Red Cliff International Version - Part I & Part II

Red Cliff may well be rated as among the all time best films! I say this knowing that some may see my words as over the top hyperbole. But, I feel that they are not. I am sincere. I have enjoyed film from the earliest memories of my youth harking back to the days of Burt Lancaster as the great crimson pirate and those spectacular actions sequences, after seeing them we would be pumped up for days on a visceral high. Ah, the magic of film! Later came an appetite for differing genres always looking to see who would bring something new to the screen and utilizing the elements at hand to combine so many art forms under one canopy. Acting, directing and so very very much more, editing, sound, set design, costume, score so many elements that combine to make this art form unique to all others. Once in every generation someone manages a masterpiece under the watchful eye of a skillful and gifted director all the elements combine in near perfect union to form a masterpiece!! In my humble opinion John Woo has managed to do this to a most awe inspiring and mind boggling degree with Red Cliff and well deserves to take a rightful place with Red Cliff alongside the likes of Sergei Eisenstein (Potemkin), Orson Wells (Citizen Kane), Akira Kurosawa and his many brilliant films such as seven Samurai, Francis Coppola (Godfather part II and Part I). Each of these Masters has brought something new and vital to the medium. sometimes shocking and always transformative. I do believe that Red Cliff and John Woo fit well in such esteemed company. Once again someone has altered the terrain for serious lovers of the medium and expanded it far beyond what I and others ever dreamed it could or would be. As a child I grew up with film at the age of 12 I was allowed by the curator of The George Eastman Museum of Photography to make the weekly film selections to be shown at the Dryden Theater. This was an enormous privilege and each choice had to be defended (the Eastman House has one of the largest collections of early film in the world ). This film brought me back to the days of magic!!! I am speaking of the full length version which includes part I and par II running just under five hours (288 mins). I think that within an hour after this movie ended I had said everything that could be said about it. Yes, I was pumped: a man of 60 going on like a child on Christmas Eve. Thank you John Woo and thank you for the enormous talents behind this film, the actors, builders, stunts, edits, special effects, and writers who took me on a journey through the complexities of human nature finding ways to communicate what up until now seemed only possible through music and poetry. Complex: yes. I would hope that any reading this would have some familiarity with the subject matter of this film. What I would like to accomplish with this review of sorts is to convey to you how monumental this film is, not only in the crafted battle scenes but in getting those who might pass on a chance to view this amazing film. Some may pass seeing it as no more than a giant well choreographed martial arts film ( not that there is anything wrong with that ). But, this is every bit as much about the complexities of the human spirit and the capacity for love as it is about the horrors of war and yes sometimes the necessity of war. How transformative and noble we as humans can be when confronted with the often harsh realities of life. Yes, war is sometimes unavoidable and the cost beyond any single person's ability to fully grasp. And yet at such times as those the spirit of humanity often fully engages lifting us all to a new plateau built upon the courage and sacrifice of those who understand that the great wonders accomplished by mankind are seldom born of servitude but, rather of free peoples who aspire to peace. Understanding that it all comes at a price. If I may interject a note here as an aside ( I fear that we here in the US are far to removed from the horrors of war that the burden is not properly shared and so to many unknown. I do not think this to be a good thing. ) . I have glossed over the entertainment value of this film in an attempt to cast a bit of light on the depth of consciousness in this Masterpiece. Was it entertaining? More than anything I have seen in many years. The writing, edit, direction and superb acting from nuisance to full throttle adrenaline rush are all here. There are moments of humor, martial arts, glory, and effects second to none including intrigue. It is all here. Watch this on any level you choose and you will find the spirit of this movie will linger. It is a cheer to the hearts and minds free peoples and the best that we have to offer and it is gut wrenching in the catastrophe that is war. I somehow in my head have likened it to Lord of the Rings which is also very much a look at valor in many ways from differing vantage points punctuated by brilliant characters and story. Please, please watch this amazing film. I would love to continue but find that to do so might distract given that it is far from being as articulate as I would like this piece to be. It is however from my heart, a most amazing and wonderful film.

