Red Cliff [Special Edition][Blu-ray] [2008]

I have to start with the fact this blu ray has magnificent quality! it was my first blu ray and i definatly dont regret this buy! But as for the movie! well there isnt a single sentence to sum up this movie! for me this is now right up there in the top 10 movies of all time! definatly around #4! the acting is superb! very believeable! its not often you come across such an epic asian movie but this is beyond my expectations! This movie is based on the novel "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" and while it does follow the storyline to the exact detail there are some things that they have changed which i assume is to make it more dramatic and movie like! Tony Leung played his role as Zhou Yu perfectly and caught the very essence of Zhou Yu! and as for Takeshi Kaneshiro playing the great mastermind Zhuge Liang! it was such a delight watching this man in the movie, he is amazingly brilliant and again playing the character perfectly to the last detail! and my last favourite character was Nakamura Shido as Gan Xing! a funny yet hardened character in the movie! also playing the character perfectly! Even if your not a fan of these kinds of movies i would still reccomend it! i would even go as far as to say it is at some points a bit of a tear jerker! It is so fun watching this movie! I didnt even really notice it was a subtitled movie because i was so engrossed by it! it has fighting, gore, romance and intense relationships between friends/brothers/family! i hope John Woo creates another masterpiece such as this based around the warring states period! i simply cant stress this enough, BUY THIS BLUE RAY! YOU WONT REGRET IT! EPIC MOVIE! 10/10 oh and by the way, to those of you against "flying people" ITS A METAPHORE!

This is the Special Edition of "Red Cliff", and by that, read "Extended Edition" - nearly 5 hours! The film is split in two to what I believe is the 2 original Chinese releases of this this, which was eventually contracted into one very long film for a Western audience. The film itself is amazing, with a plethora of varied characters which, to the unobservant Western eye, can be a little confusing to follow sometimes! Who exactly are the lieutenants and who are the generals? A 2nd watch of this film clarified things (but that's no hardship!). And the way the characters interact is great - Sun Shiangxiang and the innocent Piggy being one pairing, and the battle of wits between the two advisors, Zhuge Liang and Zhou Yu, to out-do eachother is brilliant. The plot follows a bunch of rebels who join together with the Southern king against the Prime Minister of the North, who has plans of his own, aided by the largest army and navy that has ever been assembled. After a few skirmishes and clever planning, all the forces eventually gather at "Red Cliff" for a final showdown. Some may complain that the film is too long (being in two parts and all), but this really means that the film is filled with great depth and characterisation. The importance of the tea ceremony, and the tiger hunt have great symbolism with the actions of the rest of the film. The only negatives I'd have would be the CGI in the second half of the film. I know the battle is meant to be hundreds of thousands big, but Lord of the Rings detail this isn't. You can tell its a bit computer. But don't let that deter you from what is otherwise an amazing film! There is individual warrior scenes a la Crouching Tiger/Hero, but also large battle scenes, so plenty to whet the appetite. A must of Chinese cinema!

This is the best Blu-ray disc I have bought so far as the quality of both the picture and audio I feel is better than Kingdom of Heaven or Troy. Some scenes gave the impression that they were 3D it is that detailed. The story is good and will keep you entertained - even though it is about four and a half hours spread over 2 discs. Don't get the other version of this film as I understand that it is only 2 and a half hours long, so you will miss a lot. This is a John Woo film so plenty of action and all done on a grand scale - some of the overview shots are amazing. Ok the extras are lacking and the subtitles are burnt on, no dubbed English version, but don't let that put you off, if you enjoy epic films like this then don't hesitate - JUST BUY IT. Brilliant. I can only hope John Woo will make another film like this soon.

