Review of Red Cliff (2008) by Daniel K — 29 Aug 2010

3 for Part I, 2.5 for Part II: The cast here is pretty ridiculous. It's undoubtedly the most star-studded Chinese cast I've ever seen, although not on the female side of course. Despite the significance of the Three Kingdom's period in Chinese history, I did find length of the film, when both halves are taken into account, to be a bit suffocating and ponderous.

Lawrence of Arabia, Cleopatra, Fanny and Alexander, etc don't clock in at anywhere near 4 hours and 40 minutes. Still, Woo and company manages to keep things interesting for the majority of the picture.

The first half was entirely entertaining, while the second half manages to drag on a bit. The number of major characters/actors that demand screen time can get to be a bit much. What's strange is that actors normally given leading roles are relegated to the background, but this is often the case with ensemble pictures done on this scale.

The production values are indeed worthy of Hollywood, although the style still bears a Chinese/Mandarin fingerprint. There are elements of the film, such as the close-ups, grandiosity, and changes in speed, that mark it as a John Woo picture, but in general in really does seem like it originated in the Mainland as opposed to his earlier work in Hong Kong.

It also stands apart from his Hollywood work as well. The violence just seems old hat by this time, but I suppose it is actually much more bloody than most of Woo's work. The bar has been raised, or lowered over the years depending on how you look at it.

I don't give it a 3 because of any genius in terms of the quality of the filmmaking or intense narrative pull, but rather because of the impressiveness of the scale. It is absolutely massive. The film can never mean as much to an outside as it must to many native Chinese though.

I didn't grow up learning rhymes and poetry recounting the genius of these military commanders. Their exploits are not legendary for me, but rather a part of my college East Asian History courses.

No one should doubt that the Three Kingdom's period played a pivotal, and fascinating, role in Chinese history though. This picture represents a worthy commemoration. I couldn't help but compare it to Kurosawa's massive films, like Ran and Kagemusha, commemorating similar time periods in Japanese history (and yes I realize this was also Shakespeare), although I didn't find it a particularly favorable comparison.

Woo is no Kurosawa.