Review of Red Cliff (2008) by Matthew O — 10 Jul 2012

Based on the true events during the Three Kingdoms period in Ancient China, in which specifically told in the title, The Battle of Red Cliffs.

Director John Woo has been most recently famous for his cross over Hollywood films rather than his original Asian cinema, from the impressive Face Off (his best Hollywood film to date), and the not so impressive 'Windtalkers' and 'Mission impossible 2'. Still his grass roots are with Asian cinema with such greats as 'A Better Tomorrow' and 'Hard Boiled'. The director is at heart an action film maker and plot and dialogue normally take a back seat.

Red Cliff is right up there with the best work Woo he has done, although the dialogue is still clumpy as with many of his films. There are still loads of fun, impressive action sequences to entertain, and even horses being knocked over by warriors.

As well as the obvious dove sequence that John Woo puts into all of his films, in Red Cliff a carrier pigeon is replaced with a dove as the dove is sent across the river to a spy within the enemy camp, and what we see is a bird?s eye view of the approaching flooting armada, a fun standout scene.

There is a slight Déjà Vu with 'Red Cliff' as ever since' Couching Tiger Hidden Dragon', these types of films are being produced out of South East Asia all the time.

Still how could you not love a film that has a warrior knock over horses with his bare hands.