Pop Culture Reviews

Red Cliff – Movie Review

[xrr rating=8.25/10 imageset=tiny_star label="Movie Rating:"]

Distributor: Hoyts Distribution (NZ)  Released: 2008 Genre: Action/History/Drama Credits: Director: John Woo Writers: John Woo, Khan Chan Starring: Tony Leung, Takeshi Kaneshiro, Shido Nakamura Rating: M

Tales of ancient history are always dangerous to adapt on film. Quite often, the fiction ends up being more appealing than the fact and the lines between history and fiction blur. I’m not really up on my ancient Chinese history, but if this battle truly was as epic as it’s depicted in Red Cliff, it would have been something to see indeed.

‘Red Cliff’ as the title suggests is about the battle that took place there between the tyrannical Prime Minister Cao Cao and the kingdoms of Xu in the west and East Wu in the South. Takeshi Kaneshiro (House of Flying Daggers) stars as strategist Kongming who plays a crucial part in the movie as Lord Liu Bei’s military advisor. After Prime Minister Cao Cao’s brutal attack on his land and people, Liu Bei is forced to consider forming an alliance with Lord Sun Quan (played by Chang Chen) who is a man known for being ‘cowardly’. Kongming is sent to Sun Quan to discuss an alliance against the scheming Prime Minister and after winning over the confidance of Sun Quan’s military leader, Zhou Yu (played by Tony Leung), the deal is sealed as is the fate of all involved.

The battle sequences are depicted in true John Woo style with lots of crucially positioned blood splatter, thousands of extras and just the right amount of slow-mo cinematics to get the adrenaline pumping. The film locations add that extra bit of beauty to the scenes,  making for a wonderfully visual extravaganza. The acting is solid too, with Tony Leung and Takeshi Kaneshiro being perfectly cast in their respective roles.

The screening of Red Cliff that we attended was 149 mins in length so it’s a long movie. That said, the fight scenes and action sequences carry the length over nicely. In some countries Red Cliff was released as two separate movies.

I enjoyed Red Cliff and quite content to remain ignorant of the facts behind the battle and go with whatever Mr Woo has to say about it.