There are several different versions of this product, and since Amazon are lumping reviews of all of them into one, a word of explanation. This is a review of the single disc dvd edition of this movie that was released in 2009. It is not a review of the two disc special edition, which came later. Nor of the blu ray. Thus apologies if you're reading this on the special edition or the blu ray page, but there's nothing I can do about it. Take it up with Amazon. This is a movie made by chinese Director John Woo, who went to hollywood after a lot of success in Asia. And had varying successes with movies whilst in the USA. He then returned to his native land to produce a very long tv mini series all about a famous battle from chinese history. That runs nigh on five hours. And was cut to two hours twenty seven minutes for it's release in the west. This is that version. The full version can be found on Red Cliff [Special Edition DVD] [2008 ] Red cliff sees a nasty Prime Minister having seized control of most of the country via military victories. And via treating the emperor like a puppet. Some in the south are holding out against him. And he sets out to defeat them on the field of battle. Those on opposite sides of this battle have a few vested personal interests, though. And even though those in the south are greatly outnumbered, they have a very skilled strategist on their side. They won't go down without a fight. An epic conflict is about to begin, and China will never be the same again.... This was clearly a very expensive production, and the attention to historical detail and costumes is excellent. The battle scenes don't pull their punches and also try hard to be realistic, almost all of them never defying the laws of physics. It also considers the cost of war, as seen via an early scene involving refugees. When there's spectacle on screen it is compelling viewing, thanks to a couple of big set pieces. But there are a lot of characters most of whom don't get much of an introduction. So you may not focus on them as much as you might want to. It offers good entertainment all in all if you like this kind of thing, but hearing of the longer edition makes you feel that that is the one to really watch. This disc also has a couple of problems in that it begins with fifteen minutes worth of trailers for other movies. And there is absolutely no way to get past them. Pressing stop then menu. Or pressing next. Or menu on it's own. None of those work. Nor does does fast forward. You have to wait through the lot. The movie is presented in Chinese - save for a couple of early bits of scene setting narration which are in English - with English subtitles. Which is fine, and probably the way most who watch this kind of thing would prefer it. But the subtitles cannot be turned on or off. They are embedded into the film. And they are in a slightly smaller typeface than usual for things like this. Reading them can be tricky at times early on. Although you do get used to them in the end.

There are two versions of Red Cliff, this version and the Shorter one disk version. Do yourself a favour and buy the Special Edition. This is based on the Mythic history of China, in the Three Kingdoms era, so you can expect to see larger than life heroes, performing greater than human acts. However these acts are kept at the low end of the "heroic" scale. You won't find people standing on a single stem of bamboo, however you will see One man take on hundreds and win, or shoulder barge two horses out of the way. The length of the Special Edition (about 5 hours) will no doubt intimidate some, however it really is worth the bother. I bought the short version first. It's still a spectacle, and is very well edited but the characters lack definition and some of the cuts made for time actually lose some major plot points that in the finale of the film leaves you to wondering what is going on. To give an example, one female character is shown at the end of the Film crying amongst the dead, in the Short version of the film this doesn't seem to make sense regarding what you know of her. In the full length version it makes a lot more sense. The Film is a masterpiece, the set piece battles have been excellently choreographed and are impressive, and the Actors are excellent!

I bought the cinema release DVD and thought that was really good, but this extended version blows it away and is a must see if you thought the shorter version was OK but was a little hit and miss in the story and editing. If you think you know John WOO's work then think again. This film is a cinematic treat, majestic, humorous, poignant, extremely moving in places and very intelligent. The fight scenes are cleverly shot and highly entertaining (I kept skipping back to the beginning of them several times) The battles scenes are better than anything LOTR has to offer. The music is fantastic too (buy the soundtrack if you can)and adds to the depth of the whole movie. What can I say, it really is a masterpiece. I must admit at over 4 hours for the feature I thought it might drag in places but it kept me completely hooked. The only minor criticism is the subtitles are sometimes hard to read, but that's a minor issue. Buy it, watch it, love it.

I originally bought the cut down 2hr 30min. version of this film (big mistake), even though I knew that the full film was nearly 5hrs. long, thinking that it would still be a good movie (and it is). But the editing left so much out that as to be seen, the shorter version tends to be more confusing because of it. I now have this version and I'm glad I have, it is a true masterpiece of cinema. If you regard yourself as a film buff and a fan of epic cinema then there are certain movies that should be in your collection,Lawrence Of Arabia, Spartacus, Braveheart, Gladiator,(to name just four) and Red Cliff (special edition). I have only one criticism of the film, and that is the subtitles. I'm not a great fan of subtitles and so a lot of good foriegn language movies have passed me by (my loss). On this film the subtitles are rather small and hard to read, depending on the background, and sometimes the dialogue between characters is quite fast so they change quickly. But don't let that put you off, this film is truly awesome and on blu-ray looks and sounds superb. Highly Recommended. A Must Own.

