Saturday, May 21, 2011

Red Cliff I / II

Red Cliff I / II (2008)


A two-part story centered on a battle fought in China's Three Kingdoms period (220-280 A.D.).



"We must fight even if we cannot win."

As per any film directed by John Woo, you will be getting lots of action from the off, and despite this being set on old traditional epic battles, there is just a refinement to his old style. Big explosions, slow-motion detailed violence, and long drawn out fights are all bundled together as in many of his other movies. However, this film is more than that and is an intelligent look at the machinations of old field battles.




The premise of the movie is of an alliance of clan forces arming and battling against a belligerent megalomaniac who craves to take over the "Southlands" and the wife of one of his opponents. The whole film plays over the strategic plans and tactics each use over each other in graphic detail, be it a giant battlefield attack or navy manoeuvre. It's all a literary take on the art of war.




Some comic moments and characters release tensions at points, but the whole movie is a set of giant bonfires with the action ruthless in scale once it begins (as expected with John Woo).




Aside from the action, the scenery and direction is wonderful, and the acting very good from the multitude of characters (and there are many to get to grips with!). Add in some great set-pieces in the direction (the "tortoise" piece) and you don't get just some gung-ho blood fest as some battle movies have become.




Yet after all those positives, there's still something missing. There have been many great Chinese epics over the past ten years, and this is not amongst the lower rungs. However, it seems to have a gap in what it's trying to achieve. 




The story was good but at the end not gripping and the length of the film made it at times feel to drag on. Was the film meant to be maybe just an action movie? I doubt it, but with the way the story was going you just wanted the action to get going to get it over with at times. That is the disappointing point. It was aiming to be greater than sadly it finally was. Not by any means a bad film, but it has a likely lot to live up to with its budget, star names and director.

8/10

Have you seen it? If so, what's your opinion?


24 comments:

  1. Nice post! Check out my new blog ;)

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  2. ok how come that i didn't see this one yet!

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  3. this looks like an interesting movie =D

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  4. I love the Three Kingdoms era of Chinese history. Too bad Dynasty Warriors has run it into the ground. The books are awesome.

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  5. I've seen part 1, my part 2 didn't have subtitles, which really kills me because I was getting into the story. :(

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  6. I forgot about Woo. I forgot to watch movies in general. I'm on of those guys who pays netflix, yet never remembers to order movies.

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  7. I'm going to chech this out. I like movies like this. Takes it to back in the day.

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  8. Their armor looks sick! Looks like a real epic movie I have to check out!

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  9. I've only seen the edited into one version. Great movie, but it still doesn't come close to capturing the feel of the actual Romance of the Three Kingdoms epic

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  10. Haven't seen it but will look into now.

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  11. I've seen this movie some time ago. It's not very vivid anymore.

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  12. Awesome review, will check this out ;D

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  13. It looks very nice, i would like to watch this movie soon.

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  14. Getting this now, vverrrryyyy keen.

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  15. I haven't seen it but looks interesting

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  16. Look pretty cool, I guess I should check it out.

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  17. I gonna check this out! nice review

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  18. need to see ! sounds so nice !

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  19. Looks good, love Chinese movies xD

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  20. This film looks just like my type, great review.

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  21. It looks good from the screenshots, will give it a try.

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  22. Good review but I'm honestly not interested :D

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