A brilliant strategy, provided that you have five times as many men as your opponent, an infinite supply of huge metal shields, all of your soldiers are perfectly coordinated, and the enemy commander is a complete idiot.

"They've left openings in their ranks, and their formations seem very inviting and open for us. They also don't seem to be attacking us while we ride past, this couldn't possibly go wrong, everyone advance into the circular maze and disperse, don't attack or that may upset them. Wander aimlessly until everyone is in, then wait. The game is afoot."

This battle is so different in the novel. The formation was supposed to be in a forest, as I recall and visibility was very low. Also, it was on a much larger scale so the enemy could not actually spot the formation. Whenever the charging cavalry wanted to exit the forest there would be pikes and shields guarding the exit. This was because the troops were all hidden within the trees and the lookouts would signal them with drums and flags.

"Guan Yu has KO'd over 50 Wei troops" "You're an inspiration to us all, brother" - Liu Bei.

4:57 I like how they seem to have had a specific drum signal prepared ahead of time for "Unleash the Guan Yu"

Historical figures in order of appearance: 1:20 Zhou Yu 1:50 Zhuge Liang (right) 5:01 Guan Yu 6:14 Zhao Yun 6:49 Zhang Fei 8:35 Lady Sun

i like how the people on the shields just watching like “oh damn they really fighting”

the zhang fei roar has been ingrained in my memory since i saw this movie as a child, i love it

I love the ending. Soldier: "Where did everyone go?"

Troops: Commander, what should we do. Should we charge our cavalry into the 1 man deep enemy lines and break their flimsy formations or should we charge every man we’ve got into the gaps they obviously created to trap us? Commander: Check dis out *everyone dies*

everyone saying this is unrealistic, its part of the romance of the three kingdom, so its supposed to be exaggerated or else it wouldnt be interesting on the big screen. Imagine 300, the spartans didnt even get their arms pierced from the rain of arrow a million arrows. Now that's unrealistic too but captures your attention.

Zhuge Liang called this formation outdated but he found a good use to it by creating a sand storm and restricting enemy's vision which leaded enemy to fall into trap. Also when they find a breach in enemy formation, they must enter or they are bound to eat arrows

I think both sides rehearsed their parts very well... Such good coordination.

9:42 The most funniest scene I've seen in Chinese War Movies ^.^

Three kingdoms total war anyone?

look there is huge defensive lines with archers and lancers lets go inside and die.

Zhang Fei's weaponless charge at 6:50 gets me laughing every time

Team mates: rally for a teamfight Me: coming When I arrive: 9:42

its nice that the cavalrymen are so polite and simply ride around rather than attacking the men with the giant shields and no weapon in hand.

Due to the way Zhang Fei charged at the soldiers, he would be the strongest football player ever XD.

The heroes: Slaughtering groups of people at a time Those soldiers who decided to 1v1 them be like: *"Ima pretend I didn't see that"*

you should watch the full movie.Zhuge Liang called this formation outdated but he found a good use to it by creating a sand storm and restricting enemy's vision which leaded enemy to fall into trap. Also when they find a breach in enemy formation, they must enter or they are bound to eat arrows

The scale of Chinese battles were often much larger than other cultures, life was cheap and a 10000 men is considered a small force but that is actually 2 full Roman legions in comparison to western counterparts. So that formation may span a huge distance and not easily seen by the enemy commanders. Also it is not easy to flank the army because of the distance, visibility, and the circular shape of the formation. A well trained force with good commanders and tacticians employing battle formations makes big differences, and during the warring years, all men were born soldiers. Its not an uncommon thing to have battle formations, happens all over the world. Just a few of these are more exaggerated.

Spear Guard is OP in this build

Great!You explained it very well. These are just movies.The aim of every war movie(if the producer have money) is to make as much spectacular special effect or great battle scenes in order to attract more audiences. Btw, i have read from the novel that Zhuge Liang had invented a kind of self movable oxen-horse like cart to transport supplies, but I do not know whether this is true or not.

