A still from the movie "Once Open a Chinese Classic"

Hong Kong director Jeffrey Lau's new film "Once Open a Chinese Classic" to be released later this month presents a completely different take on Zhou Yu and Zhuge Liang, two famous historical figures in ancient China, Shanghai Morning Post reports.

The upcoming film to be released on March 18 has attracted many pop stars from both Hong Kong and the Chinese mainland. It centers on an idiot who embarks on an adventurous journey with the help of a magic box during the period of the Three Kingdoms in ancient China.

Chinese mainland actor Huang Bo, who is familiar to audiences from his performance in the comedy "Crazy Stone" four years ago, plays Zhou Yu, who is recorded in history as a handsome and bright warrior. Hong Kong comedy star Eric Tsang plays Zhuge Liang, a wise strategist from the same period.

In the movie, Huang's version of Zhou Yu gains the upper hand in a verbal battle with Tsang's Zhuge Liang, which would never have occurred based on historical accounts of the two men's relationship, because Zhuge Liang is wiser than Zhou Yu. In one of the scenes, Huang beats Tsang on the set of a well-known story called "Borrowing East Wind." He blames Tsang for always borrowing things from somewhere. Tsang is so angry that he fights with Huang over a banana on a table. Huang, who is much stronger, beats Tsang badly. This differs from the story version where the two are more than opponents. In order to demonstrate the mutual admiration they feel for each other, they collaborate to fight Cao Cao, their common enemy.

Lau designed a special set for the two characters by having them play music together. But the funny is that they play a classic Chinese folk tune as a rock 'n' roll song.

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