Red Cliff

Genre: War, History
Starring:

Tony Leung Chiu-Wai as Zhou Yu
Takeshi Kaneshiro as Zhuge Liang
Zhang Fengyi as Cao Cao
Chang Chen as Sun Quan
Zhao Wei as Sun Shangxiang
Hu Jun as Zhao Yun
Lin Chi-ling as Xiao Qiao
Nakamura Shido as Gan Xing(甘興) (based on Gan Ning)
You Yong as Liu Bei

Release date:2008
Language: Chinese/ Mandarin
Subtitle: English





SYNOPSIS:
The story of RED CLIFF takes place in 208 AD in China during the Han Dynasty. Despite the presence of an emperor, Han Xiandi, China was then divided into many warring states.

The ambitious Prime Minister Cao Cao, by using the Emperor as his puppet, waged war on a kingdom in the west, Xu, ruled by the emperor’s uncle, Liu Bei. Cao Cao’s ultimate goal was to wipe out all the kingdoms and install himself as Emperor to a unified China. Liu Bei sent his military advisor Zhuge Liang as an envoy to the Wu Kingdom in the south, trying to persuade its ruler Sun Quan into joining forces. There he met Wu’s Viceroy Zhou Yu, and the two became friends amidst this uneasy alliance.

Enraged to learn that the two kingdoms have become allies, Cao Cao sent an army of eight hundred thousand soldiers and two thousand ships down south, hoping to kill two birds with one stone. Cao Cao’s army set up camp at Crow Forest, across the Yangtze River from Red Cliff, where the allies were stationed.

With the food supply running short, and the army vastly outnumbered by Cao Cao’s, the allies seemed doomed. Zhou Yu and Zhuge Liang had to rely on their combined wisdom to turn the tide of battle. Numerous battles of wits and forces, on land and on water, eventually culminated into the most famous battle in Chinese history, where two thousand ships were burned, and the course of China’s history was changed forever. That was the Battle of Red Cliff.


REVIEW:
"...One of the distractions from enjoying this movie would be the casting choice and (largely to personal preference) some actors felt that they had been miscast, especially for the role of Cao Cao and Zhuge Liang. Although the respectable Zhang Fengyi was great in Farewell to my Concubine, it felt that he lacks the scheming and cunningness to pull off this role. The same with Takeshi Kaneshiro’s portrayal of Zhuge Liang which often invite stray thoughts of "What if Chow Yun Fatt had played this role or what if Tony Leung had not took over Zhou Yu’s role instead"

Beside the miscast, it felt that various characters had been mishandled. It’s obvious that Zhou Yu is the central character in Red Cliff and Zhang Fei, Guan Yu, Zhang Fei and Zhao Zilong are just supporting characters but this film made it felt that it was relegating these iconic characters to nothing more than mere capable fighters at Zhou Yu and Zhuge Liang’s disposal. In a way, it felt that it took away some of the majestic aura that these few characters had long established in our mind.

Several situations that compel the various characters to act also didn’t felt that compelling at all. Such as Sun Quan (Chang Cheng)’s reluctant and dilemma in going to war with Cao Cao felt very naively handled. Especially in a scene when Sun Quan had to face his fears in the form of a tiger and the filmmakers chose to impose Cao Cao’s face over the beast to force the point down the audience throat. The fight with the tiger was also unimpressive in the age of spectacular special effects and the lack of scenes between the actor and the tiger in the same shot stood out as a sore thumb.

What Red Cliff succeeded was breathing new life to Zhou Yu’s character who is known to be a petty General who was jealous of Zhuge Liang’s capabilities. Tony Leung and Director John Woo had came together to paint a more endearing aspect for Zhou Yu. From his appreciation of music to how he leaded the first major battle in this epic was rather intriguing and impressive to someone who is unaware of his role in The Three Kingdom.

Fans of John Woo will be also be please to find that the director’s trademark “Slow Mo” action sequences and ballistic ballet with bullets had been proficiently replaced with horse ridding sequences and weapons such as spears and swords. Even the ever present white doves serve a more useful function besides its usual running away from gunfights in director John Woo’s movies..."

LINKS

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