The Battle of Chibi was divided into two parts, one was fought on the river, and the other was fought on the land. According to Zhou Lang and Zhuge Wuhou's fire attack strategy, Jiangdong general Huang Gai led the "fire boat" into Cao Cao's naval camp. Because Cao Cao's warships were linked together, when the wind turned, it suddenly became a sea of fire. Not long after, 2,000 ships were set ablaze. Just to shoot this scene, John Woo has been preparing for more than a year. The eighteen giant warships needed were too large to be transported to the reservoir from elsewhere, so they had to be manufactured on site. The largest of them is 38 meters long. The construction of all warships started in October 2006 and was not completed until May of the following year, which lasted for more than eight months. At the same time, four large piers were also built beside the reservoir. In addition, many warships were shipped after construction was completed in a nearby shipyard. The remaining two thousand ships can only be produced by 3D animation.
In order to shoot the water battle scene, John Woo specially invited Hong Kong director Leung Pak-kin to serve as executive director. The shooting process is divided into four steps: the first step is the actual shooting, most of which are shots of burning ships and soldiers falling into the water. The second step was to build a giant pool in a large studio on the outskirts of Beijing, and dismantled some warships from the location, transported them here, and reassembled them. Liang Pak-jian was in charge of shooting the shots of the warships colliding and sinking, while the surrounding fire was still fierce and the fighting continued. The third step is to use the model to shoot, supplement the real shot. The fourth step is to hand over to Offenic for the production of computer stunts.
"Red Cliff" is a water battle, and it's hard enough to fight on a boat, not to mention it takes 5 minutes to fight. This scene was re-shot in Shanghai. There was a sudden problem with the scene of the bombing on the last day. When it was discovered, all the staff on the scene were gone. Director John Woo called all the staff and insisted on reshooting.
