Monday, April 29, 2019

Sangokushi movie 2

The second movie of the Sangokushi trilogy is 1993's Sangokushi Dai Ni Bu Choukou Moyu! (Sangokushi: The Yangtze Is Burning!). It covers roughly 13 years, from Cao Cao's victory over Lu Bu in 198 CE, through the Battle of Red Cliffs in 208 CE, and the aftermath up until 211 BCE. As other players are swept from the board, the story focuses on Liu Bei and his increasingly desperate attempts to prevent Cao Cao from seizing all of China. The turning point is Liu Bei's recruitment of the best strategic mind of that generation, Zhuge Kongming, the Crouching Dragon. Kongming orchestrates an alliance of convenience between Liu Bei and Sun Quan, the ruler of the emerging southern kingdom of Wu, as they seek to stop Cao Cao's "million man army" from rolling over all of China. Their victory over Cao Cao at Red Cliffs and Liu Bei's seizure of the southwest as his realm create the Three Kingdoms that give the era its name.


However, reaching that point is not easy. Liu Bei experiences setback after setback, even after recruiting Kongming. At more than one point in the story, with his fortunes at a low ebb, he describes himself as a failure. Still, he is able to retain the loyalty of his core set of warriors and even expand their number, when the mighty Zhao Yun enlists to serve the cause. Kongming first has to engineer multiple escapes from Cao Cao's hordes, but then he is able to seize the initiative and pull together the coalition that would finally check Cao Cao's ambitions... and create the opening for Liu Bei's ambitions to rule.

Like the Sangokushi television specials, the movies are based on the historical novel Romance of the Three Kingdoms rather than the actual historical records themselves. This makes Liu Bei and his retainers more prominent than perhaps they were in history. It also allows the creators to pick and choose the story they want to show for Liu Bei's wife, named Lihua here. The TV specials modeled Lihua after Liu Bei's third wife, Lady Sun, sister to Sun Quan of Wu. However, the real Lady Sun did not meet the tragic fate depicted in Sangokushi 2; she simply went back to her brother in Wu. The movies' Lihua is based on Liu Bei's second wife, Lady Mi. Again, her tragic fate is not historical; she simply disappeared from the historical record after Cao Cao captured her in 200 CE. But Romance of the Three Kingdoms is a novel, not history, and its authors took considerable liberties with actual events, just as modern historical romances do.

Sangokushi Dai Ni Bu Choukou Moyu! retains the same actors for Liu Bei, Cao Cao, Zhang Fei, and Guan Yu as the first movie. The major new seiyuu are:
  • Yamaguchi Takashi (Kongming) was primarily an actor and a presenter. The Sangokushi movies are his only anime roles. 
  • Shibata Hidekatsu (Sun Quan) played Baron Ashura in Mazinger Z, Kenzou Kabuto in Great Mazinger, King Bradley in both versions of Fullmetal Alchemist, and the Third Hokage in Naruto. He played the hero's father in Dragon Fist and the voice of God in Tezuka Osamu's Tales of the Old Testament, both Orphan releases.
  • Hori Hideyuki (Zhao Yun) played Zach Isedo in Al Caral no Isan, Sid in Ai no Kusabi, Falk Green in Hi-Speed Jecy, and Baraba in Eien no Filena, all Orphan projects. He played the title role in Baoh, Phoenix in the Saint Seiya franchise, and Tezuka Osamu himself in the Black Jack TV series.
  • Sugiyama Kazuko (Xiulan, Kongming's housekeeper and eventual wife) played Heidi  in Alps no Shoujo Heidi, Ganmo in Gu-Gu Ganmo, Ten-chan in Urusei Yatsura, Akane Kimidori in Dr. Slump and Arale-chan, and Korosuke in Kiteretsu Daihyakka.
  • Yara Yuusaku (Zhou Yu, Wu's commander-in-chief) played the destroyer captain in Zipang. He had many featured roles, appearing in Eguchi Hisashi no Kotobuki Gorou Show, Eguchi Hisashi no Nantoko Narudesho, Next Senki Ehrgeiz, Eien no Filena, Hidamari no Ki, Nozomi Witches, both Sangokushi OVAs, Prime Rose, and both What's Michael? OVAs, all Orphan releases.
As with the first movie, the supporting cast is vast, but most are onscreen only for a short time. The musical score for all three movies is by Yokoyama Seiji, a prolific composer of anime scores, including the Saint Seiya franchise and Magical Taruruuto-kun.

The Orphan staff is the same as for the first movie. Iriliane translated, Yogicat timed, I edited and typeset, and BeeBee and Topper3000 QCed. M74 encoded from an R2J DVD. Because of the length and complexity of the movie, it was a mammoth effort by all concerned. Unfortunately, the third movie is even more complicated. And as with the first movie, you may need to fiddle with your player to get the signs to display correctly.

So gird your loins, pad your bottom, and go watch Sangokushi Dai Ni Bu Choukou Moyu! in its full 148-minute glory. You can get the movie from the usual torrent site or from IRC bot Orphan|Arutha in channels #nibl or #news on irc.rizon.net.

1 comment:

  1. Thank you very much for your hard work!
    Nice goodie: It is interesting to see the landscape as it was 25 years ago in the ending credits part.

    ReplyDelete