindness bc there’s no way she’s having sex with her brother! lol)

Yes the impetus to watch the film was Tony, but I was 300% invested for childhood crush Takeshi Kaneshiro as Zhuge Liang! Pet peeve: throughout the movie they refer to him as Zhuge, but the subtitles say Kong Ming. Kong Ming was a nickname, but I guess whoever subtitled it thought it might be too confusing to go back and forth?

The eyebrow budget was... wow.

This movie seals the deal that I am most certainly attracted to Xu Wenwu and not Tony Leung Chiu-wai, and a testament to his skill as an actor. Zhou Yu exemplifies all the classic Chinese ‘Good Man!!!’ traits: learnedt, hyper perceptive (good ol’ Zhou ‘weird ears’ Yu), loyal/committed to the cause, humble, etc. Unfortunately, horniness is not really a valued quality back in the day, which is unfortunate because then the one sex scene we get really feels pretty lukewarm. (ok edited to say - on rewatch it’s ~lovemaking~ or something. it’s not as lukewarm as I thought but still not like, burning searing tension)

Luckily there is a lot of fire in the rest of the film to bring the heat.

Oh yes adding to the list of studs: Taiwanese actor Chang Chen as Sun Quan! Those rebel cheekbones can defend my land any day.

I really liked seeing some of the strategies play out. Reading some of these formations and stuff can be pretty abstract, so seeing them in action really helped me ‘get’ it. I think that’s where the movie really shines, is in showing that skilled coordination can overcome a disadvantage in numbers.

One of the hugest detriments to this international version is that I think the whole logic/explanation of Zhuge Liang sending out the straw boats was dropped? otherwise i really wasn’t paying attention. Basically - it was a wager between Zhuge Liang and Zhou Yu! They made some sort of bet bc they were short on weapons, and they were like ‘whoever can’t get 100,000 arrows by tomorrow will die’ or whatever, and Zhuge’s plan was that!

With that said, on the whole Kaneshiro really shone was Zhuge Liang. Taiwanese excellence all around in this flick.

Oh yeah the UST between Zhou Yu and Zhuge Liang? Palpable.

I wish I saw the full version, because my main critiques are that there’s a lot crammed into this, and it could use a little more breathing room. I do appreciate the slower moments that did their own space, in particular that moment Xiao Qiao does The Turn, and the framing is a perfect representation of Cao Cao’s painting.

I just skimmed the wikipedia again and apparently Tony was offered Zhuge Liang, but he turned it down???? Oh MAN Kaneshiro did the character right, and I think the two really had good chemistry. But MAN I really would have loved to see Tony as the weird horoscope guy!!!

[3slash74movies]

[gyllenhey]

Red Cliff (2008) dir. John Woo

[languageloveaffair]

我在看电影赤壁 Wǒ zài kàn diànyǐng chìbì I’m watching the movie Red Cliff

Here’s some vocab that I’ve been picking up while watching it:

你系小什么? Nǐ xì xiǎo shénme? What do you think?

怎么才? Zěnme cái? What do you think?

Navy 海军 Hǎijūn, 水师 Shuǐ shī, 水军 Shuǐ jūn

Water  水 Shuǐ

Wind 回 Huí

River 水 Shuǐ, 河 Hé,  江 Jiāng, 川 Chuān

Cavalry 骑兵 Qíbīng

Wife 奴人 Nú rén,  太太 Tàitài, 妻子 Qīzi

Son 子zi

Sister 妹妹 Mèimei

Women and Children 妇幼 Fùyòu

Horse 马 Mǎ

Soldier 战士 Zhànshì, 军人 Jūnrén, 士 shì, 卒 Zù

Spear 枪 Qiāng, 矛 Máo

Peace 平安 Píng'ān

War 战胜 Zhànshèng, 战 Zhàn,  仗 Zhàng

Battle 战斗 Zhàndòu,  战 Zhàn, 仗 Zhàng

Sword 刀 Dāo,  剑 Jiàn,  宝剑 Bǎojiàn

Damn 该死 Gāi

Friends 朋友 Péngyǒu

Allies 盟国 Méngguó, 友军 Yǒujūn

Enemies 冤家 Yuānjiā

Dove 鸽子 Gēzi

Dove of peace 和平鸽 Hépínggē

Music 音乐 Yīnyuè

Movie 电影 Diànyǐng 

*disclaimer: some of these I heard in the movie, some of these I looked up in the dictionary. So they may be older/ancient terms mixed in with current from the dictionary (sorry I didn’t take the time to differentiate).

*Feel free to correct me if I’ve made any mistakes. I’m still only a beginner at Chinese.

[darici]