Red Cliff

Red Cliff was much better than I expected. Every character was as I had imagined; Zhou Yun rescuing Liu Bei's son (who would later destroy all his father had created); Guan Yu being Guan Yu; and Zhang Fei, minus the Changban heroics. For those not in the know, the Battle of Red Cliff marked the beginning of the Three Kingdoms period in China (220 - 280AD). Unfortunately, though rather predictably, Cao Cao is portrayed as a lecher obsessed with making Xiao Qiao his wife/concubine/lover/etc. In the film, Xiao Qiao is played by 林志玲 (Lin Zhiling), a Taiwanese model.
It was disappointing to see no reference to the heroes in the Cao army. My favourite has always been Zhang Liao.

The reason I like this story so much is that, in the novel at least, the characters are portrayed as basically human with conflicting motives. In one incident, Cao Cao's army is passing through a village and realising how important it is to keep the population on his side, he decrees that any soldier trampling crops will be executed. As would happen, his own horse runs wild and tramples a field. Being true to his word, Cao Cao reaches for his sword to slit his own throat only to be stopped by his officers. But as a crime must not go unpunished, he decides to cut off his knotted hair thus bringing shame to his family.
Later in the war, Liu Bei has escaped from Cao Cao's forces with a throng of people following him only to realise that he has no kingdom of his own. It's at this point that he is reminded of his uncle and how cruel he is to his subjects. Does Liu Bei betray his own family to save his followers or does he continue searching for a suitable base?