Red Cliff Reviews

Summary Red Cliff opens as power hungry Prime Minister-turned-General Cao Cao seeks permission from the Han dynasty Emperor to organize a southward-bound mission designed to crush the two troublesome warlords who stand in his way, Liu Bei and Sun Quan. As the expedition gets underway, Cao Cao's troops rain destruction on Liu Bei's army, forcing ...

• Action

• Adventure

• Drama

• History

• War

Anyone who enjoys stylized hyper-violence should be enthralled by this long, sweeping, murderously vivid dramatization of ancient Chinese warfare, circa A.D. 208.

Woo's hand is sure and his eye, as ever, finds beauty in everything, even death.

Having watched quite a few epic battle films. I can safely say this, has the best, and I can't really see anything topping it. It rises above films like Gladiator, Lord of the rings, and Troy, because of the sheer creativity of the battle scenes.

John Woo helms an ambitious, crowded depiction of large-scale military actions at the end of China's Han Dynasty. While its epic, sweeping scale might be the film's greatest strength, I was too preoccupied with discerning the encyclopedic subtitles to appreciate the visuals as much as I'd have liked. Even at a long hundred-thirty minutes, the plot seems breathless and anxious as it hurries through back stories, character moments and closed-door strategic debates at a breakneck pace. There's just so much story to tell, with none of it deemed dispensable, that even two lengthy motion pictures don't seem like enough to do everything justice. While the planning and execution behind Red Cliff's sublime fight scenes (which often boil down to a Dynasty Warriors-style plan of "just send one man to wipe out the infantry") may be flashy and memorable, I found more value in the thoughtful musings and observations of the calm, collected diplomatic envoy Zhuge Liang. His carefully considered strategies are profound and moving, like a delicate flower growing amidst the ruins of a spent battlefield. Though one-sided in nature, with an enemy master as vaguely evil and simple as they come, it still leaves us with the perfect setup for what I can only presume will be the mother of all epic skirmishes. Deep and dedicated, this first chapter is often far more verbose than it needs to be.

Red Cliff exudes a physical grandiosity that few movies of the past 20 years have attempted--no matter that Woo, even at his best, is still more at ease with down-and-dirty action than epic pageantry.

As expected, it has gaping holes where back stories used to be. Still, it's a historical war movie with impressive sweep, strong characterizations and the kind of idiosyncratic flourishes that made Woo such an irresistible storyteller.

While handsome and intelligent and perfectly easy to sit through, never really approaches the visceral tug of Mr. Woo’s Hong Kong hits.

The film is both traditional and modern: austere in its engagement with history, and insistent in its showy action beats.

For all his brilliance with choreography, Woo is flummoxed by the thousands of actual human extras, though there’s no denying his commitment to the finer points of battle tactics (yawn).

Red Cliff elevates John Woo's stylistic filmmaking. Red Cliff can also be patience-testingly slow at times. Woo balances the sword-edge thin difference between the beauty of honorable war and violence for havoc’s sake like a samurai master. With Red Cliff he shows mastery in his craft while maintaining a trademarked style from his shoot ’em-laden beginnings like The Killer and Hard Boiled, such as his frequently-used Mexican standoff image. But for Red Cliff, Tony Leung uses a sword. Similar to cooking basmati rice or Southern-style grits, Red Cliff can be patience-testingly slow at times. Ironically, there are too many action scenes that are overly fantastical stretching the realm of the believable. Woo manages these with a wink, honoring the mythological fiction of story to supersede the events of reality. After all, for a filmmaker that made taking one’s face off believably interesting, throwing in some Shogun Theater

Après son "sÃjour" hollywoodien (Broken Arrow, Volte/Face, Mission : Impossible 2, Paycheck), John Woo rentre enfin au pays en nous livrant un film chinois. Et ce que l'on peut lui reconnaÃtre après ces annÃes d'exil, c'est bien l'efficacità de chacun de ses films. Pour cause, Les 3 Royaumes est un film pour le moins spectaculaire et grand spectacle (le rÃalisateur, bien que sa mise en scène peu laisser à dÃsirer par moment avec surdose de ralentis, donne ici un bon effet), avec les moyens du bord (costumes, effets spÃciaux, accessoires...). Rajoutons à cela un casting honorable et le tour et jouer! Enfin presque... Un dÃfaut vient pourtant assombrir le tout. Un dÃfaut que l'on doit aux producteurs, qui ont voulu raccourcir le film (de 4h à 2h30). RÃsultat : un film charcutà (scÃnario sans âme, trop tournà vers l'action, montage brouillon...)! Bref, il est dommage de voir que le film aurait pu être bien mieux si, une fois de plus, on avait laissà le rÃalisateur s'amuser jusqu'au bout!

Hong Kong Film Awards

• 5 Wins & 15 Nominations

Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films, USA