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97 of 100 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
In the full version, a powerful, accomplished epic..., February 14, 2010
This review is from: Red Cliff International Version - Part I & Part II (DVD)
This 'international version' of John Woo's RED CLIFF is the preferred edition over the previously released (and shorter) US theatrical version. Woo worked hard to shoot this epic adaption of a famous Chinese historical novel, and the final version of the movie was so long (closer to 5 hours than 4) that in Asian markets the film was released in two parts, each playing in cinemas at opposite ends of a near 12 month period. In the US, the UK and Australia, Woo tentatively gave approval for a cut-down version to play in cinemas, with both parts condensed by 50% down to a single movie. Australian critic David Stratton (a frequent reviewer for VARIETY) gave the condensed version a good, not great review, but then noted that he felt the full, uncut edition of RED CLIFF was one of the great cinema epics. And so it is.
Woo's career seemed to take a gradual downturn in the US after the peak of FACE/OFF, and it would be hard for fans of the director's earlier HARD-BOILED or BULLET IN THE HEAD (both great films) to share the same sense of enthusiasm for works like MISSION IMPOSSIBLE 2 or the aptly titled PAYCHECK. Woo reportedly wasn't that happy with things either, so when he announced he would return to Asia to shoot the biggest historical epic in Chinese film history, it was welcome news. (RED CLIFF is based on the same story that was adapted for THREE KINGDOMS, filmed not too long ago with Andy Lau and the lithe, hypnotically sexy Maggie Q). Woo regular Chow Yun Fat was in RED CLIFF, then out. Another Woo regular, Tony Leung, was in, then out, then back in (long story). Once the casting issues were resolved, Woo took his good time to shoot the movie that had apparently tantalized him for decades. The result is a real return to form and a consummate display of confidence from a director clearly passionate about the subject matter, and the movie.
RED CLIFF is epic from the get-go. In the first few minutes (of the long cut - this review deals with the 2-part extended cut listed here and will hereafter ignore the shorter version) the narrative puts events in motion for an army of thousands to commence a destructive attack across the kingdoms of China. We see thousands of soldiers (some realized digitally, others through enormous crowds of extras) and soon see a smaller band of heroes putting up a spirited defense. Characters escape the melee, seek shelter, join forces with others and prepare to make a stand against the attackers in a series of battles that escalate in size and complexity throughout the two movies. Tony Leung and Takeshi Kaneshiro are two of the main heroes. There are several other key characters fighting alongside them, and a villain of imposing stature fighting against them, determined to wipe out the heroes and consolidate his rule. Each side possesses an army, but the forces of good are outnumbered by their enemies. Interpersonal intrigue, moments of heroism and bravery, lyrical interludes where the characters philosophically ponder their situation and careful scenes where each side pragmatically plots their next movie against their opponent - these all flow forward in scenes of great beauty, warmth and power, preparing the ground for each skirmish, battle or stand-off. The opposing sides gather in numbers until, at the end of part 2, we witness a ferocious, climactic attack taking place on sea and land, with thousands determined to battle to the death.
I've generalized the story above, partly for my own sake but more specifically as I suggest you catch the various incidents of the movie fresh. The story as presented by Woo is elegant and satisfying. The devil is in the details, though, and its Woo's marshalling of texture and sound, his characteristically kinetic and mobile camerawork, and the sheer bravura of the films spectacle that make this a must-see movie. Scenes in RED CLIFF, particularly the epic destructive battles comprising much of the spectacular second part, match Jackson's LORD OF THE RINGS for effects, grandiose scale and visceral impact. (Actually, I'd clarify that statement by suggesting that the RED CLIFF films match those earlier movies visually, but surpass them viscerally, as Woo's staging of the action is more physically impactful than Jacksons). The US effects house The Orphanage provided the visual effects, and the enormous budget complements those with countless eye-opening scenes staged for real with crowds, stunt men and gargantuan sets. Woo (and his producer Terence Chang) have really pulled out all the stops. I viewed RED CLIFF on DVD but if you have the equipment and the interest, the Blu-Ray edition of this extended cut should be even more enticing. (The HK Blu-Ray of these movies received top marks for AV quality and I'd imagine the US release replicates those standards).