Considering that the last three movies he directed (Paycheck, Windtalkers, and Mission: Impossible II) were, frankly, awful, John Woo's attachment to Red Cliff did not inspire much confidence. Thankfully, those misgivings and apprehensions were completely misplaced. This movie has restored my faith in his ability to direct. He adapted the story of the Battle of Red Cliffs beautifully. Though based on actual events, this film does not take the place of a history lesson. John Woo himself admitted that his movie was only 50% accurate. Sacrificing accuracy, he was able to tell a better story. And I agree with him in that regard. If you want to learn about the Battle of Red Cliffs, grab a text book. If you want to be entertained, buy this movie on Bluray. The international version of Red Cliff consists of two 140 minute movies . I have not seen the domestic version, but I have no idea how it condensed 280 minutes of plot packed film to a relatively slim 148 minute feature. Regardless, I recommend sticking with the international version. The 140 minutes minutes goes by fast on part both parts. It never seemed to drag, but I would not suggest watching both parts in a marathon session. It was nice to let the events of the first part sink in overnight. Takeshi Kaneshiro portrayed the ever calm but always planning Zhuge Liang, Liu Bei's adviser. Zhuge became the strategist and mind behind Sun Quan's defense. Strong without being cruel, Tony Leung played Zhou Yu, the commander of Sun Quan's forces. The writers gave Takeshi the best lines of the movie with a very dry and subtle delivery, but Zhou had a presense about him that filled the screen. Another performance worth noting was Zhao Wei playing Sun Shangxiang. As the tom-boyish sister of Sun Quan who refused to be kept off the battlefield, she managed to become quite the scene stealer. I was not surprised that Zhao Wei went on to star in the title role of the live action Mulan [Blu-ray] [Region-Free ]movie. Along with the other actors, the entire cast had a wonderful chemistry. The movie itself was very beautiful. The costumes and setting were elaborate and had great attention-to-detail. The fight scenes were well choreographed, and nothing felt repeated. Every fight or battle brought something new to the table. As far as I could tell, the use of CGI seemed to be at a minimum. Only during the larger battle scenes, could I see CGI effects, but even then, I could barely spot it. I would recommend this movie to anyone even remotely interested in Hong Kong cinema. Heck, I would use it to help convince people to watch Hong Kong films.

Red Cliff is John Woo's 4-5 hour epic treatment of the 14th Century novel The Romance of the Three Kingdoms. I had rented it through Netflix, but I was impressed enough to buy the blu-ray version to own. In terms of martial arts movies, this one isn't straight forward hand-to-hand combat. There's definite skills of that kind in evidence, but the battles are often much larger scale. In any case, the battles are massive in size and very well shot. There are a few over the top acrobatics that make you roll your eyes a little bit, and they are especially unwelcome given the generally gritty feel of the battles. I think the excess was too much given the already impressive battle choreography. Although there is a big epic sweep in the scope of the movie, there is a strong focus on characters as well. It's a little tough to keep all the players straight at first, but you slowly catch on as to who is who and who's on what side. I especially like the loud, wild haired general (not sure what his name was), as well as the tomboy princess. The two male leads (played by Tony Leung and Takeshi Kaneshiro who also starred in the excellent House of Flying Daggers) are great characters, and there is a bit of homoeroticism involved in their connection that I enjoyed quite a bit! In any case, the balance of intimate character scenes and big battles is nearly perfect. And what an amazing finish! There were already so many epic battles in Red Cliff that I wondered how they could possibly top it off in the finale, but they did. I've never seen a military battle filmed so beautifully. And, once again, in the midst of the sweeping grandeur of the movie there are scenes focusing on the individual characters that are so intimate and emotional, and it's all in a stunningly well-balanced combination! Again, I think this is a martial arts film in a rather loose sense. Certainly there is great fighting and weapons combat, but it is more about armies and strategy and characters than about one-on-one hand-to-hand combat. The tone of the movie, however, has much in common with most martial arts movies. Don't watch the short version that was released in the US! Get the full 4-5 hour 2-disc international release version. Kudos to John Woo for an amazing film!

