In Red Cliff 2 there is a naval battle which is started by 10 fire boats charging the enemy fleet. In the movie the crews of these boats valiantly sacrifice themselves in attempts to set fire to the enemy ships. They actually rush the gunpowder magazines holding bombs in order to blow up the enemy ships. They even try to board the enemy ships in 1v1000 fights, and any crew remaining on the fire boats are killed by archers.
Was being on such a boat really a suicide mission? To me it would make more sense to send burning boats without crews. Were suicide missions in general common in the period of the warring states in China?
According to the Records of the Three Kingdoms, during the Battle of Red Cliffs, Sun Quan's general Huang Gai pretended to defect to Cao Cao's side and took several large ships and small ships into the middle of the river. When they got close to the enemy side, they set the front ships on fire, transferred to the small ships in back, and retreated. The fire ships were blown by the wind into Cao Cao's fleet and set Cao Cao's ships on fire.