This is for sure a good film, but I gave this product 3 stars for 1 simple reason: The English subtitle is part of the pictures, which means there's no way for you get rid of it; that is a very disturbing thing for publishers to do on a blu-ray/DVD film product, and even more disturbing when you speak Mandarin and just want to watch it alone. Therefore, for that one factor, it's worth it to buy the all-region U.S. release of the film. Nevertheless, this is also an all-region blu-ray even though only Region B is printed on the back cover and the discs.

I 'm not a fan of war movies and I was not a fan of Asian art, but I must say that I discovered beautiful movies and stories lately that has made me changed my mind about Asian art. In truth, Forbidden Kingdom made me curious about John Woo who seems to be an authority in that style and genre and Red Cliff is also describe as one of his best movie. So here we are. And what a beautiful surprise it was. I will not say I enjoyed the battles that much because I still don't like war movies, but the image is so beautiful, the acting so well played, the ingenuity and cleverness of each side so imaginative and intelligent that I was out of breath. And after this movie, now I can say that John Woo won. I already started to follow those kind of movies and I already spotted a couple on which I'm now willing to give a try. Red Cliff is a master piece. The Extended Version worth the buy. You won't regret it.

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Simply beautiful movie....

Ja, ihr habt richtig gehört: Von diesem Film gibt es 2 Versionen, zum einen die etwa 5-stündige, zum anderen die für Europa gekürzte zweistündige Version. Und die durchwachsenen Bewertungen sind der Tatsache geschuldet, dass Amazon nur eine einzigeKommentarsektion für beide Filme hat. Meine Rezension befasst sich nur mit diesem Unterschied. Seit zwei Jahren besitze ich die geschnittene Version, seit wenigen Stunden auch die beiden getrennten Filme. Es ist wahr, als ich nur erstere Version kannte, war ich mit dieser sehr zufrieden. Kleine logischen Schwächen, etwas Verwirrung im Bezug auf die chinesischen Namen, dafür aber massenweise Kämpfe und Action vom feinsten. Als Fan asiatischer Filme lebt man mit diesen Einschränkungen seit Jahren. Die zweiteilige Version hat mir nun die Augen dafür geöffnet, dass diese Einschränkungen völlig unnötig waren. Klar kann ich keine Beziehung zu den Charakteren aufbauen, wenn ihre Einführung einfach geschnitten wird. Kein Wunder, dass ich mir Namen nicht merken kann, wenn ich das Gesicht dazu gar nicht richtig zu sehen bekomme. Man kann lange über die trickreichen Strategien der Hauptpersonen staunen...wenn die Hälfte davon gekürzt wird. In der Langversion gibt es tatsächlich Beziehungen unter den Personen, Geschichten hinter der Geschichte. An der Action wurde ebenfalls ein bisschen gekürzt. Nicht viel. Gerade so viel, um, wie auch in der restlichen Handlung, Zusammenhänge zu verwischen. Nein, die Kürzungen fanden weniger an der Action, sondern in den ruhigen, für die Charaktere wichtigen Episode statt. Was verloren ging ist auch ein Großteil der Stimmung: Großzügige Vorspänne, ruhige Momente, ein toller zweiter Titelsong. Wer von euch also die Kurzversion schon besitzt, sollte nicht zögern, auch noch die Langversion zu kaufen. Zunächst mal reicht diese locker für zwei tolle Kinoabende aus, zum anderen sind, trotz der englischen Untertitel, auch Nicht-Asien-Fans sehr leicht zu überzeugen, dass es sich um ein historisches Meisterwerk handelt (Erfahrungswerte!). Also: Action/Kriegsfilm vs. Historienepos Spannendes Gemetzel vs. logische Geschichte Namenlose Kriegshelden vs. vielschichtige Charaktere Um es mal so auszudrücken: Ong Bak vs. Braveheart Eragon vs. Herr der Ringe Kampf der Titanen vs. Troja 10.000 BC vs. Apocalypto Ich würde sogar so weit gehen, zu behaupten, dass man diesen Film gesehen haben muss, um weiter im Bereich "historische Kriegsfilme" mitreden zu können. Ich kann mir beim besten Willen nicht vorstellen, was in dem Genre jetzt noch kommen soll...

Excelente producto, muy buena película y en blue ray se disfruta mucho más. El producto viene con la parte 1 y 2, el audio es en mandarín y los subtítulos son en inglés. Lo único malo es que no se pueden quitar, pero el resto, todo muy bien