Red Cliff II (2009)

Red Cliff II (2009)

Release Date: 15 January 2009 (Indonesia)
Quality: DVDRip-MKV
Language: Mandarin
Runtime: 142 min
Director: John Woo
Company: Beijing Film Studio, China Film Group, Lion Rock Productions
Movie Info: IMDb
Cast: Tony Leung Chiu Wai, Takeshi Kaneshiro, Fengyi Zhang, Chen Chang, Wei Zhao, Jun Hu, Chiling Lin, Shidô Nakamura, Yong You, Ba Sen Zha Bu, Yong Hou
Genre: Action | Drama | History
Watch: Trailer
Size: 400MB

Plot: Sun Shangxiang has infiltrated Cao Cao's camp and is secretly noting details and sending them via a pigeon to Zhuge Liang. Meanwhile, Cao's army is seized with a plague of typhoid fever that kills a number of his troops. Cao orders the corpses to be sent on floating rafts to the allies' camp, hoping to pass the plague on to his enemies. The allied army's morale is affected when some unsuspecting soldiers let the plague in, and eventually a disheartened Liu Bei leaves with his forces while Zhuge stays behind to assist the Eastern Wu forces. Cao is overjoyed when he hears that the alliance had collapsed. At the same time, Cai Mao and Zhang Yun propose a new tactic of interlocking the battleships together with iron beams to minimize rocking when sailing on the river and reduce the chances of the troops falling seasick.

Subsequently, Zhou Yu and Zhuge Liang make plans on how to eliminate Cai and Zhang, and produce 100,000 arrows respectively. They agreed that whoever fails to complete his mission will be punished by execution under military law. Zhuge's ingenious strategy of letting the enemy shoot 20 boats covered in straw brings in over 100,000 arrows from the enemy and makes Cao doubt the loyalty of Cai and Zhang. On the other hand, Cao sends Jiang Gan to persuade Zhou to surrender, but Zhou tricks Jiang instead, into believing that Cai and Zhang are planning to assassinate Cao. Both Zhuge and Zhou's respective plans complement each other when Cao is convinced, despite earlier having doubts about Jiang's report, that Cai and Zhang were indeed planning to assassinate him by deliberately "donating" arrows to the enemy. Cai and Zhang are executed and Cao realises his folly afterwards but it is too late.

In the Eastern Wu camp, Sun Shangxiang returns from Cao's camp with a map of the enemy formation. Zhou and Zhuge decide to attack Cao's navy with fire anticipating that a special climatic condition will soon cause the wind to shift and that the resulting southeast wind will blow to their advantage. Before the battle, the Eastern Wu forces have a final moment together, feasting on glutinous rice balls to celebrate the Winter Festival. Meanwhile, Zhou's wife, Xiao Qiao, heads towards Cao's camp alone secretly, hoping to persuade Cao to give up his ambitious plans, but fails and decides to distract him instead to buy time for her side.

The battle begins when the southeast wind starts blowing in the middle of the night and the Eastern Wu forces launch their attack on Cao's navy. On the other hand, Liu Bei's forces, which had apparently left the alliance, start attacking Cao's forts on land. By dawn, Cao's entire navy has been destroyed. The allies launch another offensive on Cao's ground army, stationed in his forts, and succeed in breaking through using testudo formation despite suffering heavy casualties. Although Cao is besieged in his main camp, he manages to hold Zhou hostage after catching him off guard together with Cao Hong. Xiahou Jun also appears, holding Xiao Qiao hostage and causing the allies to hesitate. Just then, Zhao Yun manages to reverse the situation by rescuing Xiao Qiao with a surprise attack and put Cao at the mercy of the allies instead. Eventually, the allies decide to spare Cao's life and tell him never to return before leaving for home. In the final scene, Zhou Yu and Zhuge Liang are seen having a conversation before Zhuge walks away into the far distance with the newborn foal Mengmeng. ~wikipedia~