Originally, my copy of this disc wouldn't play. Turns out it was not a disc issue, but a player issue (the Samsung BD-P2550 BR player), and, once the firmware was upgraded, the disc played beautifully. A reference quality BR disc, and a great story. As Woo says in an interview (on disc two), the point of the film is simple. In war, nobody wins. This is a Chinese epic, like the Illiad, or the Odyssey, full of larger-than-life heroes and their deeds. One gets the feeling (as a non-Chinese viewer), that there are a lot of scenes in the film that reference the original tales, which are still taught to all the kids in Chinese schools, so watching it, I was aware that there were depths I wasn't getting, resonances that I missed, in the same way that a Chinese audience might miss resonances in "Troy" for example. If you like historical-military epics, this is the film for you. Continuously inventive and surprising, with great performances, and beautifully filmed and edited together. I haven't seen the so-called "US" version, which takes the nearly five hours of the original and compresses it down to two hours and change, but I doubt it would have the impact of the full film. I recently watched it again, over two days (for the fourth time) and found it just as absorbing and fascinating as I did the first time.

I became aware of this movie by watching the Prime streaming version and after reading some of these reviews, I knew I had to get the 2-disc Blue Ray International Version. There was absolutely no resemblance between the heavily cut streaming version and the full version on these two discs. This movie has to be one of the greatest film achievements I have ever seen and well worth the price. I was confused by the shorter version, but in this version everything made sense and carried the complexity in ways that did not confuse the viewer, but rather revealed the subtleties and nuances of character that were interwoven in such a way that every player was a "cameo" role in a larger epic, much like "Chushingura" in its time. I usually avoid films with violence, but somehow this movie was able to catch the inner spirit of what was really going on so well that it was an absolutely stunning, almost dreamlike display of choreography that transcended the obvious death and pain going on and intuitively connected one with the impermanence of life at the same time its value was being exalted. Although I intellectually knew that CGI was responsible for some of what one saw, none of it was obvious as such and the clarity of the Blu-Ray version was so good that one could see the pores in the skin of the characters in the closeups. I haven't yet watched the bonus features about how the movie was made, but I could see that the script had been carefully crafted, down to each detail, and it was amazing how realistic the structures and costumes were for the period. If "it takes a village" to raise a child, then surely it took an entire CITY to create this masterpiece! The list of credits suggests this, too. Having watched many films about samurai, I was surprised to see how many of the elements of that culture were present in this movie, representing a time centuries before the samurai flourished in Japan. I think that this movie gives one a feel for many of the factors that were part of the Chinese culture in 208 AD and I think some of them may still be present in the modern Chinese culture of today. The bottom line is that I highly recommend this movie and am sorry that it did not receive more widespread attention in this longer version. I am glad I bought it and expect to watch it again!

