Do u really think what we saw in movies bout ancient chinese empires were all actually true? And don't u think the customs (especially the troops) is just so nice?

Alot of them were fictionized and not 100% historically accurate. Some military props (costumes) were exaggerated for entertainment purpose, not to mention the plots. Thus, my advice when looking at chinese films with historical settings is look with a sceptical eyes.

Also, do read more history so that you will understand what the exact historical truth is.

may be true . i think.

Movies are never a good source for truth. Sometimes they help you get the idea of what life than was like, but still not near the truth. It is the same with western movies as well, like Gladiator, the Romans used a calvary with saddles. Romans would not have used calvary like that and not in the woods like that and Romans didn't have saddles. They also didn't have chainmail either but Hollywood gave them some, because chainmail looks cool. So, read books and go to class for truth, go to the movies for fun.

Just to back up Thaibebop about Gladiator, the Emperor Commodus didn't die in the arena like a gladiator neither, but in his bath !

I work in the Hong-Kong cinema field, and I can tell you that unanimously, the latest Zhang Yimou's films (to take one example : Hero), more than most of the films we've seen before, contain a lot of propaganda in the plot and characters.

So indeed, beware.

For my part, the best movie about chinese History that I saw in the last few years is "The Warlords" by HK film director Peter Chan Ho-Sun, starring Andy Lau Tak-Wah, Jet Li Lian-jie and Kaneshiro Takeshi.
The officials (even though Qing officials were never shown with a lot of respect anyway), the soldiers and the war itself, are depicted, I find, with a noticeable historical objectivity.

Romans actually had saddles and chainmail, but some descriptions in the movie about the Roman army I'm not so sure existed(particularly the exploding vases, which I think only existed by the discovery of Greek Fire, which is after the set time period).




And from what I remember it's from strangulation too! What a horrible way to die, being strangled in your bath But then again, ignomiously getting your butt wupped in front of a stadium of people, as depicted in the movie, isn't something to look forward to either.

When it comes to martial arts in many of those films its very hard to take seriously. There are many things that a trained combatant would never do in a fight. I would take it that most fighting dont look pretty to the eyes and most soldiers wouldnt care about any martial tradition as long as the techniques work and they end up comming home alive.

I have to disgree about the saddles, Roman Calvary. You are right about the mail, but I don't believe it was widely distributed. As far as Greek Fire goes, yes something like 673 CE is when it was invented and therefore not used at that time. Commodus did fight in the Colosseum and was said to be pretty good.

I'm not an expert in Roman cavalry, but I'm pretty sure that by the time of Commodus the four-horned saddle would be quite popular in Roman cavalry. As for the mail(lorica hamata I think), it should be even more popular than the lorica segmentata. It was used before the latter existed, and persevered to the Middle Ages whereas the lorica segmentata did not. The mail was used for auxiliary, while the segmentata was used for elite.



I never stated otherwise, but merely stated that he didn't die in the Colosseum but was strangled in his bath. The reason he was so "good" in the fights, I believe, is because he injured all his opponents prior to the fight (something the movie got right, though Maximus wasn't one of them) In short, it makes him a pretty big a**.

Oh, I know, I was just adding that bit. On the saddle, I am not sure. The Roman Empire spans such a long time it's hard to generalize anything.