The Best Warfare and Business Strategies of the Ancient Chinese from John Woo’s Red Cliff Art of War

Have you ever heard of “The Romance of the Three Kingdoms”, the extraordinarily famous historical story of the Chinese? Why so famous? Some people claim that this non-fiction story has created a lot of success stories. How? The believable strategies used by the characters in this story are applicable in the modern business world. These strategies are generally referred to as “Sun Tzu’s Art of War”. Many successful conglomerates claim that their successes are due to the adoption and inspiration of Chinese strategies in Sun Tzu’s art of war. These strategies are the core content of Red cliff I and II.

These John Woo films are about the war between dynasties for territorial domination in a period when mainland China was divided into three kingdoms (Wei, Shu and Wu). This movie also explains the strategies on how a force of 50,000 caused a disaster to the enemy force of 800,000 which was much stronger. There are three important aspects within this war: wealth, power and women. Red Cliff is divided into two parts, the first part focuses on the knowledge of the talented characters and the second part deals with the strategies and their analysis and the war. Strategies are related to some factors that can affect the success or failure of a war, such as motivation, size of forces, methods of aggression, leadership, weather, etc. These strategies are considered useful not only in the war period, but also in the business field. Using the right strategy at the right time will give you great success. Otherwise, the wrong use or timing will lead to massive disaster.

This movie is excellent and recommended for executives, management consultants, investors, business owners, economic analysts, and even military officers. Many recent strategies adopted by large and successful companies are based on these traditional Chinese strategies. Of course, the strategies are adjusted, adapted and applied based on the current condition and moment in order to achieve satisfactory success.

Is Red Cliff a true story? Well, in an interview, Woo admitted that his movie is based on the official story “Chronicle of Three Kingdoms (San Guo Zhi). However, some effects were added, removed, and edited to dramatize the story, since John Woo is a expert in dramatizing his films. Don’t worry about the story, because it is still analogous to the real thing.

Overall, Red Cliff – I & II is a great movie that reflects the strategies of the Chinese in the war, the strategies that have inspired the creation of many success stories in the recent business world.