8:25 He is just flexing at this point

You're completely right. Those guys could never all have tackled him at once, he's just too good a fighter. This very credible source has shown me that one man can be more than a match for thousands.

Its been 11yrs and its still the best😎

6:50 Chewbacca unleashed :))

this is some of the most ridiculous fighting I've ever seen

The ending lol Soldier: where y'all at homies.

I love that in movies like this, Authority Equals Asskicking is in full effect.

The whole stratagem was set up solely for the top officers to grind xp. Rank and file soldiers are not allowed to leech either.

張飛の化け物ぶりを見た後のチョウ雲が普通の武将にみえた……(笑)

Because it did everything it was supposed to do. Some of the scenes can be a bit awkward but it represents the short period and great battle portrayed in the ROTK really well.

Yeah, thanks for all your arguments.

When you get all the generals in Romance mode and just wreck the enemy

Yeah, that's true. I was also surprised that we can see a lot of Shu & Wu generals, but very few Wei generals... Maybe they will appear in the next movie... ? Still, it's strange because there were a lot of Wei generals in the Red Cliff's battle : Cao Pi, Dian Wei.... (btw Dian Wei is the most important Wei general, after Cao Cao, even more than Cao's son Cao Pi at that time)

Ok, the Guan Yu and Zhang Fei parts totally saved this video for me 😂

At 7:20, Zhou Yu: "Zhang Fei is really awesome at hand combat..." Zhuge Liang : "You ain't seen nothing yet. He's only warming up"

I don't care if this was supposed to be realistic or not, this was totally awesome.

5:01 Welcome to the rice fields, motherfuckers.

This movie is a based on a famous novel, not history. So the scene is based on the description of that battle in the novel.

Bro this strategy is genius!!!

5:30 hahahahahah this is like here i give u this and u give me this .. here i give u this and u give me this .... and the same shit is going the whole day

I like how people are complaining fiction to be fictional

bloody... and really very strategic!!

I can guarantee that Chinese army don't fight like this during the three kingdoms era or any era for that matter. They will send archers and artillery units first to that formation to soften them up. Followed by infantry charge. After the enemy is engaged, the cavalry will surround the outermost circle and do not going in. They will make sure nobody escape alive when the formation broke.

That ending scene was so funny 😂😂😂

i love how the cavalry are just casually trotting around inside the formation. its as if it was all some display or something...

I have no idea who I'm supposed to root for, I'm just enjoying the complete absurdity of the action.

what makes a movie unrealistic is, presenting things that could go wrong in so many ways, but then executed perfectly.

懐かしいな。確か金曜ロードショウでやってた時めちゃくちゃお腹痛かったんだよな

関羽と趙雲がカッコよすぎる

Now that was a battle scene

they scatter thus further solidifies that they were confused from the initial archer bombardment and dust cover. Forgot to note that behind the main formation being used is that the main force is behind it (Indicated that the command center wouldn't be in the middle of that formation). SO whomever goes around gets picked off. Thus reason why formation works is the initial confusion and chaos caused, once inside everyone is scattered thus command structure is lost causing more confusion.

I like how Guan Yu's fight makes sense. He throws his crescent blade like a spear to take out the poor dude first because it's a close proximity fight against numbers, blade swinging would not be as effective as spearing.

"It's A TRAP!"

This is best war scene ever.

the sheer OPness of these guys is ridiculous

total war: red cliff...!

Wow! the ancient armies of the warring states of China used some really interesting tactics

Atleast they tried. Decent enough for a war movie, doesn't matter on realism, atleast I can enjoy movies that shows some formations and such action stuff.

Total war three kingdom got most of its elements from this movie. From unit design and background music, it has a lot of red cliff reference.

I like how it violates the laws of Physics.

体当たりで槍へし折るおっさん最高

If you had smaller shields, and remember not everyone had one. It was more common to have a spear opposed to a sword and shield because a spear was cheaper. These tower shields are cheap to make though because of the fact that there is little shaping that needs to be done, it's just a block of metal. All that aside you still have no idea what's waiting for you, and that is granted you can knock the guy back. They tended to force these shields into the ground to make them harder to knock down.

