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Red Cliff Movie Review

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  • Starring: Tony Leung, Zhang Fengyi, Takeshia Kaneshiro, Zhao Wei, Chen Chang, Hu Jun and Lin Chiling
  • Written by: John Woo, Khan Chan, Cheng Kuo and Heyu Sheng
  • Directed by: John Woo
  • Series:

Red Cliff Movie Review

Red Cliff: The Chinese Know How to Make It Big

By Rob Vaux     November 18, 2009


RED CLIFF Review
© Mania

The tsunami of Chinese epics spearheaded by Zhang Yimou left many of us happy never to see another doomed couple caught in the throes of an ancient war again. If you're one of those people, then Red Cliff may not be for you. Director John Woo has his own auteurial style, however, and doesn't follow the playbook quite the way his predecessors did. Yes, there's a tragic love affair, along with an evil warlord, a massive army and a small band of heroes dedicated to stopping them. But while Woo pays due attention to the characters at the heart of it, he also focuses on the nuts and bolts of the strategies involved. This is basically The Art of War: The Movie, a distinctive notion which helps set it apart from other films of its ilk.
 
Widely touted as the most expensive movie ever made in China, Red Cliff nonetheless eschews the overly manicured sets and costumes of Zhang's work in favor of a grittier palette. Yet the whiff of quasi-mythology remains with it, establishing a not-quite-fairy-tale atmosphere akin to an Asian version of Camelot. In the era of the Three Kingdoms, a weak and ineffective Emperor rises to the throne. His scheming minister Cao Cao (Zhang Fengyi) plans to conquer two recalcitrant kingdoms--Wu and Xu--and cement a new Empire beneath him. Needless to say, Wu and Xu aren't down with this plan and despite historical mistrust between them, form an alliance to stand against him.
 
The bulk of the film focuses on the machinations of Zhou Yu (Tony Leung), Wu's resident Sneaky Bastard, who has a number of ideas for defeating Cao Cao. Despite the alliance, the two kingdoms are badly outnumbered, and they need every trick in the book to have a prayer of stopping him. They induce him to create a huge navy, then follow them to Red Cliff, where they hope to make their stand.
 
The drama quickly comes to a boil, as warriors from Wu and Xu struggle to work together and Cao Cao's past eventually returns to bite him. Unfortunately, much of it was cut out of the running time for the American release, creating the film's only real flaw. We begin in medias res, delivered back story in an unwieldy chunk by an American narrator and losing considerable pieces of character development in the process. The cuts are visible, but non-fatal and presumably an extended DVD release will correct the problem for good.
 
The remainder of the film, however, quickly transcends the issues in the editing room. It focuses on the details of Zhou Yu's strategy, and the ways his dirty tricks help to slowly even the odds. Out of arrows? Trick the enemy into giving you some! Scout force causing you problems? Goad them into a trap! Not only does Woo keep the specifics clear, but he does so in a way which enhances the excitement of the battle sequences. We see how it all fits together--recognizing the ways Zhou Yu connects terrain, natural phenomenon and the precise timing of the engagement--which makes us more than just passive observers in the outcome.
 
The passion and strength with which Woo helms this vision stem in part from his experiences in Hollywood. With Red Cliff, he filters those sensibilities through a completely different perspective, reflecting the grandiosity of American filmmaking with the cultural ethos of China. It's not dissimilar to what the Nightwatch films did with Russian culture, and the results are equally impressive. Even stripped of Zhang's baubles and bangles, the genre still has plenty of life left in it, as Woo's rousing adventure tale proves beyond a doubt.
 

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jdiggitty 11/18/2009 6:27:47 AM

I really enjoyed this film, though I'll admit I got lost a few times. Had trouble following who was who through the first 1/3 of the movie.

dnbritt 11/18/2009 4:19:26 PM

The movie was as much about the relationship and strategy play between Zhou Yu and his new ally Zhuge Liang as anything else. It was Zhuge who pilfered the arrows. It was Zhuge who suggested the formation to trap the Wei cavalry. It's even Zhuge you have in the picture above. LOL I thought the character development really drove this movie to lofty heights. (Of course, I saw the full Chinese version, not the cut down American one).

ponyboy76 11/18/2009 5:34:40 PM

I saw this in the Spring. The full version is awesome and really beautifully shot. It was long but did not really feel like it.

Chopsaki 11/19/2009 11:30:35 AM

Did anyone ever play the game Romance of the Three Kingdoms. Was a really fun strategy game and one of my favorites. Caught the last 45min on cable the other night and it really was epic, I'm always impressed with the sheer volume of extras these movies utilize.

lracors 11/20/2009 7:42:25 AM

I gave this film a "Masterpiece" ranking it is so epic in scale and scope.  I love the movie the relationships, the culture, the directing, action.  John Woo really topped himself with this film.  If you can get it (and i did) pickup the original Part I and Part II as released across the ocean.  The american cut lost roughly 1 1/2 hours of film.  This additional footage really fleshs out the story even more and will make you a bigger fan.  Like Jackson's Director's Cut's of LoTR, the original cuts of this saga make you wonder oh why didn't it get released this way in america.  There is one minor sequence that i could have done without involving the princess and her "companion" on the other side of the river.  Other than that melodramatic miss-fire the rest of the footage is golden.

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