After John Woo's poor running in Hollywood, particularly with PayCheck starring Ben Affleck, the seasoned Hong Kong director seemed to be humbled, returning back to film making for the Chinese cinema. With Hard Boiled and The Killer being some of his early directorial achievements, Red Cliff may well be the his next Asian hit.
The story is based primarily on the historical records of the Chronicles Of The Three Kingdom with the plot involving the famous Battle Of The Red Cliffs (208 AD) in Ancient China.
The epic's chief villain is the infamous Cao Cao (Zhang Fengyi) Prime Minister of the Eastern Han Dynasty, who after seizing much power through manipulation and force, went on to fight against the righteous warlord Liu Bei and his loyal subjects including sworn brothers Zhang Fei (Zang Jisheng) and Guan Yu (Ba Sen Zha Bu) and general Zhao Yun (Hu Jun).
In desperation, Liu Bei enlisted the help of the brilliant strategist, Zhuge Liang (Takeshi Kaneshiro) to persuade Sun Quan (Chang Chen), Emperor of Eastern Wu, into an alliance before Cao Cao's army could completely eliminate his forces. The ensuring event led to the important battle in the Three Kingdom's records.
The stellar cast for Red Cliff also included Tony Leung Chiu Wai as Sun Quan's loyal strategist, Zhou Yu, one of the lead characters in the movie.
Supporting roles are played by Zhao Wei as the warrior princess and sister of Sun Quan, Sun Shangxiang. Taiwanese sex symbol, Lin Chi-ling starred as Zhou Yu's wife, Xiao Qiao who's historically famous for her extraordinary beauty that attracts even the lusty attention of Cao Cao. Overall, the roster of mostly Chinese stars (for the exception of Japanese celebrity Nakamura Shido as Gan Xing, general of Zhou Yu) succeeds in bringing Three Kingdom's character's to life.
Of course, what's an ancient epic without the necessary sword-and-bow battle scenes? Red Cliff's moments of bloodshed involving spear bearing soldiers and armour clad warriors is the main entertainment, obvious reminiscent of fierce combat seen in contemporary Hollywood films of past years including The Lord Of The Rings, Kingdom Of Heaven and even 300 (the Three Kingdom plot's also about a numerically inferior force against a bigger army).
However, the cinematography, decently done though, could have improved further..... much, much further. Shortcomings in this department have hindered Red Cliff from achieving an overall result of an excellent historical epic.
Lack of tension can be felt in story's development of the road to all-out war, lacking even in one key scene when Zhuge Liang and Zhou Yu attempt to predict Cao Cao's strategy just as the latter was doing it at the same time or in another when Sun Quan was hunting a cunning tiger. Parts of the tiger hunt scene has suspicious signs of footages being borrowed from a wildlife TV program and the progress of other scenes are hampered by unnecessary transitional wipes which bear faint reminders of George Lucas' Star Wars. Maybe that's what Woo's getting on but it's just not working well.
Cinematography for Red Cliff's violent melee is also not working to the best of expectations.
There's a sufficient handful of moments when lone, highly skilled warriors engaged against a bigger number of weaker grunts but other than the usual blade clashes and the liberal spillage of blood, there's not much of an excitement in all these. The actions feel old, drained of fresh ideas and if you are to believe it, the movie's saving grace probably lies in the solid casting and the fact that Red Cliff's a faithful adaptation of popular Chinese history.
Still, because, the current Asian screening of Red Cliff is only part one of a supposedly four hour long movie, it might depend on the later half (reported to be released in January 2009) to complete Red Cliff as the epic it's meant to be.
The story is based primarily on the historical records of the Chronicles Of The Three Kingdom with the plot involving the famous Battle Of The Red Cliffs (208 AD) in Ancient China.
The epic's chief villain is the infamous Cao Cao (Zhang Fengyi) Prime Minister of the Eastern Han Dynasty, who after seizing much power through manipulation and force, went on to fight against the righteous warlord Liu Bei and his loyal subjects including sworn brothers Zhang Fei (Zang Jisheng) and Guan Yu (Ba Sen Zha Bu) and general Zhao Yun (Hu Jun).
In desperation, Liu Bei enlisted the help of the brilliant strategist, Zhuge Liang (Takeshi Kaneshiro) to persuade Sun Quan (Chang Chen), Emperor of Eastern Wu, into an alliance before Cao Cao's army could completely eliminate his forces. The ensuring event led to the important battle in the Three Kingdom's records.
The stellar cast for Red Cliff also included Tony Leung Chiu Wai as Sun Quan's loyal strategist, Zhou Yu, one of the lead characters in the movie.
Supporting roles are played by Zhao Wei as the warrior princess and sister of Sun Quan, Sun Shangxiang. Taiwanese sex symbol, Lin Chi-ling starred as Zhou Yu's wife, Xiao Qiao who's historically famous for her extraordinary beauty that attracts even the lusty attention of Cao Cao. Overall, the roster of mostly Chinese stars (for the exception of Japanese celebrity Nakamura Shido as Gan Xing, general of Zhou Yu) succeeds in bringing Three Kingdom's character's to life.
Of course, what's an ancient epic without the necessary sword-and-bow battle scenes? Red Cliff's moments of bloodshed involving spear bearing soldiers and armour clad warriors is the main entertainment, obvious reminiscent of fierce combat seen in contemporary Hollywood films of past years including The Lord Of The Rings, Kingdom Of Heaven and even 300 (the Three Kingdom plot's also about a numerically inferior force against a bigger army).
However, the cinematography, decently done though, could have improved further..... much, much further. Shortcomings in this department have hindered Red Cliff from achieving an overall result of an excellent historical epic.
Lack of tension can be felt in story's development of the road to all-out war, lacking even in one key scene when Zhuge Liang and Zhou Yu attempt to predict Cao Cao's strategy just as the latter was doing it at the same time or in another when Sun Quan was hunting a cunning tiger. Parts of the tiger hunt scene has suspicious signs of footages being borrowed from a wildlife TV program and the progress of other scenes are hampered by unnecessary transitional wipes which bear faint reminders of George Lucas' Star Wars. Maybe that's what Woo's getting on but it's just not working well.
Cinematography for Red Cliff's violent melee is also not working to the best of expectations.
There's a sufficient handful of moments when lone, highly skilled warriors engaged against a bigger number of weaker grunts but other than the usual blade clashes and the liberal spillage of blood, there's not much of an excitement in all these. The actions feel old, drained of fresh ideas and if you are to believe it, the movie's saving grace probably lies in the solid casting and the fact that Red Cliff's a faithful adaptation of popular Chinese history.
Still, because, the current Asian screening of Red Cliff is only part one of a supposedly four hour long movie, it might depend on the later half (reported to be released in January 2009) to complete Red Cliff as the epic it's meant to be.