Thanks. I'll check that guy out.

これ中々エグい作戦よな。 敵が可哀想なぐらい残酷な作戦やわ。

As awesome as it looks in a movie, in practice it would work just as well as catching a flying arrow~

While It might be a bit ridiculous accuracy wise, you cant say Chinese films are boring.

If you watch the full version of this scene, Xiahou Dun is indeed order the charge at the climax. Then they resorted to defense again with the Sharp Wall Formation.

This film is a masterpiece, pure epicness! A film I watch time and time again!

敵の投げた槍をキャッチして、自分の槍にする趙雲カッコイイ!

"What's with these ropes? I could cut them with my sword but... I'd rather see where they take me."

I couldn't help but laugh when that bearded guy started running and breaking spears lol.

1. No, horses not crashing into a shield formation isn't a strange thing. Horses won't run into obstacles if they have a free way to go, like happens in this sequence. This tactic dates back to ancient egypt (actually first battle recorded in human history, Ramses II vs the hitites). 2. Yes, this is most likely a lame depiction of what happened in reality. If not regarding the tactic itself, at least one could think that the horsemen would... You know... Attack them meanwhile waiting to see what happens. 3. They don't attack because they are carrying swords. Straight swords. On fucking horseback. Good lord. Veredict: The basic tactic isn't magic at all. But empires of all periods of history (starting with the very same Ramses II that used this tactic for the first time) have greatly exaggerated their victories, to the point this looks way, way, way too effective on the chinesse part, and too moronic on the other guys (mongols? And they don't have bows?) part.

0:31 "Hey look! the enemies are making a big circle, let's all go inside!! :) Seems legit!"

Thats why its a movie and not a documentary.

it's Bagua Formation and it's one of the most famous formation in ancient tactics

0:26 Cornavirus entering your body be like.

Three Kingdoms so good :D

Perfect..

官渡の戦いから無敗を維持した曹軍の騎兵があっさり敗北したのは驚きだったろうな

Its almost just as stupid as American and British armies in the 1700's when theyd just march infront of each other and shoot at point blank range.

in reality only dumb general would engage that formation head on... especially on that clear plain...

I hope there would be more movies with battles like this. Maybe there are, and I have not seen them yet. Anyway, after e.g. war movies with bigger and bigger guns, or just mad slaughters with tons of blood.... This is something much more enjoyable and different in a good way. (sorry bad English, but I hope you got the point)

If you rough translate it, it's the 8 elements formation. It was developed during the warring states period of China, before the Qin Dynasty.

so before the battle of the red cliff,CaoCao has the emperor and the government to back him up,so he is politically the offical and justice side.SunQuan just gained his throne and has little control over the court,but the effort his family has made makes Wu a solid base for him to develop. LiuBei's royal blood makes him extremely popular with the majority, he can gather the talented people better than others

A moment of silence for all horses who are hurt 😞

the reason why they would do such a thing is because Zhuge Liang called this formation outdated but he found a good use to it by creating a sand storm and restricting enemy's vision which leaded enemy to fall into trap.And the general did carried sword

You can find it off Amazon for sure, that's were I got my copy.

So CaoCao had the political advantage and can gather army in the imperial name(fast and good cause).SunQuan has the solid Base his father and brother had left him so he can do what he want without the worrying of backstabbing(this CaoCao cant do).LiuBei has the best man resource for his popularity.

Ok that was a weird defence formation that those horsemen just waltz right in... Also shame for the horsemen that got roped in near the end, they should of carry sword or some cutting blades.

Oh, no! A dude with a turtle-shield is standing in front of me - hmm, I better ride around and look confused. ;)

this is the only film i have ever seen where the horses take arrows as well as the men so it has more authenticity than most hollywood films

One thing they need is better wood quality that's for sure...

if they do, they will be encircled again and again, it is a trap formation. it is the legendary Stone Sentinel Maze.

Its a really cool martial art fight scene

レッドクリフ良かったよなあ、総合的に。