RED CLIFF - the full, uncensored, no-holds-barred two-part version - didn't really get the attention it deserved upon release, (at least here in the West), nor has it since. (Another fine film, Kim Je-Woon's big-budget, visionary Korean western THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE WEIRD, suffered a similar fate). Even so, a few astute critics such as Glenn Kenny put the full RED CLIFF high in their top 10 for the year. I'd argue the same (it'd be in my top 5), and months after I originally acquired the DVD's of this movie, I still return to it in admiration, luxuriating in its many moments of grace, beauty and power.
As Amazon occasionally conflates its reviews of variant products into the same listing, let me repeat that the edition of this film you should purchase is the RED CLIFF INTERNATIONAL VERSION - PART I & PART II, on either Blu-Ray or DVD. The editions labeled as featuring the `theatrical' version are shorter, inferior, and not worth pursuing over this longer, more satisfying cut.
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54 of 57 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Red Cliff directed by John Woo, the Chinese Iliad, December 6, 2009
Throughout the centuries, every Chinese schoolboy is familiar with the stories from Luo Guanzhong's Romance of The Three kingdoms. And those who cannot read listen intently to the tales of battles and wily stratagems recounted by storytellers in the market place or on stage performed by traveling troops of regional operas. The moment, Cao Cao, the villain, with a white painted face steps on stage, he is booed. However, when Liu Bei of Shu, the hero, and his sworn brothers, Zhang Fei and Guan Yu, and Zhuge Liang, and appear, cheers are heard. Often, after a particular favorite incident is recited, the storyteller says, "that's enough now; come back tomorrow." And then, the young and the old linger a little longer in case the storyteller has changed his mind.
In his Asian blockbuster movie that is presently in the theaters of southern California, Red Cliff, the modern storyteller, John Woo, recounts the same historical tale, the battle of the Red Cliff in 208 CE, taken place toward the end of a long and illustrious dynasty, the Han Dynasty, but with a new twist and perspective from that of the traditional ones. He is the grand master of storytellers with the help of cinematography, great actors, and visceral depiction of action that has dance- like qualities.
Red Cliff begins with Cao Cao, the prime minister of the last emperor of Han dynasty, a brilliant ruler, strategist, and warrior having asserted his rule over northern China. Cao Cao is confident that his military campaign of 800,000 men can subjugate the two kingdoms of Wu and Shu in the south. These two kingdoms jointly have a military force of 50,000 men. It is another story of mythical proportion like that of David and Goliath. Whereas Cao Cao schemes to usurp the Mandate of Heaven from the Han dynasty to establish a new dynasty, Wu and Shu are determined to stop Cao Cao's lust for power.
John Woo's epic focuses on the psychological and military battles fought between Cao Cao and Chancellor Zhuge Liang of Shu, and Viceroy Zhou Yun of Wu, the military commander-in-chief of Sun Quan. The climax of the movie is when the sky is set afire by the burning of Cao Cao's flotilla on the river by the Red Cliff. The winners of this Chinese chess game are the heroes of a new age.
There are a number of high points in Red Cliff. Among which are the bagua battle array, stratagems of collecting 100, 000 arrows and anticipating a favorable wind to destroy Cao Cao's flotilla by Zhuge Liang, and tricking Cao Cao to execute his two maritime commanders by Zhou Yun.
Unlike traditional portrayal of heroes and villains of the battle of Red Cliff, which lacked depth and complexity, John Woo's main characters are multi-faceted. For example, Cao Cao is not merely a villain with a white painted face. Woo's Cao Cao does have a heart as hard as a stone as he sends the boats carrying the infected dead across the river to the camp of the heroes. And yet, he is genuinely empathetic to his own weary soldiers and he appreciates talents in others. He also has other fine qualities. Even though Cao Cao is full of courage and treachery at the same time, he is dominated by greed. His desire to possess Xiao Qiao, the wife of Zhou Yun, becomes his downfall. During a moment of tea appreciation, Xiao Qiao points out to Cao Cao that when a cup is filled too full, it overflows. Cao Cao's ambition leads him to great ventures and heights and when it turns into excessive greed, he is left with nothing.
John Woo's heroes, Zhuge Liang and Zhou Yun, are larger than life because of their virtues and compassion for the laobai xing, the common man. When I ask John Woo who is his favorite character in Red Cliff, he replies, "Zhou Yun is my favorite character because he has a strong sense of values. He is upright, he believes in friendship, he is a family man, and he cares for those around him. I feel that movies today lack role models like him." And indeed Zhou Yun is portrayed as the good overcoming evil during one of the bloodiest periods in Chinese history when seventy percent of the population was decimated.
