Film Spotlight: RED CLIFF
(+6 rating, 2 votes)
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The Three Kingdoms era is one of the most romanticized periods of Chinese history ever. The Three Kingdoms consisted of Wei, Shu and Wu. This period has been the source material for operas, folk stories, novels, films, television dramas and video games. My personal experience with the Three Kingdoms eras comes from Koei’s long running video game series Dynasty Warriors which let you play as a major historical figure in each of the kingdoms and participate in the many historical battles of that era. But this is not a video game spotlight, this is a film spotlight on John Woo’s new film Red Cliff.
John Woo’s career is almost mythic to most Asian film fans when you consider that most of his Hong Kong films are considered some of the best films to ever be made. A BETTER TOMORROW, THE KILLER, BULLET IN THE HEAD, and HARD BOILED should be required viewing by anybody who considers themselves fans of Hong Kong cinema. But his talent seemed to falter when he hit American shores. Sure, FACE OFF and MISSION IMPOSSIBLE 2 were fun. But he also directed some box office and critical failures like WINDTALKERS and PAYCHECK.
So it’s with genuine relief to report to you that John Woo’s return to Asian film making is a triumphant success! RED CLIFF recounts the Battle of Red Cliffs (or the Battle of Chi Bi for you Dynasty Warrior fans!) which was one of the most historically significant battles of that era. We see the formation of the alliance between the kingdoms of Shu and Wu as they battle the kingdom of Wei. The account we see on screen is much more historically accurate then other romanticized stories, although it still portrays most of the historical warrior characters with super human strength and over the top fighting abilities. It’s a very interesting story and you really get into the gritty details of the strategies that Shu and Wu needed to use against a much stronger Wei empire. The key characters in the story are Zhuge Liang (Takeshi Kaneshiro) the Shu strategist, Zhou Yu (Tony Leung) Wu’s Viceroy and chief strategist and Cao Cao (Zhang Fengyi) the Prime Minister of Wei. You really get involved in how Zhuge Liang and Zhou Yu try to anticipate and out wit Cao Cao’s strategies by utilizing the terrain and mother nature as allies. And, of course, many of the historical figures from that period are also in the film though I won’t list them all since there are dozens of them. And they each get their moments to show off there talents or fighting prowess. It’s a complicated story, but it’s kept clear by focusing mainly a few key characters and their motivations.
Another aspect to this film is the epic battle scenes which take up a significant part of the running time. John Woo is known for staging elaborate and balletic gun fight scenes and he ably takes those skills and utilizes them in RED CLIFF. Except that instead of guns we have swords, spears and bow and arrows. Like I mentioned earlier, most of the major historical figures get their moment to show off and Woo takes the time to show us their legendary fighting skills. Also, the battles are truly massive in scale with the use of CGI only to accentuate how big these battles are.
So all in all it’s a pretty impressive feat that John Woo has managed to accomplish. It’s epic storytelling without sacrificing the heart and substance that makes us care about what happens to the characters on screen. And it’s a welcome return to great film making by a legendary director. Highly recommended.
Editor’s Note: The version I saw for this review was the American cut of the film which is only 148 minutes long. The original version clocks in at 280 minutes and is actually split into two films. Also, I did not see this film for free. I bought a ticket and watched the movie with the general public.
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