Three Kingdoms 1994 fansubs Foreword + Background Trivia (episode 32-39)

Thank you for downloading the Gentlemen of the Hàn translation of Romance of the Three Kingdoms 1994!

Apologies for taking so much time with this release. This is part 2 of the "Battle of Red Cliffs," the arc's finale and in some sense the "true" opening prologue of the Three Kingdoms period, as lines will start to be drawn beginning from here.
As before, please read our previous Foreword for extra context on the history of this production, the novel, and of the history it is based on.

HISTORY VS. ROMANTICISM

-		Zhou Yu's characterization is one of the more oft-debated parts of the Romance of the Three Kingdoms. In history, Zhou Yu is known as the talented and brilliant savant who led the armies of Eastern Wu to its most major victories, but tragically died too soon. Zhou Yu had also planned for a similar grand strategy as Zhuge Liang, by unifying the south against Cao Cao through taking over Jing and later Yi Provinces and setting them as the main military fronts. In Romance though, for dramatic storytelling purposes (showcasing Zhuge Liang's tactical acumen and adding some more tension to the story) Zhou Yu had to play the role of a Salieri-esque rival and much like with the real Salieri, did some disservice to the actually considerably talented and far more amiable personality of the real historical figure. Nowadays with the advent of Yi Zhongtian's popular Three Kingdoms lectures and John Woo's Red Cliff films, the original historical Zhou Yu has made a comeback to the cultural osmosis.
The 1994 RoTK is actually probably one of the first shows to have attempted to meet this in the middle, similar to Cao Cao's characterization.
As it was written and directed to be "Romance first, real history as supplement" in terms of plotting, it didn't stray too much from the general events as depicted in the novel, but changed a lot of details in key moments that subtly changes Zhou Yu's character a little bit. Many of the more oddly pettier moments of Zhou Yu had been removed and Zhou Yu's suspicion over Zhuge Liang is far more based on foresight and anticipation of him as a future threat rather than simple envy. A lot of this does line up with history, as Zhou Yu's plans always did conflict with those of Liu Bei and Zhuge Liang, especially after the Battle of Chibi, and thus wanted to put a stop to them whenever it was possible but was never allowed to by Sun Quan or Lu Su.
One moment I like to highlight is in episode 34, Zhou Yu's line was changed from the novel, where he did not give Zhuge Liang enough resources to make the 100,000 arrows, into giving Zhuge Liang all the resources he needed to make the arrows. It's a small change that informs how, despite Zhou Yu's setup against Zhuge Liang, his interest still lies in the major picture of defeating Cao Cao and so would not intentionally sabotage his own army supplies just to get at Zhuge Liang.
This re-characterization of Zhou Yu will come ahead in episode 46 that gives Zhou Yu the tribute he deserves.

-		Lu Su was also a character nerfed by RoTK, and didn't really see any changes in the TV show compared to Zhou Yu and Cao Cao. In history he was a shrewd politician and military leader whose strategy happened to align with Zhuge Liang's Longzhong Plan, so had made mutual contact with Liu Bei to form the coalition against Cao Cao. This was changed in the novel however, which characterized him as a bit of a meek diplomat who tried to appease both sides. It's an understandable change, as the story was focused on the two big personalities of Zhou Yu and Zhuge Liang, and Lu Su's role in history is technically accurate to what it is in the novel, but it might be a mark against Romance for the hardcore historians out there.

-		Probably one of the more infamous issues of the 1994 RoTK is its depiction of military armors, and this portion of the show is especially egregious as it features equipment for the a few of the leading generals that resemble the armors of Japanese samurai (the crests on the helmets, the cuirass resembling "Nanban-dou", and the "Sendan-no-ita & Kyubi-no-ita" armpit-guards). The director of this particular arc of the show used a lot of very obvious inspirations from Japanese armors in this arc for stylistic purposes, though they later disappear pretty much completely afterwards.
The reasoning behind this is a bit complicated. Basically, Japanese armor did take a lot of influences from Chinese armors initially, particularly those of the mid-to-late Tang Dynasty and subsequent Five Dynasties period, the former of which was the high point of Japanese and Chinese cultural cross-pollination. You can see this in a lot of the artwork from the Tang Dynasty, with equipment that somewhat resemble parts of later Japanese armor. Even further, some older Japanese Buddhist architecture, like in Nara, and gagaku-music are also pretty noticeable carry-overs or descendants of Chinese Tang Dynasty architecture and yayue-music respectively.
Because of these roots, there used to be a (wrongheaded) belief among some folks that Japanese culture is exactly equivalent to older Chinese cultures. While not without some truth to it, it is a grave misunderstanding of the two cultures and their development. Thus, you sometimes see in some certain Chinese historical dramas less prudent with their history to include some sprinklings of visual elements from Japanese history (mostly from mid-00s to early 2010s). And this is not even getting to the cringe kitchen-sink approaches to East-Asian culture you used to see in western media.
Nowadays, Chinese historical dramas have returned to being far more committed to historical research in its visuals, and if anything some audiences nowadays are actually really anal retentive to the point of being a bit obnoxious at times (let's say those people that put way too much of themselves into it. You know the ones).
Funnily enough, despite its ahistoricity, the 1994's Japanese-Chinese mashup helmets in this arc, along with 1994's look in general, became one of the more notable visual inspirations to many Three Kingdoms media for a while afterwards. Take a gander at Object Soft's Dragon Throne and Koei's Romance of the Three Kingdoms strategy games, especially 5, to see this in action.

Donations
This is purely a fan effort done for non-commercial purposes. The Romance of the Three Kingdoms is copyrighted by 中国国际电视总公司, which produced the TV series, so we cannot accept any donations.

These subs are not to be sold and redistributed commercially.

Final Word
A lot of care and hard work went into this release. We hope you enjoy, and look forward to the next one!