John Woo has created in his characters an element of the Chinese tragic, which is different from the Western concept of the tragic. In the West, it is pride that causes the hero who is larger than life to fall. In the Chinese tradition, one of the tragic elements is the inherent conflict between love and duty. In Red Cliff, each heroic character whether man or woman is confronted by this conflict. This Chinese tragic element has added much conflict and tension to the movie. Otherwise, the movie is simply a painting of a dragon without eyes. And the eyes of John Woo's dragon burn with passion and power.
by the author of The Flight of the Wild Cranes, Catherine Li
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73 of 84 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
PROBABLY THE BEST AND MOST SPECTACULAR BATTLEFIELD DRAMA EVER FILMED, January 17, 2010
This review is from: Red Cliff International Version - Part I & Part II (DVD)
After watching the entirety of it, one thinks, 'It is as if Sun Tzu had written it: This is a kind of illustration of what he meant when he wrote in his ART OF WAR [500 BC]' -- "All warfare is based on deception. Hence, when able to attack, we must seem unable, when using our forces, we must seem inactive; when we are near, we must make the enemy believe that we are away; when far away, we must make him believe we are near. Hold out baits to entice the enemy. Feign disorder, and cush him."
When you deal in superlatives it's difficult to make good comparisons. How many of us have seen BIRTH OF A NATION in a good print? That was the film that set the standard for sweeping battlefield drama interwoven with the stories of its participants, moving in scale from intimacy to immensity, back and forth as the story developped, fulfilled itself, then ended. Ridley Scott's KINGDOM OF HEAVEN, with its portraits of historical figures interwoven within the threads of political and religious frenzy as Jerusalem falls to the armies of Saladin. I've seen many films of historical battles, and these two, RED CLIFF and KINGDOM OF HEAVEN, are the only ones that reach BIRTH OF A NATION's high mark. In recent years we've seen TROY and ALEXANDER, and although both have been noble attempts to reach and to justify the scale appropriate to their historical subjects, neither effort managed to fulfill the expectation.
The Casting of RED CLIFF is brilliant. The many thousands of performers, from the battlefield extras and foot-soldiers, to the supporting roles, and even to the leading characters in the story, they all express and in a way never before seen, not only the ancient hegemony of China, but the enormous diversity of human appearance that hegemony must express. It's similar to the realization that steals upon one after looking at the thousands of figures of the ancient Han army unearthed only decades ago; that these statues are portraits of individuals, that that terra-cotta army is the largest extant exhibition of portrait sculpture in the world. It is a demonstration of overwhelming power and technique. And somehow, the producers of RED CLIFF have managed to re-create that feeling. The logistics of costuming, and arming such a large cast boggles the mind.
The Director, John Woo, we all know because of the number of very successful commercial Hollywood films he's made. We know that he was born, raised and educated in the USA, and in his TV interviews (on this DVD too) we find ourselves before a man of awestome accomplishments, who's confidence is expressed by his modesty.
The movie stars two remarkable young actors: They are TONY LEUNG as Viceroy Zhou Yu, and TAKESHI KANESHIRO, who plays Zhu-Ge Liang, diplomat and military advisor. LEUNG I've seen in several movies, and most recently in the remarkable HERO, with Jet-Li, and what has impressed me most about him is his ability to change his appearance and manner so prodoundly, that he appears to be able to reshape himself physically, so that one can hardly recognize him from one film to another. Here, in RED CLIFF, I was uncertain who he was until the second time I watched the film, he did a short bit of practice with his sword and I recognized him by the movement of his body. He has a way of moving as he handles his weapon, that is unique to himself; a combinatin of sinuosity and strength that reminds one of a flexing steel cable. In RED CLIFF he is clean-shaven and handsome in a straightforward, almost military way, whereas in HERO he wore a van Dyque, his hair was loose, and his face wore an expression that made him look like was listening to sad music. Very unusual! KANESHIRO, I first saw in HOUSE OF FLYING DAGGERS, playing the role of a young police detective and philandering playboy. Tall, willowy and an excellent swordsman, he is light on his feet and wears a face that charms as it thinks.
These two actors and their personal characteristics are crucial to the telling of the story because it is a story that depends on a successful alliance between two states in their effort to save themselves before an advancing enemy with power to overwhelm them both. It is a question of Persuasion, that asks, how does one persuade an intelligent, sensitive and commanding individual to join with oneself and one's few allies, in an effort to overcome a ruthless, clever and well-provisioned man who intends to conquer and overwhelm everything and everyone before him? How does one find the means to inspire not only trust, but confidence that together one can win in the face of overwhelming odds? This is not a tennis match. This is a matter of life, and/or a very unpleasant death, not only for oneself, but for one's family and clan.
