Aug

10

2008

Red Cliff

Posted by luna6


Movie: Red Cliff / Chi bi / 赤壁
Release Date: July 12, 2008
Country: China
Director: John Woo
Starring: Tony Leung, Takeshi Kaneshiro, Chen Chang
Runtime: 146 min
Editor Rating: 6.0
Users Rating: 7.21 1 Star2 Stars3 Stars4 Stars5 Stars6 Stars7 Stars8 Stars9 Stars10 Stars (19 votes)

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There’s big epics and there’s biiigggg epics. “Red Cliff” would certainly fall in the latter. For those unfamiliar with the movie’s background, “Red Cliff” marks the return of John Woo to Asian Cinema after spending nearly 10 years in Hollywood. Distinguishing “Red Cliff” even further is its collection of A-list actors; Tony Leung, Takeshi Kaneshiro, Chen Chang, Vicky Zhao, Jun Hu, & Shido Nakamura. Making things even more newsworthy is the fact the movie carries the tag of “most expensive Asian movie ever made.” “Red Cliff” sports an estimated budget of $80 million dollars.

The film also has had its shares of memorable pre-production moments. First, Tony Leung backs out of the movie, then Yun-Fat Chow backs out, then Tony Leung comes back on board. During the actual filming stage of “Red Cliff” tragedy struck the set when a stunt men died and 6 others were seriously injured after two ships collided.

By now you can tell “Red Cliff” is adverse to traveling the normal route and this even includes the film’s distribution. In most parts of Asia, “Red Cliff” saw its release on July 10th, 2008, with a runtime of 146 minutes - South Korea being the exception as it showed a shortened 132 minute version. Then sometime in January, 2009 “Red Cliff 2″ is expected to be released. Meanwhile the folks outside of Asia gets a single 150 minute version of “Red Cliff.” The reasoning? Westerners are not as familiar with the story of “the Battle of Red Cliff,” so an abridged version should fare better, while Asians are thought to know this story intimately and a more detailed version should fare better. In theory anyway.

And after all of this, there’s also the actual movie itself.

In John Woo’s “Red Cliff” the setting is China circa 208 AD, near the end of the Han Dynasty. General Cao Cao and his 800,000 strong army in northern China look to expand their power. The smaller states of Shu and Wu in southern China find themselves in a precarious state. Strategist & scholar Zhuge Liang (Takeshi Kaneshiro) from the Shu state reaches out to Wu leader Sun Quan (Chen Chang). Zhuge Liang proposes that the Shu and Wu form an alliance against the much larger General Cao Cao’s army. Sun Quan realizing that this is his best option agrees to Liang’s proposal. The alliance, under the military leadership of Gen. Zhou Yu (Tony Leung), then prepares to make its stand on the strategically important Yangtze River at Red Cliff

At least in the Asian version of John Woo’s “Red Cliff,” there’s a mixture of the good and the bad. With expectation so high and the need to satisfy so many different constituencies it’s not surprising that the movie underwhelms. Visuals look impressive but doesn’t have the wow factor like Yimou Zhang’s “Curse of the Gold Dragon.” Story wise, maybe it’s from a bad habit picked up from John Woo’s Hollywood days or maybe its just from the film’s desire to appeal to a broad audience range, but the story carries a noticeable dumbed down tone. There’s plenty of awkward feel good moments placed into the movie making you wonder if the film is indeed based on “the Battle of Red Cliff” or just another family fantasy pic like “The Lord of the Rings” or “Harry Potter.”

The battle scenes shown in “Red Cliff,” like the rest of the film, are a mixed bag of good and bad. The scenes look good in general (and it should with that kind of budget), but stopped well short of memorable. Also, it doesn’t help that the film resorts to elements of fantasy in its battle scenes. Often, one man would fight hand-to-hand combats against dozens of other men and come out as the victor (one time even fighting one handed while cradling a baby in his other hand).

What “Red Cliff” did well was to build anticipation for its upcoming second half part. Once that clunky background is finally laid out and the film actually focuses on “the Battle of Red Cliff,” well things get more interesting. The initial skirmish at Red Cliff wets your appetite, while the decisive battle is like the movie itself … “To Be Continued.”

Cast:
Tony Leung Chiu Wai - Zhou Yu
Takeshi Kaneshiro - Zhuge Liang
Chen Chang - Sun Quan
Wei Zhao - Sun Shangxiang
Shido Nakamura - Gan Ning
Fengyi Zhang - Cao Cao
Jun Hu - Zhao Yun
Chiling Lin - Xiao Qiao
Yong You - Liu Bei
Dawei Tong - Sun Shucai
Jia Song - Li Ji
Yong Hou - Lu Su
Qingxiang Wang - Kong Rong
Jiang Tong - Li Tong
Jingchu Zhang
Koyuki
Chun Sun


If you like this movie you may enjoy: Curse of the Golden Dragon, The Warlords, Mongol





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2008 Movie Reviews, Chinese Movies, Movie Reviews, Movies |

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6 Comments so far

  1. 6 Rico Says: August 27, 2008

    IMHO its the best chinese epic movie that i have seen in many years, i cant wait to see part 2 !
    John WOO at his best !

  2. 5 Amy Says: August 19, 2008

    Actually, I am really waiting for part two now to make up my mind, but I really dig part I, and my mother as well… and she’s not into Hollywood films. Though, we thought subtitles were too fast…
    It was visually great, and my friend watched this one by chance, maybe that’s why he enjoyed it a lot.
    Mom almost kicked me in the head for making her watch a film with no ending, ha! xD

  3. 4 Jaccstev Says: August 15, 2008

    I think the “Red Cliff” is just a so so film. Is it a history drama? not very much. is it a martial art action movie? being little like. is it a funny film? maybe not,is it a love story? not clearly. I can’t find Mr.Woo’s trace in this latest work, this is a movie you can’t make sure what kind of it is, no style at all.

  4. 3 jinalbert Says: August 14, 2008

    Well, it’s a good movie if your friend like Hollywood style movie, and didn’t read about the Chibi battle before.

  5. 2 Amy Says: August 11, 2008

    I’ve yet to watch this, but according to my friend it’s the best movie he’s ever seen. LOL’

  6. 1 jinalbert Says: August 10, 2008

    Visually grand is not good enough, if the story is lacking. I did like some of the clever elements in their war tactics, but not the fight itself. Bare-hand Zhang Fei is just too much.

    I think it would have been much better if they had mixed in the clever games and plots between Zhou Yu and Zhuge Liang in Luo Guanzhong’s ROTK.