Epic Red Cliff Woo’s Return to Greatness
In 208 AD, the Chinese Prime Minister-turned-General Cao Cao (Zhang Fengyi) makes plans to convince the Han Emperor to allow him to start a war with the last two warlords standing in his way of complete domination of the empire, Liu Bei (You Yong) and Sun Quan (Chang Chen). Permission is granted easily, the power-mad General’s army quickly crushing the forces of the former sending him and his followers into the hills to try and regroup.
Zhou Yu (Tony Leung) rides into battle in Magnet Releasing's Red Cliff
Knowing they need assistance, Liu Bei sends his trusted strategist Jiangdong (Takeshi Kaneshiro) to Sun Quan in hopes the clans can form an alliance against Cao Cao. Knowing the Southern ruler will follow the advice of his trusted advisor and war hero Zhou Yu (Tony Leung), the wise strategist goes to him in his stronghold at Red Cliffs to convince him to join forces and stop the Han Army before all is lost.
First told in the classic novel "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" written over 700 years ago, director John Woo’s film Red Cliff , his first made in China since 1992’s Hard-Boiled, is a spectacular and lushly produced battle epic that’s positively awe-inspiring. A superlative achievement this is the filmmaker’s best work in over a decade, and not since Face/Off has Woo felt this in control and confident behind the camera.
It’s a massive story, one that doesn’t always feel entirely coherent. There are so many characters that I must admit there were times I couldn’t quite follow who was who and why it was they were doing the things they felt were important to them. It can be, especially early on, a bit of a frenetic muddle, the first battle between Liu Bei and Cao Cao in particular a little hard to follow and difficult to decipher the good guys from the bad.
Thankfully, as the movie goes on this becomes much less of a chore and by the time the climactic title conflict commences I’d spent enough time with everyone to know exactly who they were and on which side they were fighting. Woo does a great job of giving the majority of the central characters a moment or two where they get to imbue them with indelible traits allowing them to resonate. While some of course standout more than others all stop looking alike, little things like hair styles, fighting techniques and armor choices an intricate part of their persona making them come to life.
Of them all, however, it is Leung (reuniting with Woo for the third time) and Kaneshiro make the deepest impression. Their relationship is the movie’s driving heartbeat, the way their friendship develops a thing of pure joy. The scenes they share give things depth, their motivations for standing up to tyranny in spite of the impossible odds against them positively inspiring. Also quite wonderful is newcomer Chiling Lin playing Zhou Yu’s adoring wife Xiao Qiaom, the actress delivering a performance of such passion just the sight of her pouring a cup of tea speaks emotional volumes.
As for the action, Red Cliff proves once again that when he’s working at the top of his game there is no better maestro at this sort of thing then John Woo. So many scenes and moments standout I don’t even know where to start. An early bit with one of Liu Bei generals (a magnetic Hu Jun) fighting hordes of foot soldiers while cradling a newborn baby recalls Chow Yun-Fat’s balletic gunplay in Hard-Boiled, while a middle skirmish between the new allies and Cao Cao’s battle-hardened cavalry had my pulse frenetically racing.
Yes, the director still has a thing for slow motion and a love affair with doves. Additionally, he still loves to slather on the melodrama making him without question the Douglas Sirk of violent action-adventure films. For my part, though, I’ve never considered either of these things to be a problem, and while it’s true some of his films don’t quite make the grade because of it (Paycheck being the most obvious example) overall he always seems to be able to find a balance that manages to keep me continually satisfied.
In this instance said balance isn’t just satisfying it’s downright awe-inspiring. Even at 148-minutes this is a movie that just seems to fly right by, and much like Zhang Yimou’s Hero and House of Flying Daggers (the former of which had a great cameo role for Leung while the latter contained a star-making performance by Kaneshiro) Red Cliff is an instant Chinese battle classic reminding everyone just how outstanding a director John Woo can be.
Film Rating: êêê1/2 (out of 4)
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