Distributors were fast to close a deal before production began on the historical epic. The two movies were cut into a single one in order to create a John Woo action movie which seemed to be easier to sell to Western audiences. Producer Terence Chang comments: “We wanted to make a Hollywood blockbuster in Chinese that would appeal to non-Asian audiences as well. We worked very hard to create a version of the film that maintains the integrity of the action and character development of the story, while excising some of the cultural details that could be considered unnecessary for Western audiences not intimately familiar with the historical mythology.”(Red Cliff Final Notes) That may haue seemed like a sound idea to placate those with short attention spans, but it hurt the epic, in my opinion, as much character deuelopment and narratiue were sacrificed in the process, making many characters and scenes feel out of joint. Fortunately, the original cut of the picture was preserued and released on video outside Asia in the United Kingdom on 5 October 2009, and in the United States and Canada on 23 March 2010. The Director's Cut of the film is a vast improuement ouer the lazy 148 minute American release. It is good to haue both uersions auailable to compare the differences betwixt them, and decide which one suits the individual taste better. I prefer the original 288 minute cut of the picture, as character deuelopment and narratiue are the most important ingredients for a successful photo play, and should neuer be sacrificed for anything, especially idiots whose attention span is that of a dog doing his business on the bloody sidewalk. Part I of the mouie scored a record breaking opening weekend across six Asian territories, shattering the iceberg record preuiously held by Titanic (1997) in mainland China, amongst other examples. There is strong graphic violence, two uses of a mild profanity, a scene of sexuality sans nudity, and no blasphemy. My only criticism is that there are no subtitles for the song which plays ouer the end credits of Part II, whereas the song is subtitled on the DVD release of the American cut. Red Cliff (Original International Uersion) is Unrated. The supplementary material on the Original International Uersion Blu-Ray release is extensiue, and uery good. My only criticisms are: the 145 minute making of documentary has no structure under which a cohesiue narratiue unfolds, and A Conuersation With Iohn Woo: The Iourney Of Red Cliff, and Storyboarding Red Cliff: From Script To Screen With Iohn Woo are deuoid of English subtitles, making the director hard to understand due to his thick accent, and the storyboards prouided on both discs are so small you haue to either squint or stand close to the teleuision in order to read how the legendary director meticulously planned certain crucial sequences. Other than that, the special features are an exhaustiue source of information about how this historical epic was made. Note: a truncated uersion of A Conuersation With Iohn Woo appears on the Blu-Ray release of the U.S. cut, whereas the entire interuiew is presented on the Director's Cut Blu-Ray release. The 145 minute making of documentary, and HDNet: A Look At Red Cliff are in Mandarin with English subtitles, with a few brief segments in English. There are a few uses of a mild profanity in the documentary. The bonus content is Not Rated.

The Art of War and it is so intricate and impeccably shot- If you blink your eyes you will miss something. John Woo took this story from events from a 208 A.D. battle that changed China forever. It is so masterfully shot, the acting superb, plot, costumes, backgrounds & locations are nothing less than perfect. Then come the battle sequences-incredibly complicated and devastating as they are-it is almost like watching a complex dance play out. Truly stunning to behold. How John Woo shot this is nothing short of astounding. Perhaps the finest film of this genre ever. If you liked Crouching Tiger/Hidden Dragon, Shogun or similar films- this one tops them all - but get ready to take a day to watch this- it clocks in at 4.5 hours and the International Version is the one you want to see- for there are different edits of the film that gut the story to try to make it more marketable to Western audiences. Get the original- it absolutely is worth the watch. A masterpiece in film making.

There have been many recent films taking up the challenge to portray the rich human drama in various great events from the history of China. Included are Three Kingdoms: Resurrection of the Dragon (2008), The Warlords (2007), Hero (2002) and John Woo`s Red Cliff (2008). Viewers may think these films works of fiction for several reasons. For example: (1) these films do not all focus on the same personalities; (2) the films highlight different historical events from the same periods; (3) the films don't seem to agree since each film provides information and insights that are unique; (4) the films include displays and interpretations of martial arts and warfare that may be impressionistic; and (5) the films vary in their use of humor, irony, realism, and romanticism. It remains, that every creative person involved in making motion pictures is challenged to contribute to developing and distributing at least one film that has true greatness, and lasting value. Thus, for example, in several interviews Jet Li expressed his commitment to the films The Warlords (2007) and Fearless (2006). He wanted to be remembered as more than simply an action hero or martial artist in films. Yet, through Hero (2002) he had already set the highest, most memorable standard for me and many others, by the film's excellent respect to calligraphy, and the aesthetics of Chinese culture. For this viewer, the film Red Cliff qualifies as a true film epic and is on par in richness, scope, and sweep with the western classics Ben Hur, El Cid, Gone With the Wind, and The Ten Commandments. As such, it might not be acceptable as an instructional film for students in history. Even so, Red Cliff is precisely on target as a film for quality entertainment. The film is endowed with color, elegance, energy, excitement, intelligence, and tastefulness throughout. Thus, despite its length, there is no inattention or lapse in viewer interest. It would not be inappropriate to identify Red Cliff as the leading film of its genre, and to apply the word "masterpiece" to this singular film achievement. THE BLACK PHOENIX Washington, D. C.