Set in 228 A.D when three Chinese kingdoms were battling for supremacy this film follows Zhao Zilong from the time he is recruited into the army of Liu Bei, through is rise to its top general until his final battle over thirty years later.The film is effectively divided into two parts; in the first we see young Zhao Zilong and his new friend Luo Ping'an then see them going into battle where they perform well in a victory against a vastly superior force. Later Zhao rescues Liu Bei's infant son and battles through a hoard of enemy soldiers with the baby strapped to his back. After a succession of victories he returns to his home town a hero and falls in love with a girl who was performing in a puppet show about his exploits.The action then jumps forward thirty or so years and Zhou is now the only surviving general from the previous campaign; a new campaign is about to begin and he insists that he is allowed to take part; this brings him into conflict with an army led by Cao Ying; granddaughter of a general he'd fought many years before.I suspect that it helps if your knowledge of Chinese history is better than mine but even if you don't know anything about the era the film can be enjoyed. The battle scenes are somewhat stylised but they are still exciting, and rather bloody! Andy Lau does a fine job playing Zhao both as a young man and as the elderly general, Sammo Hung is rather fun as his friend Luo Ping'an and Maggie Q impresses as their enemy… not a bad person; just a leader on the opposite side in a war. While the film succeeds in its action scenes it fails somewhat in the more personal scenes; after seeing Zhou meet a young woman and promise to return the action suddenly jumps forward thirty years and there is no further mention of her or what happened in the intervening years. While not essential to the enjoyment of the film it certainly helps that it looks good thanks to some impressive scenery. Overall though this is fairly exciting and worth watching if you enjoy historical action dramas.

Based on the classical "The Romance of the Three Kingdoms" Daniel Lee ventures back to one of the most important eras of Chinese history - the time of the titular Three Kingdoms, of ever-lasting conflict and battles, which formed many a legend. Here focus is directed to the famed and glorified general Zhao Zilong (an ever-pleasing Andy Lau), a supposedly undefeated warrior, who brought glory to the the kingdom of Liu Bei. Backed by the military genius of Zhuge Liang (Cunxin Pu) and the remaining Five Tiger Generals, the heroes bathed in glory.Opulent, radiant the settings, scenery, cinematography, lighting and general art direction borders on perfection with each shot nurtured and tended too is this lavish epic. With appropriate heroic pathos to accompany the story-telling Zhao Zilong is presented as a chaste and immaculate warrior, as if almost striving towards a Buddhist transcendence. Unrivalled in battle, loved by all men and glorified even by contemporaries, Zhao shines even when riding out by himself against an entire army. Naturally such a directorial choice can't be criticised, similarly as chanson de geste type poems are what they are: glorified monuments of heroic deeds, unabashedly singing praise to the main protagonist. In a take it or leave it deal, Zhao Zilong is a hero, unfailing and relentless in pursuit of unification of the kingdoms, even in tragedy a man suit for tall tales of glory.However "Three Kingdoms" falters due to one rather overbearing glitch: lack of middle story. The depiction of Zhao Zilong's life basically limits itself to an extravagant presentation of two moments of his story: the beginning and the end of his legend. Unfortunately Daniel Lee fails to even trouble himself with building any back-story to the character (who was he? where did he come from? what motivated him?) or worse yet fails to build any backbone to Zilong, instead fast-forwarding us from his initial feat of bravery as a young man, straight into the time of him being an elderly general, the sole remaining of the Five Tiger Generals, right before what was to be his final battle.The whole context of in between is forfeited, thus never even truly affording the audience an understanding as to the prominence of his battle achievements or allowing him to build an emotional connection with viewers. Such a thinly presented story is however aptly summarised in the fading line of the movie itself "How many things before and after fade into gossip and laughter."

Well, it is actually a nice movie. Some good fighting scenes and nice music.BUT, it is only a nice movie, if you don't know anything about the actual novel or history this movie should be based on. For people who know the novel or history, you can say the movie is just painful to watch, at least for me. You ask why? Let me give you an comparison: Since it should be based on a novel, let's take LotR. So, you know the story of LotR, you read the novel and you just love it. Now they make a movie out of it and it will be like that: Legolas is the main character(which is fine, since we all like him). And it is about his life, how he should be a great, undefeated warrior(oh, and he is wearing a Roman armor). He started as a pawn under King Aragorn and worked all his way up and during that he hat an fight with Boromir and Theoden. And at the end he fought against the granddaughter of Sauron(you think: what the heck? I have the same thought, when I watched this movie), who is leading Sauron's army(when she was young, Sauron took her to battles with him) and ended up loosing to her and dies. Ah, by the way. Gandalf looks like a beggar and fortune teller. So you see my problem with the movie? It doesn't really have anything to do with the novel. It just borrowed the names and some events.So, if you don't know the novel or the story of the Three Kingdom, go ahead and watch it. It's pretty amusing. But if you DO know the story and want a movie which fits to it. Don't watch it!!! It will destroy your image of the heroes in the novel. Wait for the Red Cliff movie this summer =DSo it is only my opinion. Thanks for reading it.

Well, This is the first time that I came here. Actually, it is because of this movie made me come here! Because he is a Korean Director, I can bear and forgive his unknowns about the real and reasonable history of Three Kingdoms of Ancient China. But there is something I can't bear, and I am sure nobody had known Ancient China can bear.The costumes(or Amor), I am sure they are all Japannese Style! I am not want to cause any racism arguments, but it is Chinese History, what's hell you give the worries Japannese Amors? Can I shoot a movie about Civil War of US but give them Ancient European Amors? And also there are many many unreasonable details about the story. Our Forums have discussed how bad and how stupid about this story~~~~Well, I know most of u guys can't understand what I am saying. Overall, it is not a good story, but it may be a good WAR FILM which made people excited.