Three Kingdoms: Resurrection of the Dragon (2008)

You won't be disappointed!

Wonderful character development!

I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.

Great movie. Not sure what people expected but I found it highly entertaining.

Three Kingdoms-ROTD is a kick ass Chinese historical epic taking place in the Three Kingdoms era of ancient China. The film is a reflective story taken from Zhao Yun's(or Zilong) perspective focusing on his life and his accomplishments in battle. Portraying the brave general Zhao Yun is Andy Lau. He gives a tremendous performance and is one of HK's top stars. He is quite prolific as an actor and gives great performances in many different genres. There also is an excellent support cast featuring Sammo Hung(who also is action choreographer), Maggie Q, Yu Rong Gong and the great Ti Lung as Guan Yu. This period action piece flows well with heavy doses of savage action and a brisk pace. Sammo's action choreography is top notch and the battle scenes are great with a good amount of blood spilled. The film looks awesome as well with great camera-work and tight editing. The dramatic side of this is super solid and in my opinion director Daniel Lee did a hell of a job in making this. Although this is smaller in scope than John Woo's Red Cliff, it is still epic, large scope film. However, as amazing a cinematic experience that Red Cliff is, Three Kingdoms ROTD is a film I end up watching more often as this film is just under two hours and Red Cliff clocks in at about six hours. Both film are absolutely awesome and I recommend both highly. This film is a few years old now and it really holds up, in fact I found myself enjoying this more upon rewatching it.

I am American, but I know a little Chinese history. I think you could know nothing of Chinese history and this movie is spectacular. The acting, the cinematography, the plot. I don't too much like kung-fu movies, this is not that, this is drama, and action, and just unbelievable too me. I am now going to watch red cliff and any other Chinese movie about the dynasties. If Chinese keep making good movies like this American action movies will pale in comparison and only simpleminded people will enjoy all those cliché one liners and everybody lives fairy tale endings. So if you are looking for empty cliché Hollywood type acting like mainstream Hollywood this is not for you. If you understand and appreciate movies like apocalypse now for their acting and overall quality, then just throw action like "300" on top of that and a storyline that requires you to actually follow and makes sense then this movie is for you.

Three kingdoms is a great Chinese masterpiece that is set in the era of the three kingdoms that ruled china. The cao, wu and liu dynasties were trying to unite china each under their own leadership and in a result it produces wars between the three houses for decades. The story in this movie is told from the Liu's point of view and my god what a story that is.I don't know really why people are not giving this high ratings, it should be on the IMDb top 100. I guess most people that watch Chinese movies are in it because of the martial arts and people flying prospective. If you are looking for something like that then go watch house of the flying daggers or The Forbidden Kingdom because this movie is not about massive FX's and stunts. It simply tells a story with some battles shoved in. The movie is quite emotional and the acting was superb. As for the directing it truly is brilliant, the battles were directed with passion and ingeniousness with great sound effects and slowmo shots that makes it even more desirable to watch over and over again.This is one movie that shouldn't be missed by Chinese history/mythology fans. Its a 10/10 and I don't care what other people might think, its just a masterpiece.

Andy Lau stars as a general who started as a foot soldier and worked his way up through the ranks after several acts of heroism.Thirty years on he's forced to fight one last battle against the daughter of an old enemy.Apparently based on the same source material (The Romance of the Three Kingdoms) that John Woo is using for his 5 hour Red Cliffs (due for release later this year) Here the "epic" story is reduced to around 100 minutes of marching armies and battles. Any sense of plot is cast aside for the fighting and deep pronouncements. To be fair the DVD I watched had barely coherent subtitles, but at the same time they were coherent enough to know that they really didn't have a great deal to translate. The plot lurches from thing to thing with very little explanation- or rather only explanation to carry the emotion. We're told things rather than shown things. The performances of Lau and Sammo Hung provide a great deal of emotion that isn't in the script. The bond between the two men and the emotion that they impart are the reason you watch the film, not for anything else......okay maybe the action. As a film of epic action scenes its quite good. its not great but it is is good in a retro old school style. Its pretty pictures of armies fighting and it is entertaining, if rarely engaging (something the films scant dialog and character building prevents from ever happening). Never mind that coming as it does on the heels of the Jet Li masterpiece Warlords the film has a great deal to live up to since that earlier film had real characters and real action, two things this film never manages to achieve. Add to the mix the over use of slow motion and the film really isn't worth the trouble.Actually its worth looking at if you want to see the fighting and a couple of good performances.