MovieChat Forums > San guo zhi jian long xie jia (2008) Discussion > #SPOILERS# Two questions on the film.

#SPOILERS# Two questions on the film.

posted 16 years ago by flamer1234
5 replies | jump to latest

Wow okay I just finished the movie. And i've got some questions some pro might be able to help me with.

1) Zhao Yun's forces, although halved, should not be so thoroughly outnumbered by Cao's forces. 1:3 should be the max difference, and 1:2 a more realistic one. (I cant imagine Cao's forces to be 1.5 times of original Zhao's forces and yet be able to defend the 6 Counties and probably killed Zhang Bao, Guan Xing, and their 1/2 of Zhao's forces.) And also note that Zhu Geliang wanted Zhang Bao/Guan Xing to destroy Cao's forces after they are done with the 6 Counties. Unless ZGL had wrong intel on the numbers of Cao Ying's force (by at least 2-3 times), the soldier numbers make little sense.

2) What was the point of the gunpowder? I cant see its uses unless only the 100 horses and insignificant amounts of Cao troops entered the battle. This cant be the case as the previous 3 deputies were already killed and the battle was shown to be quite tilted to Cao's side (as the last deputy saw the hopelessness of the fight before he entered it). The explosions would only destroy your army, along with the enemy, and that particular casualty can be lessened, if you just let your army do the job anyway.

If the answer is "its a movie", i can cope with that too. It might just be poorly planned out.

#End of Spoilers#

Overall I thought the fighting scenes were a bit messy, Maggie Q not really suited to her role, ending a bit anti-climax... but except for those, and the above questions, Im fine with the movie and found it worth watching.

[–] comage 16 years ago

#2: Think the whole point of the gunpowder on the horses were for them to run into the enemy troops, and then for the fire crossbow troops to fire at the horses laden with gunpowder, hence igniting the gunpowder and killing more of Zhao's forces. If 1 horse were surrounded by 10 of Zhao's troops, igniting the gunpowder will definitely kill more of Zhao's troops, albeit in a kamikaze manner.

Maggie Q was definitely not suited to her role, and I felt that the whole movie was rushed along too fast for the audience to feel any sense of remorse or sadness when the characters were narrated to have died one after another.

[–] flamer1234 16 years ago

yea i guess the gunpowder can do something for Cao. So it leaves the soldier number question lol.

[–] Ramuna 16 years ago

1) To answer your first question, first we must know that although most of the character is historical except that Luo Ping An, but the movie potrays a very inaccurate history regarding to the worldwide well known 'Three Kingdoms' Romance. Most of the battle shown in the movie never happens. Heck, even Cao Ying in fact was a male character. So, I guess the final chapter of the movie, which told that Zhang Bao and Guan Xing troops had been overrun by Cao's, is likely to only dramatize Zi Long's troops depressing situation. After all still "it's a movie" :)

2) Why, hey, of course the explosive is very damn useful, I thought that it might hold the whole key of the battle, for as long as I remember after the explosion occured, it cut Zi long's troop to only Ping An and Zi Long himself, right? Han De (Pang De actually) proves to sacrifices for a better cause. :)

[–] flamer1234 16 years ago

oh wow ok that answered nothing at all lol. No offense.

1) The historical inaccuracy does not answer the number problem. Cuz no matter how wrong they got the history, IN THE MOVIE, Guan/Zhang/Zhao's troops got destroyed the way they were portrayed.

2) I know the explosives were useful, but not without their cost to their own army, so why bother to blow the enemy and the same if not more of your own people up... if you got a larger army, and no reinforcements are coming.
As I suggested in the first post.

[–] Fattycakes 16 years ago

1 I don't think the numbers descepancy is a big deal especially given that Zilong supposedly rescues Liu Shan from an army of 1 million.

Historically, Zilong's role in the northern campaign was as a diversion for the main army led by Zhuge Liang. His job was to divert Wei's forces while Zhuge Liang can advance via a longer route to assault the strategic city of Changan. As such his force numbers don't really matter too much.

While it is possible that Guan & Zhang's troops got destroyed, it is not certain because the movie does not show it and we have to take Cao Ying's word for it, albeit she does have their flag. Given the movie portrays her as wily and scheming, deception would not be out of the question. Such ruses appeared a few times in the history and the novel.

2 I think the kiling of her own army is the movie's way of telling us just how villainous Cao Ying is and the extent of how she can manipulate ppl, since she has just humbled herself to be Han De's daughter one minute and the next she is killing him.