Woo directs this episode with a deep understanding of what is needed to forge a friendship between two proud and independent men, that is more than a superficial alliance of necessity. This is the psychological key to the inevitable conflict. Yang meets Yin, but will they join?
The final section of Part I of RED CLIFF, features the lead up to a battle scene that is worked out partly, on a 3-dimensional model of the batlefield, where Zhu-Ge Liang places a live turtle. Nobody understands, but he is recommending a method of defeating a large, heavily armed colum of Cavalry, and we get to see it worked out in the battle itself. A carefully trained corps of Infantrymen with highly-polished shields, pikes and swords, by close-positioning their sheids into walls and assuming a series of enclosed formations, force the advancing horsemen to ride between those formations through the continually narrowing and blinding alleys those formations make. The strategy is based mostly on the predictable behavior of frightened horses. The streams of horses speed up as the alleys narrow. WHen the alleys turn, abruptly, the horses must follow, because startled, they can see no way out, only one way forward. The riders are picked off by the infantrymen, from behind, and killed as they are dragged inside the shields. In no time at all the Cavalry force is consumed within the formation of shields, which from above and in perspective resembles a turtle's carapace.
PART TWO shows us how the war is fought by means of knowledge of the weathr, about how to trick your opponhent into giving you his arms without knowing that he is doing so, and how to let your enemy cripple himself by thinking he is punishing traitors when he is only elimiating dupes.
Much of this part has to do with intelligent spying, by infiltrating the ehemies ranks, and about the use of instant communications; here, it means the use of carrier pidgeons.
And of suprememe importance; it has to do with understanding the weather; the movement of the winds and clouds. The defenders of RED BLUFF want to use fire against the blockade of ships filling the river before then, and the stockade straddling the river, beyond then, but hesitate because the wind will blow the fire back at them. BLOWBACK, literally. But Zhu-Ge Liang has reasoned that the wind will change because he has been watching the clouds and testing the humidity, and he has come to believe that the seasonal wind will reverse itself at about 01:00 AM.
And here something is revealed that astonished me. As Zhu-Ge looks up at the sky, we see an unusual form of cumulous (rain-bearing) couds streaking or hurtling across the sky. It looks like a kind of smoke pot being pulled across the heavens, trailing a body and tail behind itself. And instantly you remember that the Dragon is a rain-bearing spirit that appears regularly, and seasonally, and is a manifestation of goodness (or luck) and masculinity (or fecundity) causing seed to germinate. With his motion-picture camera, John Woo offers us a unique filmed portrait of China's Dragon. So, what we see is what Chinese people have always seen, and artists for thousands of years have attempted to draw; that is, a coiling, feathery cloud-serpent skittering across the sky.
Nevertheless, battle plans are set. All forces are in formation. There is a water-clock, and we watch the minutes pass, drop by drop.
Much else is happening. The Viceroy's beautiful wife, Chiling Lin has left their home in order to go to their adversary and to plead for an end to the war. Does she know that he is and has been her secret admirer since the time he first saw her while visiting her father? Perhaps. What is her weapon?
On board the enamy's command vessle, the would-be conqueror prepares to enjoy possessing the Viceroy's wife.
Our spy, the King's sister, has escaped the forces of their opponents and throwing off her man's disguise, reveals her knowledge in the form of a painted cloth wound around her body, which turns out to be a detailed map of the enemy's fortifications and navy.
As the enemy commander welcoms the wife of his adversary on board his ship, once in possession of her quarters she begins to prepare tea, and invites her host/captor to have some. He accdepts.
The winds reverse and flags display it. The fire-boats are launched from RED CLIFF and one-by-one they crash into the enemy navy's wooden ships. The battle begun on the water, moves to the land as allies of the RED CLIFF comrades return to fight with them against their common enemy.
The battle is joined, in earnest, and I don't think there is any conflagration on film to compare with it; not even the burning of Atlanta. Ive never seen any acting-out of warfare more complex, more detailed than this. The scale of it is incredible. Battle scene buffs and advocates of all stripe will want to watch this, and will come away with something to satisfy themselves, I feel sure.
Finally, in a...
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