ScreenWize

John Woo – the Hong-Kong action director who moved to Hollywood in 1993 (Face/Off, Mission Impossible II) - returns to his roots to make the most expensive Chinese language movie of all time. Based on the historical Battle of Red Cliffs that took place on the Yangtze River in the year 208, Woo – like the 14th century writer Luo Guanzhong (who penned the classic Romance of the Three Kingdoms which includes an account of the battle) brings us a highly romanticised and exaggerated account – full of lavish battle scenes, grimacing warriors and teary eyed heroines.

Following his success cleaning up errant warlords in the North, cocky General and self-proclaimed Prime Minister Cao Cao (Fengyi Zhang) convinces the wimpish Han Emperor to head in the other direction and dish out some pain to the Southerners. After thrashing rebel General Liu Bei (Yong You), Cao Cao seems unstoppable, but Liu Bei and his brilliant strategist Zhuge Liang (Takeshi Kaneshiro) flee deeper south to the Yangtze and join forces with another “rebel” leader Sun Quan (Chen Chang).Sun has the advantage of a cool-headed and spohisticated commander Zhou Yu (Tony Leung Chiu-wai) and a fearless fighting sister, Sun Shangxiang (Wei Zhao). A thin love story is added to the tale with Zhou’s super-model wife making tea and wafting through the billowing curtains of the palace. As Cao Cao’s massive forces close in on Red Cliffs by land and water, the battle planning begins. What follows are some superbly staged and fascinating fighting sequences, with tactics and technology ultimately more interesting than Woo’s excessively stylised approach, made more self-conscious by Taro Iwashiro’s stirring music.

Released in Asia as two separate two-hour films, this Red Cliff is an amalgamated version of the two, cut down to 148 minutes – a decision that might return to haunt the producers: it feels long – even tedious at times - yet you can sense the missing parts and are constantly jolted by the patchy pacing. With a cut of 40% of the original material, it’s clear that it was the character development footage that was left on the editing room floor at the expense of making the core plot comprehensive. We never really get time to know the long list of important characters: when they’re not engaged in battle, they’re too busy explaining what’s going on to become real. If Asian audiences enjoyed seeing Woo’s film in two cohesive parts (and they did) – why cant the rest of the world?

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Filed Under: Reviews by Simon