Andy Lau as Zhao Zilong (or Zhao Yun if you play the game). One of the Five Tiger Generals
Weapon: Head Spear


Maggie Q as Cao Ying (grandchild of dictator Cao Cao). Some crazy woman who likes playing an imitation guitar
Weapon: Unknown, although in a battle scene, she was fighting with a halberd.


Sammo Hung as Luo Pingan (or the power-hungry traitor)
Weapon: Bow, although he is seen wielding a chopper (NOT the veggie auntie's chopper. That is called a cleaver)

Plot
The movie starts off with Zhao Zilong signing up with the army of Shu as a soldier. At army he makes friends with Luo Pingan and Zilong treats Pingan as his older brother. One day, their small task force was given very disturbing news that Cao Cao's large army is heading their way, and of course they were stressed. But, a stranger approaches camp and gave them a suicidal strategy


(I know it sucks... its just a rough illustration). Their strategy is based on the sole fact that a storm has to approach for it to succeed. The stranger promised his head if the rains did not come. And the stranger is... (guess)... Zhuge Liang (in case you don't know, he is some cool strategist whose strategies never failed... except on Wu Zheng Plains where his strategy failed and he died). Here are the odds


Liu Bei's force: 1000
Cao Cao's force: at least 10'000


20 commandoes led the attack on the main door wearing scary masks. Riding their horses, they cut down soldiers with blades and spears. A lot of blood flying around. At one particular part, one soldier got ran through with a spear and the blood spewed out like a leaking high pressure water pump. (how gross is that?... actually not very gross)


A lot of crap happened after this battle... not gonna talk about it, if not this would not be called a review. It will be called a spoiler. Anyway, in a nutshell, Zilong saved Liu Bei's son from Cao Cao's army single-handedly. He was so close to killing Cao Cao, but got forced to fall back by Xiahou Dun (one of Cao Cao's trusted generals). Liu Bei was greatful to Zhao for saving his son.

After Liu Bei's ascention to Emperor of Shu. (The three warring states are Shu, Wei and Wu. Below are some background info)

Shu
Leader: Liu Bei
Most Trusted Generals: Guan Yu, Zhang Fei, Zhao Zilong, Ma Chao, Huang Zhong (Five Tiger Generals)
Millitary Advisor: Zhuge Liang (also Prime Minister)


Wei
Leader: Cao Cao
Most Trusted Generals: (too many, only naming those that appear most of the time) Xiahou Dun, Xiahou Yuan, Sima Yi, Zhang Liao, Xu Zhu (and the lists goes on)
Millitary Advisor: Used to be Cao Ren and Cao Hong. After Cao Cao died and Cao Pi took over the power seat, Sima Yi became Millitary Advisor

Wu
Leader: Sun Jian (deceased), Sun Ce (deceased too), Sun Quan
Most Trusted Generals: (also a lot, naming a few only) Zhou Tai, Huang Gai, Gan Ning (that's all I can remember)
Millitary Advisor(s): Zhou Yu (died), Lu Su (also died), Lu Meng (got possessed and died), Lu Xun (guess what... he did not die until the kingdom of Wu collapsed)



P.S Wu's army did not appear in this movie


Anyway... that was a very big digression... After Liu Bei ascended to be Emperor of Shu, he appointed the Five Tiger Generals.

Guan Yu: 2nd sworn brother of Liu Bei, wields a Halberd
Zhang Fei: 3rd sworn brother of Liu Bei, wields a Viper Blade
Zhao Zilong: Calm and thoughtful lad, wields a Head Spear
Ma Chao: The most aggressive of the Five, wields a Jagged "Stallion Fury" Spear
Huang Zhong: The oldest of the lot (67 years of age), archer master, wields a large chopper

The action comes back when the scene is fast-forwarded 25++ years, where Guan Yu, Zhang Fei, Ma Chao and Huang Zhong perished by illness or in battle. Liu Bei himself died, and his son took over the throne.

Guan Xing (son of Guan Yu) and Zhang Bao (son of Zhang Fei) were tasked to attack Wei, where Cao Pi was going to lead an attack against Shu. Zilong hounded Zhuge Liang, asking why he could not join the battle. Zhuge Liang relented soon and let Zilong lead the Vanguard. In case you are not too sure about this.


Black-Vanguard (Front Army)
Blue- Main Calvary
Red- Leader and his/her own guards
Yellow- Main Army and supply train
Green- Rear Army

Anyway, an ambush from Cao Ying's army forced Zhao Zilong back to Phoenix Heights, where Liu Bei once set up camp. Guan Xing and Zhang Bao thought that Zilong had got his army to dig into a defensive position and they moved on. Zhao Zilong was stuck, since the odds were:

Zhao Zilong's force: about 1000
Cao Ying's force: more than 10'000

By the way, Luo Pingan followed Zhao Zilong into war.

Zilong's army rested at Phoenix Heights while Cao Ying sent an emissry to request a duel. As usual, Cao Ying and Zhao Zilong fought a deadly duel, and with Luo Pingan's help, Zilong won the duel. As Zhao Zilong was quite a chivarous man, he let Cao Ying go. Cao Ying was so ungrateful, she ordered a full scale attack. Zhao Zilong's commanders led the entire army out to counter the attack, and every one of them died. Cao Ying recalled her army, expecting Zilong to be raging and charge out to the retreating force. Of course he did not, since he was tending to a wound. The odds now:

Zhao Zilong's force: 2
Cao Ying's force: close to 8000

Zilong and Luo Pingan are all that is left before Cao Ying's rage. At this point, Luo Pingan told Zilong that he betrayed him(Zilong). Zilong hoisted his spear but did not do anything. He just called for his steed and rode out to meet Cao Ying's enormous force sitting out by the gate. The movie ends with Zhao Zilong charging towards Cao Ying's forces...

Overall Rating: 3.5/5
Points lost for: Not very true to the history part.
Zhao Zilong died a natural death.
There is no written fact that Cao Ying exists (not too sure... going to research).
Not enough BLOOD... its rated NC-16 (I don't really bother about stuff like that unless it has sex scenes/references.) but the gory-est part is a spear sticking out of a commander and body parts flying all over the place with the gunpowder arrows. And talking about gunpowder...
GUNPOWDER was not discovered untill the 17th century.