RED CLIFF is the epic historical drama based on a legendary 208 A.D. battle that heralded the end of the Han Dynasty. A power-hungry Prime Minister-turned-General Cao Cao seeks permission from the Han Dynasty Emperor to organize a southward-bound mission designed to crush the two troublesome warlords who stand in his way, Liu Bei and Sun Quan. Vastly outnumbered by Cao Cao’s brutal, fast-approaching army, the warlords band together to mount a heroic campaign – unrivaled in history – that changes the face of China forever.Director John Woo’s Red Cliff boasts some mighty impressive numbers. It took four screenwriters to adapt the 800,000-word source material, a 14th-century Chinese novel called Romance of the Three Kingdoms. There are also three editors, two directors of photography, hundreds of horses, and a combined cast and crew numbering in the thousands, making it reportedly the most expensive movie ever made in China. There are quite a few minutes, too, as it has a running time of 2 hours 28 minutes. That’s only about half the length of the cut released in Asia, a fact that has led some critics to dismiss the American release as merely a bowdlerized version of the real deal. That may be, but this depiction of the titular battle that took place in AD 208 and is credited with changing the entire face of China is still an epic and magnificent piece of entertainment. The principal characters include Cao Cao (Zhang Fengyi), a power-hungry general and self-appointed prime minister who convinces the weak-willed emperor that two rebellious leaders in the south, Liu Bei (You Yong) and Sun Quan (Chang Chen), must be stopped; Cao Cao’s antagonists also include the brilliant strategist Zhuge Liang (Takeshi Kaneshiro) and the heroic warrior Zhou Yu (Tony Leung), whose wife (Chiling Lin) is a legendary beauty. Cao Cao has a huge advantage in manpower, not to mention an impressive fleet of warships. But he is arrogant, while his opponents are not merely humble and brave but clever (Cao Cao’s diabolical plan to send the contagious bodies of soldiers who have died from typhoid fever to the Southlanders’ camp works temporarily, but the latter counter with ingenious strategies of their own, like using fog, wind, and fire to destroy Cao Cao’s ships). All of this is depicted in the most spectacular battles scenes since the Lord of the Rings trilogy, with a steady supply of gorgeous shots and indelible images. Woo, whose previous films range from the terrific Hard Boiled and The Killer to the lamentable Ben Affleck thriller Paycheck, is in his element here, and Red Cliff is a treat. –Sam Graham
Buy “Red Cliff International Version – Part I & Part II “ For Only $25.49
January 13, 2006
#1
i seriously don’t know why the initial reviews for this movie is so positive here at amazon (and mirrored by major review sites all around the country). alright, perhaps the ‘ancient Chinese’ ‘based on historical facts’ and ‘made by john woo’ tags can hook a few people, but seriously, calling this the ‘best movie’ or ‘most magnificent recent film’ etc just shows lack of taste. Perhaps its because people are afraid of saying anything bad made by the Chinese? Or perhaps it has to do with their lack of understanding of the original material? Still, something as inane as Twilight can and did make some serious coins in the box office, so go figure.
in the tradition of recent Chinese cinema ‘blockbusters’, Red Cliff is an ultra shallow film that should be avoided. the acting here is uniformly cringe-inducing bad. And before you say it, no, its not some crazy language / cultural gap – the acting doesn’t get any better even if you speak Chinese. The exception is Tony Leung, who is one of the best character actor out of Hong Kong, but he is totally wasted here in his role. For someone who has been in the business for as long as he is, he (and his agent) really should’ve walked away from this project the first time around (he walked away from the initial roll offered to him). The remainder group of… celebrity cast involved can’t act their way out of a box, much less carry a ‘epic’ ‘blockbuster’.
As the movie’s plot is based on a 600 years old historical novel that itself is based on 1900 years old history, you figure it won’t be so hard to make a compelling story. No luck here. There are so much ‘inventive’ rewrites and character ‘modernizing’, one wonders why they even bothered keeping the character names at all (incidentally, same atrocity happened with the recent 2010 Sherlock Holmes flick). Graphically, the set design ranges from poor to ridiculous (one wonders if the cinematographer and Woo has ever been to the real Red Cliff location). The over used CGI models are so poor, that if it were a video game, kids today would never touch it. The costume design, handled by Tim Yip, is competent, but nothing memorable. The music, while again competent, is at odds thematically with the rest of the movie.
The saddest thing about this whole fiasco of a movie is that the source material, ‘romance of three kingdoms’ is a great novel that deserves a good movie and a competent director. Unfortunately John Woo has no idea how to handle anything more than a slow-mo guy and two pistols – anything that’s even remotely out of his usual range will and do suck (WW2 / Windtalkers, Fantasy / bulletproof Monk, SciFi / Paycheck, for example). how he got the funding and the go ahead for this project is beyond me.
unless you wanna play a drinking game along with this (a shot ever time you cringe), avoid this movie at all cost.
January 13, 2006
#2
My wife and I get tired of subtitles
you can get so busy reading them that you miss too much of a movie
if they’re going to sell their movies over here in the U.S.A.
then the least they can do is get it done well in english
I’ve passed on at least 30 movies that look good simply because of the subtitles
which should still be included on the DVD, but be limited to it
because once you watched one with English
then you might want to watch it again later with the subtitles to pick up on nuances
January 13, 2006
#3
If you have read San Guo (Three Kingdoms) you probably will be very disappointed in this movie. It strays from some very important storylines. For example in the Novel, Zhou Yu feared Zhuge Liang (Kongming) and tried to have him killed for negligence of duty. He did this by assigning him the task of making 100,000 arrows and then failed to supply him the materials. In the movie, this is entirely left out because they create a “bromance” between Kongming and Zhou. The arrow incident becomes comedy relief in the movie. In the Novel, Cao’s only tie to Zhou Yu’s wife is a boast that he has built two towers for Sun Quan and Zhou Yu’s wives to live in. (They were sisters) The movie has some sort of childhood tie between Cao and Qiao which is stupid. It would have been nice to see Cao’s flight from Chi Bi, where he shed his general’s clothes, cut off his hair and beard to avoid recognition and capture, but that is left out as well and the victors just yell at him to leave, how lame!
The casting was terrible as well. The characters should have been in their mid thrities at the time of Chi Bi and these Characters are all too old. Guan Yu was cast entirely wrong, instead of a tall, strong man capable of yielding a 100lbs blade, he was a shrimp! Zhang Fei was also very unimpressive and Liu Bei a bit role.
Having said all that, if you have never read the novel, and never dreamed all the scenes while reading it, you might like this visually riveting fun movie.
January 13, 2006
#4
What happened to part 2? It was so good and then its to be continued… Where is part 2?
January 13, 2006
#5
Well filmed, well directed, well acted, this film should be in the library of anyone interested in Chinese military history.